The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1874-05-07
impoverished Royalty.

1t is barely four years since Don Francis
de Assists, consort of Queen Isabella Ill. OF
Spain, resided in the most sumptuous
apartments of the Royal Palace at Madrid.
The royal exchequer was always open to
him, and he gratified his expensive tastes
by purchasing large numbers of the finest
horses in the world, and by acquiring the
masterpieces of French and italian clients
teTie, forming, in the course of few years,
little museum of curiOusly-wrOughta and
exceedingly costly writing-desks, inlaid
with pearls and precious stones; easy
chairs, upon which cabinet-makers had
spent years of assiduous labor; and work
boxes and caskets Of surprising beauty and
enormous value.
When the royal family was so summaIi-
ly expelled from Spain, Queen Isabella had
TO leave most of her yaluables in Madrid: ;
and her unfortunate husband arrived in
BayOnne, on his way to Paris, with few
trunks containing little beyond his per-
sonal wardrobe. His horses, his diam nds,
and his aforementioned collection of cost
ly articles of artistic ebeniSteyie, had re-
manned in Madrid. The horses were con-
fiscated by the new Government for mill
tary purposes; what became of his
diamonds has never been ascertained; and
his museum was destroyed by the in
dignant populace when, upon invading the
Royal Palace, they found that Don Francis
de Assists had been so reckless as to have
placed on splendid Murillo, in his sitting
room, paper target, at which he had fired
numerous shots from an air-pistOl, almost
destroying the superb painting.
Queen Isabella herself had not saved very
much money from the sudden shipwreck,
and what funds she had at her command,
during the first year of her exile from
Spain, she invested, in great part, in in
| trigueS to regain her lost throne.
Little of her money was given to
her neglected husband; and, as Don
! Francis de Assists had never learned TO
| husband his resources, he was repeatedly
sued by his impatient creditors in Paris
and he speedily became so Disguised with
| life at the French capital that he went, in
| 1870, shortly before the breaking out of the
! FrancO-German War, to Vienna, and set
| tied there permanently. The Austrian
| Court took no notice of him, and il is
known to comparatively few people in
| Vienna that the man who once sat on the
| Castilian throne, by the side of the sue
cessor of Ferdinand, and Isabella, and
| Charles v, lives now in their midst.
His house is plain, two story building,
in one of the deserted streets of the Leo
| poldstadt, and correspondent of the Pesth
| Lloyd, who recently visited this repreSen-
tative of fallen and impoverished royalty
gives the following account of an inter
view with Don Francis:
Il met" he writes. "the husband of eX-
Queen Isabella in his salon. large ROOM
looking out upon a spacious courtyard,
which, among other curious things, con-
tanned a circular bowling-alley, such as
had never seen before, and which the eX-
king is said to have made entirely with his
own hands; singularly-shaped aviary
| filled with eight or ten screeching parrots
and cockatoOs; and a wooden shed, painted
| bright red, which is used as a stable fol
the only horse now owned by his eX-
majesty. Don Francis de Assists had only
single attendant with him, a young
cousin of his, with a very long name
which | do not remember, and with as
! naughty a demeanor as if he still was in
the Alcazar, at Madrid, and not in cheap
| house on the banks Of the Danube. The
! bearing and appearance of lsabella'S nus
! band, on the other hand, must confess
were an agreeable disappointment to me. He
| is a polished gentleman, with handsome
melancholy face, large, dreamy eyes, and
| a very pleasant smile. He spoke to me in
| excellent French, and his conversation was
! both animated and interesting. With great
ease and franknesS he alluded to the nu-
merOus distinguished pcrsOnageS with
which he had been brought in contact dur
! ing his eventful life, and his opinions were
remarkable for their ShrewdneSs and utter
| lack of bitterness. He acknowledged that
! his exile from Madrid weighed heavily
upon him, but he did not express either
| hope or belief that he would ever return
| thither. mentioned Serrano's name, and
| that was the only occasion when he knit
his brows, and Immediately changed the
| subject. He was pleased with life in Wen
ma, and said he liked the people, because
they were so lively and gOod-natured; the
only thing that displeased him was the OK.
| IRENE prevalence of beggary, especially
! genteel beggary, in consequence of which
! he was overwhelmed, during the first few
months after his arrival in Vienna, witt
! calls and letters from impudent mendi
cants, most of whom pretended to have
| been reduced from atfluence and aristocrat
| ic positions by the rapid progress of de
| mocracy to indulgence. But Don Francis
said, gOod-humOredly, that he had speedily
! got rid of these impOrtunate people, be
cause he had very little to give them.
Everything about the house, in fact, in
dicated very plainly that Don Francis lived
no longer in the lap Of Opulence. He
who had once reveled in apartments whose
walls were covered with the cOstliest hang
| ings. and embellished with the master
| pieces of Murillo and VelasqueZ, had now
to dwell in very plain rooms, with CHEAP
muslin curtains before the windows, rather
common paper on the walls, no pictures
whatever, and ordinary rosewood turni
! ture.
1t is said that Don Francis de Assists
had not single book in his apartments il
the Royal Palace at Madrid, and that he
rarely ever read newspaper. Be this a
it may, | vainly looked for anything litera
ry in his sitting-roOm, where he spends
several hours every day, passing the re
mainder of his time mostly in his work
| shop, small room on the upper floor, in
| which he works as a wOod-carver and cabi
net-maker, in both of which trades he is
said to be quite skilled.
He never goes into society: and, in
| fact, although he has now been in Vienna
for a considerable length of time, he
| speaks little or no German. His only
recreation is an occasional ride in the