Litchfield enquirer., 1869-08-12

IA I<AO6.aGltSaa5 koO05 tTBg T Ithis frightful breach of Spanish etiquette
 toa please zsg queen? a.' Neyer. ? he said, since Spain Was Spain, had queen chan 1fged her Camarera Mayor. But he yleld- led, and the Duchess Terra Nueva was re- Il Iplaeed by the Duchess sle Albuquerqfe, d the wife of the noble who. out of his i'm | mense revenues, could get nc. better din 4 Fner than an egg and a pigeon.
 bb The Duchess dea Albuquerque proved a ] more amiable guardian zfero the Queen, anu
 at her suggestion the King granted his wife little more liberty. She was per
 mitted, contrary to all Spanish Court usage, to ge to bed at half piusts ten, and. to irade occasionally on horseback, But still these tinnovations were not sufficient to tighten the ait of ennui of the palace: indeed. the life of the Queen epartook, ass before said, of the monptonyl of the eharem and the convent. Riding in a closed carriage, and ilnow and then oii horseback; an occasional
 bad religious play, ,sin which the angels de- lscended astride on beams Of wood, and the devils came on the stage by ladders;
 an occasional visit from the Queen mother
 and the French embassadress, and one or 1.-two, other privileged ladies, were theisole
 diversions. i9 srs of the secluded Queen at Mad I rid 'A"
 s4Asas for her rides on horseback. these
 were surrounded with such rules of eti- quette that 1t was matter of great diff
 culty for her to get even on horseback If ! the King was not by her she had to mount
 quite unassisted! s It was death for the l greatest grandee to touchqa queen of Spain. Onione occasion the sQdeeu might have 1 had fatal accident had lt not been for the audacity of two cavaliers. She was obi
 ged to mount from her carriage door to
 thes back of the horse which asuEpkiced
 before it. One day while the, King was
 looking from wiudowl1of the palace at
 Aranjuezy her horse, a. spirited Andalu-
 sian, reared before she was well in the sad
 de, sthrew her to the ground, and dragged her along with oDe,, foot in the stirrunE 1 Two gentlemen, Don Luis de la Torres
 and Don Jaima de Soto Mayor, who were
 standing near, after some hesitation rush.
 ed to her rescue, but immediately after
 they had effected her de.iverance they ran Ito saddle their horses and escape from the Court However, friends interceded with
 Charles H., and their flight was made nn- l As for the company of an imbecile king,
 it may be imagined that the unfortunate
 Queen found not much amusement in this: I nor, were his letters, written during his
 hunting excursions. of 8 lively nature, if
 We may judge by the specimen immortal ized in $. Ruy Blas:' ''The wind IS very 1 strong, have killed four wolves. Hts affsctlon for the Queen was very absorb 1 ing; and if the devotion, of an idiot was ! worth any thing, no woman ever had more of snch.f ,> a..aa- a2'E@ s"4o 1 Year by year. day by day, the Spanish 1 Court went, on in the same mechanical
 way, only as years passed without an heir
 to the throne, the Queens existence was
 rendered more wretched by the intrigues
 regarding the succession. .sa.I y!ia98gsu | But her end was at hand-an end of Q
 tragic character. recalling both in it man 'fner and her sweetness in meeting it. the ]1death. bed of herr mother, Henrietta of
 England. The suddenness of her death
 may have been caused by cholera; the French embassador merely states in hls re- ] ports that she diedain frlghtful torments and with great audiences. Louis XIV. pub- l licly declared at supper that she Was polson- ed, and Saint SfHion, some years later found the belief stiiF current ill Maurld, But the suspicion of this reptile crime Was com
 mon throughout that century, the hiss of
 the serpent was heard, or! thought tosgbe I heard on every occasion of sudden death
 $ Marie Louise, hsrsslf, Knowing the "ru- l inous 1DDuseQuencesf which might attend
 tue contrary peitef, assured M. de j R.bs- I mac that she died | natural death. aiLWlth q
 charming sweetness of temper she asked
 forgIyeness of all She might have offended,
 of tne Queen mother, and of the, Duchess 1 of Terra Nueva; and when sue, Was told
 that tnere We're crowds at the palacs gates,
 and that the churches were fuii of people praying far her recovery, she said that sils
 was We'll entltied to their aHscLIon, since siis would at any time have lald town her 1 life to relieve them of the idens they endured. Aad s0 died not luhwortby
 daugh, er of the Stnartso and the Bour-
 bons. 1 ! s~'iA" 2, ' 7 .ll' .lz'sl'i m Eo Her married life with Charles II. had lasted ten years, and after her decease the King sank deeper and deeper into torpid
 and melancholy lethargy. The only thing
 he seemed to care fur was to go, on pre- 1 tense of hunting, with one or two atten-
 dants, anu wander like a ghost amidst the
 gloomy woods of pine and 'ilex, and the granite rocks of the vast solltndes afound the Escorial, where he would pass day ] alter day, and sometimes loose himself for hours among these nsonpre wilder. l nesses. 4n ssoa1 5adi e5aia oS gIEl 3n8 gs } 1 Not long before his death one Eof those strange funeral yearnings came upon him, so distinctive of the last days of nearly ev- cry member Eof the Austrian House. of ISpain. A visionary sepuichral fancy nani- mated the decayiag brain of Charles II. 4He, the last decrepit relic of a great race, would descend into their tmausoleum and l open their coffips, and look lace to face on I the chiefs of his, race who had worn, his Fcrown before him. He went down by the l light of torches into the dark vault of Pan- tnsons the huge candeiabrum Was ie, and all the coffins, beginning with, that of Charles V., were opened for nim in order.
 After the kings he passed to the queens.
 He paid little regard to the features of his mother, but when, the coffin of Queen Maj rie Louise was opened, and he saw, the form and Still charming features of her
 who had glorified his darkLlife and brain
 for Q while, his throat was eonvuIsed, tears 1 streamed from his eyes, and he fell with
 outstretched affds on the bier, crying, Mi
 reyna, mi resnai before year is past will
 come and ioln you!" LngoLs nWo13; ay r. Surely this visit of the last descendant of the house of Austria to the Pantheon of the Escorial, this corpse-like king, stealing
 among the collected corpses of hls race, is \ one of. the strangest scenes in hist0ry.hs N i was a last review, of, the whole departed - . .