Morning journal and courier., 1886-06-29
A STORY OF ROYAL SPAIN.
The Sad and P1tiful Lives of a Ma,
 Poet and His Lovely Daughter.

| Ehe Sad ana P1t1fu1 Lives of Mad Poet and His Lovely Daughter. Edgar L. Wakeman in a Havana Letter. Don Miguel and myself sat for long time in the little coralles inn watching the coming and going of the interesting frsquenters Suddenly, in a portion of the room where gambling had been going over heavy stakes, man of more than ordinary figure and pale, handsome face, after having lost all, sprang from table with an oath, and as he turned from the bodega to stride out upon the calzada, exclaimed most dramatically: 'Que talle otro!" (''Let the next one deal!'') The venerable don was quite electrified for an instant and quickly rising motioned for me to follow. We left the place, mounted our waiting jacas, and as we wended our way loiteringly between the royal palms skirting the grand highway toward the val ley of Guines my companion related the fol lowing romance of genius and royalty: "You heard the caballero's exclamation, Que talle otrof Those were the death words of poor Espronceda, the mad poet of Spain. His life and death were equally horrible. He sprang from social driftwood. His mother was brilliant lascivia; his father titled roue; his own love affairs horribly dramatic: his daughter the most beautiful and danger ous woman of Spain and his own death that of madman.
 "My own ambition-I was not then selling lottery tickets" said the old man proudly ''took me back to Madrid for few days, whence only returned last year. Whatever my mission there it brought me near those who are near the throne. In that way 1 came to know of one of the most dramatic episodes that ever clouded our Spanish court -one which nearly cost the late Alfonso bis Queen and might have led to complications endangering his throne, but which has never been fully known even to the Spanish Iepub- lie.
 Adelaide, the mad poets divinely beauti- ful daughter, was the favorite inamorata of Alfonso. Indeed the two were desperately in love. Queen Christina bore all his ordi- nary affairs patiently enough, but she knew of the radiant beauty and intellectually of Adelaide and it maddened her with jealousy. Ordering @ closed carossa, she driven to the little nest of a quinta Alfonso had provi- ded for his love at an hour when she knew the King would be with her.
 Hastily alighting she attempted to enter, but was met by the Duke Sesto, whose emi- nence had been attained as g procurador rather than as statesman.
 "'Permit to enter!' tremblingly de- manded the Queen.
 ct is impossible. I beg you to return to the palace,' replied Sesto.
 "'Malze way for the Queen-the Queen will psssr indignantly commanded the daughter of Francis Joseph, Emperor of the Austrias.
 Even the Queen cannot passF lmper- turbably and doggedly answered the duke.
 ''With cry of rage Christina sprang to the carossa, snatched from it heavy purse of gold, flung it full in Sesto's face, which sent him crashing through 8 window of the villa, and shrieking, Dog! if your master, the King, pays you one price for your he'll ish occupation the Queen will always double itp flew into the quinta like tigress, discov- ering the King and Adelaide in each others arms.
 ''It is said Alfonso did not recognize the identity of the half-erazed intruder. At all events springing to his feet, he struck the Queen to the floor with his heavy walking stick and then fled with Espronceda's daugh- ter, while the calm Sesto bore the helpless and unfortunate woman to the carossa and saw her safely in the hands of her maids at the royal palace.
 "Two days later the Queen of Spain was with her father at the Austrian court, deter mined on eternal separation from Alfonso, while the Spanish royal household and the high dignitaries of Spain trembled for the result. The affair even penetrated the Vati- can itself, and for time a source of grave disquiet to all the courts of Europe
 
 uren to present himself at Vienna penitent and promising and the pelitic Austrian Ena- peror succeeded in sending Christina and Alfonso back to Madrid together. Thus the Queens fathers wisdom made it possible for all Spain to rejoice the other day at the birth of our dead Kings son to succeed him on the Spanish throne.
 "But no man ever lived with greater gen. jus than Espronceda. He starved and sung and Spain crowned him with riches and hon or. But these to him were but instruments for the most hideous emphasis of his own deadly hatred of all mankind. Sung to madness by the burning consciousness of his own unfortunate origin, he swept the uni verse of inspiration and language for flaming brands of imagery with which to annihilate virtue and debauch all mankind. His tre- mendous intellectual power and supreme genius, allied to his awful invective and the subtle poison of his divine verse, for time corrupted all Spain. But an hour came when this wave of ruin swept back in indig- nation upon himself. He struggled against it with infinite daring and power until, reali- zing the enormity of his crime against the hope of all mankind, or the completeness of his own fall he went mad entirely. Break ing from his keepers he rushed to the Campo Santo, where his mother lay buried, and there upon her grave composed the most dreadful and deVilish poem ever conceived by human mind-stLa Desesperacion"-in which his own mother, even the Holy Vir- gin, and all semblance of virtue, maiden hood, motherhood, maternity, are more loathsomely reviled than elsewhere in all tongues of men. With this masterpiece of the infamy of genius he appeared before his friends a blasphemous maniac, destroyed himself and died uttering the words we just heard in the coralles inn:
 "'Let the next one dealI'n