Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-10-19
THB SPANISH QUEEN REGENT.
HOW BEAUTIFUL YOUNG GIRL HAS
RULED THE COUNTRY.
The Romantic AIphonso-A Strange Story
of the Spanish RoyaIty-An Adept
in Domestic Arts.

heroically the young Spanish Queen has
maintained her most trying position. The
regnant Victoria sailed through fifty years
of prosperity. guided by the most compe-
tent advisers, but this young girl came
Unexpectedly to the throne of a country
torn with civil wars, a country where she
was looked upon with hatred, and she has
made her position strong, not only with
power, but with love.
Alphonso was handsome and good
natured romantic from his many amours
and the pathetic story Of his first Queen.
This new intruder was an Austrian. She
had disappointed the nation twice in CIV
ing birth to girls, and it was thought the
throne might go to pieces or to the ever
lasting Carlists, when she rallied herself,
as it were, gave birth to son and took the
reins of government with such tact and
ability that she is now loved with almost
fanatical devotion.
She understands the power of personal
ity, and is always herself on the spot re-
viewing the army in person, opening the
Cortes, attending all national exhibitions,
going to the furthest part of her kingdom
in case of calamity, taking active part in
all Government reforms-in fact, proving
herself one Of the most active and able of
existing sovereigns.
| will not repeat, says Olive Weston,
the well-worn tales of the court and the
baby King, his nurses and his uniforms.
1t is of the Kinglet's great-grandfather
that my revelations will this time speak.
For remember story an old Spanish
grandee once told me, under pledge of
secrecy, in little Bohemian Spanish inn
in Paris, frequented by Fortuny and Ma
draza, where / was staying to gets bits of
color for a Franco-Spanish novel.
promised never to tell, but nothing was
said about writing.
The story is different from that pub
lished in court history, but the grandee
was a distant relative of the hero, and the
story of such a nature that do not think
he would have told it if it had not been
true.
The ruler who proceeded Queen Isabella
was a strange, coarse man of violent tenn
per and repulsive exterior. Extremely
suspicious of his subjects, he was always
trying to test their affection, to penetrate
by disguise into their home that he might
learn if he was beloved by his people. 1t
was point he was exceedingly tender on.
One evening toward evening dusk he left
the palace in disguise. Some new rumor
that he was unpopular had disturbed him,
and he could not rest till he had investi-
gated them. As he approached the bor-
ders of the royal park he found that he
had forgotten his tobacco, and seeing a
light CLEAN from little shop where his
soldiers were supplied, he bent his steps to.
ward it. On entering he only found boy,
who had been left in charge by his father,
the tobacconist. While making his pur-
chase his Majesty noted the singular beauty
and intelligence of the child's. face, and
asked him his name which the boy said
was Lorenzo. The King then lighted a
cigar and skillfully led the conversation
till he had induced the boy to speak of his
feeling for his sovereign, when the uncon-
scious child disclosed a heart of such
loyalty and love for his ruler, in spite of
his faults, which he freely babbled of, that
the monarch exclaimed: "Would all my
people were educated like this; then would
my throne stand firm Then he left him
in his hand.
The next morning the King called his
chamberlain and said "The tobacconist on
the borders of my park has son of great
intelligence / wish him placed in the
royal college" But, your Majesty, the
college is only for the sons of mobiles. !"
"Obey my orders"
Sometime after this the King paid a
visit to the college to learn of the progress
of his new favorite. The teachers praised
the boy, but complained that the other
students ill-treated him and would not as
sociate with him because be was not noble
Lorenzo, come here" the King cried !;
and, putting his arm around him, said
before them all: kiss me, my boy"
Then taking decoration from his breast,
he pinned it on the child, and said al
make him noble; treat him as if he were
my son."
The poor old King had married his
fourth wife, and still was childless. His
infrmities grew upon him and he was now
stricken with a fearful disease-so horrible
and repulsive that all fed from him. Lo-
renzo had now left college and entered the
army, and the King had lost sight of his
little favorite. The boy had grown up to
be handsome young officer of the most
luscious Spanish type.
One day the monarch, i'll and almost de-
serted, heard some one playing a sweet
little melody on a mandolin from the
garden outside. The air soothed him, and
he cried: "Who is that?" 'It is Lo-
reno, your Majesty" "Send him to me-"
Then, as the young officer stood before
him, he dismissed his attendant and said;
@Do you love me, Lorenzo?" The poor
old King was disgusting to behold, swollen
beyond semblance to humanity, sans eyes,
sans teeth, sans everything, and in the
clutches of his dreadful disease, as my
chroaicler told me, she sweated blood and
vermin.n Lorenzo's great feeling could
forget ell, and bursting into tears, he
threw his arms around that mess of cor
ruption, crying: 81 love you, your Ma
iesty. l would give my life to save you
one moments pain "Then you shall
never leave me-"
After this Lorenzo was always at his
side. But now comes a new actor on the
scene of this strange dramatic Queen,
the Princess Christina, daughter of the
King of Naples. As the disease progressed
even the attendants fed, and in all the
crimson and gold of the royal chamber
only Lorenzo and the Queen were left to
watch the bed of death. Lorenzo was one
of those who seem to he born to die for
their sovereign, but the young Queen did
not look with the same loyal eyes on the
dying King, and she soon fell in love with
Lorenzo.
Before her child was born she caused a
new law to be passed securing succession
to it whether male or female, and that is
how Isabella came to the throne.
The young Queen now plunged deeper
into guilt, and, fearing for the future, be-
gan to secrete great sums of money, and
even to replace some of the crown jewels
with paste In this she wanted Lorenzo
to become her accomplice. Reluctantly
Led hafnre he NOW saw his chance for