Litchfield enquirer., 1869-08-12
- IllL 4f-Il ' teat7 @tHE ? SLAVERY IN PALACES,

r.. ~ SLAVERY IN PALACES aprr
 The old Latin adage, 'tempofa vsuta,itur,
 et nos nautanaur in iAis' times change, aud
 we change with them), applies to all the world, excepting the royal palaces of Spain | fer'the ssfne 'slavish cefenoniaf to which sI so many bright young priHcesses were sac
 rifced curing the three deenturiesf preced ing our own has held in thralldom the, nn- fortunate dwellers of the Escor;aI up to the
 day when the fatueus folly of the weak, il
 not positively vile, Isabrlla Segunda open
 ed the gates of the royal palace, ina Madrid
 to a deluge which swept away crown. .cpur tiers, and ceremony into. itlis to be hoped. an irrecoverable pastaea lsssa3 '2-a otA" . i There are few stories more sadly inter esting than that of the wife of Charles II
 of Spain, Marie Lonise, daughter of Due tD'Orleans, niece of Louis XIV and grand daughter of Charles [. Of England. q fair and amiable girl, forced to. marry iaq man Eshe had never seen, but whom she knew only too we'll as most fepusive in appear lance, with ment tai faculties little above i'd iocy. Marie Louise had been educated 1 at the Court of her uncle, Louis XIV, when 1t Was the gayest and most brilliant In Flu. rope, years before Madame de Maintenon and the priests had cast 8 suoerstitious gloom over it's spiendor and it's vice. Her aspect is described aa mild, her, mien grace full; she was an excellent horse woman; she was good musician, and composed epe ras; her eyes were black, her eyebrows gracefully arched. her lips remarkably, lrp- sy, her hair profuse, and of g dark chest hut. s-a# 4 .-' t''~
 bo But, like all the unhappy princesses of France doomed to marry Spanish kings, she regarded her destiny with dread and aversion. Transferred from the gay Court and intellectual life of France, these young creatures were killed off fast by the
 sombre dullness, monotony, and iron eti- the queens of Spain were very iong-
 lived, Phillip II. used up four in his life- time. [,. ..'.-..-r.s.,,. ..yy s.f,7 aa,i
 Marie Louise made more than one pa thetic appeal to her royal uncle to be say ed from such fate, but all in vain. She was married by proxy at Fontainebleau.
 and escorted to the Spanish frontier, where the sad hearted bride was delivered over to the tender mercies of the Duchess de Ter
 ra Nueva, her Camarera Mayor and the Marquis de Astorgas, her Mayordono. '0'- l A female familiar of the lnquisition could not wear more repulsive face than
 that of the Duchess She was . bronze in- carnation of Spanish rigidity and gravity.
 Not step in her gait, not a movement in her head or hand, which was not perform ed with the regularity and stiffness of a
 machine. She was lean, colorless, long-fa- ced, and wrinkled; her eyes small, black.
 and sharp. Her ''quiero' and ''noS o gui- gro made people trembIe; and she was gen erally insupportable to her equals, naughty and dignified to her sovereign, but. never l theless. tolerably gentle to her. interiors. She was penetrating in observation, ready of wit, and inhexible in decision. She would spare no extremities of violence to ! serve her interest or revenge, and had a l cousin of her own assassinated because he contested her right to an estate. !, zrlf ba 1 Marie Louise took leave at the Bidassoa 1 of most of her French female attendants,
 who adored her, and, knelt and kissed her hand with tears, which were answered with tears in the eyes of their mistress. Imme- diately on crossing the frontier yisages grew longer and hfe fearful On setting foot in Spain she travelled partly on herse- ! back and partly by coach; when she rodeit I was by the side of the Terra Nueva, who 1 looked. in her stiff Spanish dress, and with
 her gaunt form seated on U mule. a. stra nge figure too terrible to bs ridiculOusy 1The Marquis de Astorgas or the Dakelde Ossa.
 ua, her Muster of the Harse,J both in large spectacles, which all grandees of Spain
 wore at that time to give them greater
 gravity of appearsnce, ,roue next on the other side. when they could settle their
 disputes about precedency.. as to which l they quarrelsd d tue whole way. The young l Qoeen Isuppsd and slept the first nlght at | an inn, and was so SUI prised at the bad ness of the food that sue could eat nothing:
 No particular incident appears to. have Oc-
 cured on the route, nothing so humorous as the incident which happened to Maria Anna, the mother of Charles H.. who, on
 her way across Spain as the bride of PniI-
 lip lV., stopped tt a town famous fof ethe
 manufacture of stockings, some of which 1 the slcalde of the place was offering to her Majesty, when he was thrust out by the I Mayordomo with, "Habens de saher que las reyuas dep Espana no tienen piernas' l You most know that the queens of Spain
 nave no legs). Upon nearing which de- claration the young Queen began to. cry, saying I must go back to Vienna. - If Lad known before set out that they wouIi cut my legs of, would have died rather tan come here" One of the two occa- slons on which her husband laughed in Il tu0 COuISo LII uIo AlAo was Wucn bula story | was repeated to him. However, the young
 bride of Charles 1T. had immediately hard ] experience of the unyielding tyranny of Spanish etiquette, for she was not al. lowed to have her way in any ything on the l whole road. and found that she was expeo. I ted to. be mere machine without volltion
 in the hands of her household, and to con. duct herself at once as if she had been in Spain her whole life. Al. fAs '---A@~1 ' 4sA'--- I Charles IT. had advanced in impatience as far as Burgos but when he had news of fl the approach of the cortege from Vittoria,
 his deslre to see the Queen, nude him. in spite of all remonstrances, rush forward to
 meet her at Quintanapalla, a, ,wretched viii llage of few peasants houses three leagues beyond Burgos, and he resolved to have
 the marriage celebrated there. Marie Lou
 ise saw him arrive from the balcony of a
 peasants hovel m which she had rested.
 She was prepared but shocked at the sight. Charles H. came into the world in 1861, four years before the death ot his father Philip w.; he was born in the hour of that fI fathers deepest humiliation, and when the
 cadayerons, proud. but gentle hearted mon. arch was in an 'almostdy state The son |. was the living embodiment of the sorrow,
 humiliation, and diseased constitution oi l s Ri