Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-11-10
QUEEN CHRISTMAS LOVE.

| Sie.oAihS anu plluLeTlug through the doors
10 smash the patent stoves
QUEEN CHRISTMAS LOVE.
How Private Munoz Recarne Duke o,
RianHares and a spanish Grandce.
queen Christina, of Spain. may not be
altogether forgotten, though she has been
dead a month; SO, as she was Partisan
celebrity, | send you few notes on he1
life and character. I have had to wait
tor their completion, as my principal In
1ormantanf has but just returned to
France He tells me that the obituary
notices IN the journals have missed the
main point in devoting but few lines to
the subject of her union with Rianzares
They should have begun with this man
and ended with him, for she did nothing
after his death, and very little before she
met him. The story of her passion for
the young Spanish private soldier, Rian.
zares, IS as wild as anything in Spanish
romance. She picked him out of the
gutter to share her throne. He was the
first man she eyer loved and the last. She
was g young widow, the mother Of two
prlncesses (the future Queen Isabella be-
ing one of them) when she first cast her
| eye On this most fortunate
OF subjects. Three years be-
tore that she had been imported from
Naples (she was the daughter Of the King
OF the two Sicil1es) to Madrid, to marry
the triply-widowed King of Spain,
Ferdinand VII. Love for Ferdinand was
out OF the question, so she found poor
substitute for it in the qualification of
ambition by getting all power IN her
hands. sahe King, to do him justice, was
not exactiagg, and, as we haveseen, he was
ob!iging enough to get himself gathered
to his fathers within very short period
after their union. A bare quarter Of a
year from that time, or ''ere those shoes
were Old" with which she followed Ferdi-
nand to the grave, she was secretly
married to Rianzares. He was then
known as Munoz, a name bearing about
she same relation to his subsequent title
as stodge docs to Montmorency. She had
chosen him in the most curious way. She
was driving one day to Buen-Retiro with
the Court, when she dropped her glove
out of the window of her carriage. It
was picked up by a young private soldier
OF the guard. He handed it to her and
was falling back into his place, when she
told him to remain by the carriage-door
He was handsome and we'll proportioned,
a typicalsoldier of a corps d. elite. The
Queen liked the look Of him, and in Spain
the look goes a very geat way in
commencing men to the notice
of the other sex. The Span
ish women are either more simple or
more sincere than their sisters of other
Nations, ard they never pretend to ig-
more shapeliness of body in favor of mere
shapeliness of mind. Christina COM
manded the young soldier to talk to her
for her evident wish to enter into con-
versation with him was, of course, an or
der. Any other man, under the stimulus
OF that golden opportunity, might have
talked his best. This one perhaps, did
the same thing, but his best would have
made but a poor worst for all but him
self. He was as shy as country clod.
His comrades, who saw what was going
on, thought he had missed his chance,
but they were wrong. Christina com
handed him to be always placed near
her, and promoted him on the spot. She
had determined to like him, or perhaps
that she had been long enough in the
trammels of Spanish courtly etiquette to
find a supreme charm in the very way
wardness of her tastes There was every
reason why she should not deign to cast
on Munoz the eye of royal favor. He be-
longed, by birth, to the very lowest of the
people-his sister was Washerwoman Of
Tarancon. There was nothing to be said
for him, and, as we have seen, he had not
even anything to say for himself. Yet
in spite of this. Christina made him her
pick Of all the world. The grandees
shrugged their shoulders, but made NO
fuss; they take most things quietly in
Spain.
No man ever had more splendid
chance. Her wish was law in the PENN
sula, his wish was law with her The
powers of miracle was offered to him; he
might have made the Government honest
or taught the people to work. But moth
ing of the kind ever came into his head
For him, apparently, the chief effect OF
the marriage on his fortunes was that II
improved the quality Of his cigarettes
Everybody laughed at him, with one ex.
ception-his wife. A clod for everybody
else, he was still hero for her. The case
was not altogether without precedent
According to the poets, a certain Queen,
Consort, contemporary with Theseus, had
once loved in much the same way. Only
| Titania,s illusion lasted barely night
and Christmas lasted lifetime. He
passion transformed all the defects o
Munoz into qualities. His heavines
was sincerity and simpleness of nature
his bluntness of the barrack- room was tn,
honesty of a second infant Washington
who could not lie. He certainly neve
went out of his way to try to seem othe
than he was; and perhaps that was he
best excuse for loving him. He was al
ways Christopher Sly in the Duke