The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-09-12
AROYAL COURTSHIP.
Gossip About the Approaching Mar
riage of the King of Spain.

W y
another young and very beautiful queen.
A diplomat of eminence tells me that the
match between their king and the Arch
duchess Christina is as good as settled.
The young lady holds out little both
from pique and interest. Mercedes was
preferred to her by Alphonso, who had
known her very well while student at
Vienna, and the settlement his ministers
propose to make on her is not so advan-
tageous as the imperial house of Austria
would desire. Hence the pOstponement
of any final arrangement until meeting
between the king and archduchess has
taken place.
The Spanish monarchs heart is easily
drawn to amorousness; and when he is
in love he allows no obstacle to stand in
the way of his passion. 1t was deemed
in the highest degree probable that he
would be subjugated by the charms of
the princess who is offered to him as a
consort, in which case he would overrule
the economical proposals of his advisers
The Archduchess Christina, who has by
this time received at Arcachon a visit
from Alphonse, is tall and elegantly
formed. She is a hold and very graceful
horse woman, an excellent musician,
speaks many foreign languages, and has a
fine flow of animal spirits. Her mother
is a sister of the Queen of the Belgians,
and was brought up in Hungary pretty
much as though she had been young
archduke. There is something of the
holden in her daughter, who is descended
in line direct from the Archduke Charles,
the military competitor of the first Napo-
leon. Queen Isabella, to facilitate this
match, which she favored in the early
part of her sons reign, has offered to
transfer to his future consort the jewels
remaining in her possession. They are of
very great value, and should the illustri-
Gus pair be elected from Spain by revo-
luton, would suffice to maintain them
with dignity,
The wedding festivities, should no slip
occur between the cup of matrimonial
happiness and the Kings lip, will take
place at Barcelona. That city is hot
bed of republican agitation, and it is felt
polite to conciliate it and to gain by
flattery and courtly fayors the wealthy
manufacturers and merchants who affect
advanced liberalism. Besides, the recol.
lection of Mercedes, her brief span of
happiness and of the undying attachment
vowed to her by her young husband is
still fresh at Madrid. The population
there took fancy to their dark eyed lit
tie Spanish Queen. She was born in
fanta, loved to wear the mantilla and
looked her best in it. Her name was
thought to be of good augury and her
death took place under peculiarly sad
circumstances There was a sad sus-
picion abroad, which has not been dis
PEELED. that she fell victim to poison,
and that the poisoner was an Isabelist
The Ex-Queen, it is known, was bitterly
hostile to the marriage of her son and
Don Antonio's daughter, and actively
promoted a match with the Austrian
Archduchess.
The Latter princess, it is to be appre
hended, would suffer in the popular csti
nation by comparison with Mercedes OF
her wedding day, and it is felt that the
legend of the deceased queen consor
might predispose against her the unre
Aecting people of Madrid. She is no
therefore to accept the crown matri
monial in the Church of the Atocha bu
in that of St. Eulalie of Barcelona, an(
to drive in pomp through the streets o
the Spanish Liverpool. 1t isa pity tha
she bears the name of Christina, whicl
beyond the Pyrenees is associated witt
mean, grasping selfishness, low intrigue
contempt Of public duties, spurious lit
eralism, barrack government, and the vii
affair of the Spanish marriages. There
in an uneducated nation a good deal O
power to irritate or to charm in name
Queen Isabella was alive to this fac
when she called the Princess of Austri
after herself and the patroness of Christt
pher Columbus, her son after the legeno
ary king, Alphonso, and her daug ghtel
Pillar, Paz aud Eulalie, after two M
donnas and saint held in the most pre-
found veneration in the Carlist prov
inces.
Arcachon, where the king and comm
queen of Spain are to spend a brief perio
of courtship, is a mushroom town ru
up by the brothers Pereire and otht
spectllators some eighteen or twenty yea
ago, among pine woods and sand hills 0
sheltered saltwater lake or bay, in II
Gulf of Gascony. The air there is aron
atized by the balsamic emanations fro
the pine trees, is hot, dry and very e:
citing. Lymphatic children, Or your
people going there, find their faculti
notably stimulated. This atmospher
condition will be TO the disadvantage
the Spanish exchequer, we may assum
Though certainly not more than SEQ
of years in existence, Arcachon has a
ready al old, wrinkled face. 1t is
town of fancy villas, constructed OF ii
fimsiest materials and the most ia
tastic style of architecture, without Il
merit almost anywhere of being origins
There is strong flavor Of that piece
cockney Orientalism, the Brighton P
/ vilion, in the South-of-France SAINT
p rum.
, Cardboard limitations Of Indian pae
!, das, of Persian and Turkish kiosks,
q Chinese joss houses, are espread about !
: several miles on the sand, in whi'
I ao,vars rafusn to proE The wear ~