The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1878-11-13
QUEEN CHRISTMAS LOVE.
How Private hunOX Became Duke Q
Rianzares and . spanish Grandce.

QUEEN CHklSTlNA'S LOVE.
How priyate nunoz Became Duke o
Rianzares and . spanish Grandce.
Queen Christina, of Spain, may not b.
altogether forgotten, though she has beel
dead month; so, as she was a Parisia,
celebrity, send you few notes on he
life and character. have had to wal
for their completion, as my principal In
formantant has but Just returned t,
France He tells me that the Obituary
notices In the journals have missed the
main point in devoting but few lines t.
the subject Of her union with Rianzares
They should have begun with this mar
and ended with him, for she did nothing
after his death, and very little before she
met him. The story Of her passion fol
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 young widow, the mother of two
princesses {the future Queen Isabella be-
ing one of them) when she first cast he,
eye on this most fortunate
of subjects. Three years, be.
fore that she had been imported from
Naples (she was the daughter of the King
of the two Sicilles) to Madrid, to marry
the triply-widowed King of Spain,
Ferdinand VII. Love for Ferdinand was
out Of the question, so she found 3 poor
substitute for it III the qualification of
ambition by getting all power IN her
hands. . be King, to do HIM. justice, was
not exactiag, and, as we have seen, 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, 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 young private soldier
Of the guard. He handed it to her and
was falling back into his place, whom she
told him to remain by the carriage door.
He was handsome and we'll proportional,
typical soldier of corps d. elite. The
Queen liked the look Of him, and in Spain
the look goes very geat way in
commencing men to the notice
OF the other sex The Span
ISL women are either more simple or
more sincere than their sisters of other
Nations, and 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 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
manded 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
ind supreme charm in the very way
Wardness of her tastes. There was eyery
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
resple-his sister was washerwoman of
Iarancon. 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
russ; they take most things quietly in
Spain. ''4 ." ID ~ =,
No man ever had q moro splendid
chance. Her wish was law in the PENN
bula, his wish was law with her The
powers of miracle was offered to him he
might have made the Government honest
OF 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 It
improved the quality Of his cigarettes.
EVerybt dy laughed at him, with one ex-
eeptlon-his wife. A clod for everybody
eise, ne was still hero for her. The case
was not altogether without precedent
according to the poets, certain Queen.
Consort, contemporary with Theseus. had
once or: loved in much the same way. Only
1itanias illusion lasted barely a niohf
and Christmas lasted a lifetime. Her
passion transformed all the defects Of
Munoz into qualities. His heav;ness
was sincerity and simpleness Of nature
il bluntness Of the barrack room was the
honesty of a second infant WASHINGTON
who could no not lie. He certainly never yy
went out of his way to try to, seem other
than he was; and perhaps that was her
best excuse for loving him. He was a.
ways a Christopher Sly in the Dnla,a
chamber, dazed and more than half me :
pecting that it was all dream. but thinI.
ing it best to keep his own counsel While
waiting for developments. She advanced
MS fortunes in every way, and he was
passive as clay in the hands Of tile potter
ne went on smoking cigarettes. She
mace MIN grandee OF the first class
cigarettes. She gave him the Golden
Fleece cigarettes again. And by Louis
Philippe created him Duke of Montmor.
OF Christina had already made him
Duke Of Rianzares) and DECORATED him