Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1877-07-19
4 ROYAL COURTSHIP.
King Alfonso of Spain to Marry the
Girl of His Choice After All


From the Whitehall Review, June so.
is engaged to his cousin, Dona Merce-
des de Montpensier Borbon. He is
resolved TO carry out a plan which he
had formed when, leaving his cousin in
Paris, he was called to the throne by
| the army of MARTINEZ Campos at Sa-
ganto. During his visit to Seville he
/ determined that this year should not
| elapse without witnessing his marriage,
and he seems only TO have deferred
| that ceremony out of Difference to his
mother The marked coolness which
has been noticed by every one in Sc
vile and Madrid between the
ex-queen and her son was caused
by nothing else than the hostility ex-
pressed by Isabella to the choice of the
| king. Nor is she to be blamed, because
| her attendants and the court she keeps
around her at Seville have fOstered and
| fomented her rancOr against the Due
/ de Montpensier and his daughter
| Their object was merely to regain a
certain sway over the kings mind
and thereby pave the way for a return
to power and place of those evil coun-
cilors whose mistakes had caused the
ruin of the Dynasty. Other motives, in
to which we cannot enter, dictated the
| opposition of the queens secretary and
of the moderate party. 1t is even said
| that if the marriage takes place this
winter Queen Isabella will leave Spain
and again take up her residence IN
Paris. King Alfonso declares that the
queen may 90, but that his sister the
infantas must be left under the care of
the princess of Austria. This arrange
ment would be very suitable one, as
not few people think that the young
infants ought to be placed under their
elder sister, and that Queen Isabella
might suit her own tastes better in Paris
at the Palais Basilowsky than in Spain.
King Alfonso's decision is almost uni
yersally approved, and his future bride
is sure to be very much liked. She is
young and very handsome. Her dark
animated features-which are quite of
an Andalusian cast-are displayed to
the greatest advantage under the man
tia as we saw her the other day at that
| pleasing entertainment, a Madrid bull
fight She is not particularly tall, and
! her en1bOnp0int is Enthusiastically Spanish
! Dlt she HIS llltit IlNelS, DllSlu IllftlIIltI
which Partisan education gives a girl
She dresses very simple as rule, and
her encourage say she is very intelligent.
When she staid in Seville last winter
and during her short visit to Madrid she
| pleased every one who knew her. The
sternest intransigente could not find it
in his revolutionary heart to frown up
on the beautiful girl who seemed, as
they say in Spain, Il very daughter of
the Guadalquivir." 1t required all the
inyeterate sourness of those constitu-
tional grumblers of the Sagasta party to
find fault with the kings choice.
King Alfonso will pass seven or eight
weeks in La Granja with the Due de
Montpensier and his family. The prin-
cess of Austria will also be there for sew
eral months, and the chiefs of all the
foreign legations fix their residence in
that cool retreat, to which many Of the
nobility resort. There, amid picnics,
balls and fetes, the king will await the
fall of the leaves in the woods of La
Granja; and when he revisits his CAPT
| tai it will be to announce to the Cortes
del Reyno his approaching marriage
with Dona Mercedes de Montpensier.