Year: 1878

The Story of the Courtship Between Him.

 self and his COusin-The Course

 of True Love.

 This royal wedding is the sequel to 0 case of true love in a palace, the course of which, however, has run none too smoothly. From the time when, in exile, Alfonso first looked with loving eyes upon the Infanta Mercedes his wishes were opposed, until quite recently, not only by the Spanish Cabinet but by his mother, ex-Queen Isabella, who bitterly denounced all alliance between her son and the daughter of her own sister. A violent animosity to Duke de Montpen- sier, the young lady's father, existed not only with Isabella, but among the mem- bers of her little court at Seville. This hostility existed also among the old nobility of the country, and Tn all the parties which had held the reins of power before the revolution. They refused to pardon the liberal conduct of the Duke in 1866, and his connection with Prim and the Progressists. They professed to despise Montpensier as belonging, to a family, of which the modern founder was Philippe Egalite, "the profigate re- volutionary Prince, who was false to his King, aud met with just reward for his crime upon the unsparing Republican scaffold." Any plan or idea of alliance seemed more welcome in their eyes, and S,, kIn 0f the daughter of the Orleans and liberal Prince. These partisans went so far as to cast their eyes on German and even on an English Princess. They praised every maiden princess in Europe rather than the Infanta Mercedes. But the young King was deeply in love with his charming cousin, and she reciprocated his passion. His heart could not be turned from it's alliance, and he pre- served faithfully the affection he had pledged-an affection which had sprung up in exile, had increased during absence, and had survived the return of fortune. While Alfonso's suit was bitterly opposed by his mother and her partisans, it was aided by that best of sisters, the Princess of the Asturias. In August last, Duke de Montpensier and his family returned to Spain, and their welcome by the King proved beyond doubt that no resistance on the part of mother or Prime Minister would change his will. The ex-Queen went herself to the Escurlal to try what her influence could do to delay, if not change, the final decision of her son. This interview took place about the middle of last September The King had arrived late in the night, and, though greatly fatigued by long journey, spent several hours closeted with the Queen mother. The next morning he had another talk of several hours with her, and then the Ministers were summoned to attend general council at Madrid: The result was 8 victory for Isabella, but her triumph was of short duration. Her friends were elated, and her pro- posed trip to France was postponed. More than this, it was announced with great glee that the King would stop three or four days in the Escurial with his mother before she departed, with her three daughters, for the Alcazar, near the banks of the Guadalquiver.

 It was during this short interval that the King contrived to prevail upon Isabella to yield to his wishes and give an ungracious consent to the marriage His faithful sister, the Princess of the Asturias, was the first to communicate the news to her cousin Mercedes, and the royal lovers were speedily brought together. The next day the Princess of the Asturias, the Duke and the Duchess de Montpensier, and the Infanta Mer- cedes called upon the ex-Queen and thanked her for the great happiness she had aided in bestowing. Soon afterward Isabella left Spain and went to Paris. She furnished the strange spectacle of a Queen and a mother lavishing testi- monies of the tenderest friendship on Don Carlos, the man who for years kept up civil war, stlgmatized her son as a usurper, and shruuk from nothing in order to overturn that sons power. The details of this scandal have already been related and need not be repeated. Suffice it to say that after having wounded every Spanish heart, she claimed the right to present in person to Princess Mercedes a royal mantle she had embroidered for her, and threatened to give it to a Madonna if prevented from doing so. But her presence at the marriage was regarded with positive apprehension, and after she had gone so far as to greet the Pretender with the title of Majesty, '' she was forbidden to enter the kingdom. The Spanish Ambassador at Paris was charged with the duty of preventing her presence at his sovereign's marriage.