[75] Loved one, or sweetheart.
[77] The vestibules of the convents are called the porteria. They lead to the cells of the friars, and are distinct from the entrances to the church. All women are prohibited from entering these portions of the cloisters.
[78] This name is given to a female who confesses to one ecclesiastic exclusively, making him also the spiritual director of her conscience. Some persons who profess to be extremely religious divide these functions between two distinct persons, one of them being the confessor, and the other the director.
[81] Agonizante was the name of a religious community. The principal duty of its members was that of administering to the wants and last religious consolations of the faithful at the hour of death.
[98] There are numerous other anecdotes of her Majesty, which tend to show she is possessed of some of the best qualities which can adorn the mind of a queen, and tend to make her popular. Some of these will appear in the following pages. We shall at present but give one. Passing one day, when quite a child, along the Prado in Madrid, the eyes of a poor little girl, without shoes or stockings, were directed to the royal carriage and caught those of her Majesty. Perceiving the queen’s eyes were fixed on her, the little urchin dropt a courtesy, and held out her hand in the attitude of supplication. Her Majesty halted, beckoned the child forward, saw her naked feet, and having no money, in a moment took off her own shoes and threw them out of the carriage-window to the girl, desiring her to try them on, which she did, made another genuflection, and walked off with them, to the great delight of her royal benefactor.
[107] An anecdote referred to by Gibbon, in the part of his history relative to the sect of the iconoclast, confirms all that is advanced in the text on the powerful influence of worship to images, as it regards the character of devotion. When the soldiers of Leo broke in pieces the image of a saint before whom daily prayers were wont to be offered up, a pious individual gave vent to this bitter lamentation, “Now I can no longer address my prayers to heaven; now I have no one to hear them!”
[110] Santa Rita is called by Spaniards “The advocate of impossibilities,”—(La abogada de los imposibles.)
Thus, it is not uncommon for a young lady to say to a suitor whom she refuses, and who imploringly asks her what he shall do to gain her favour, “Go and invoke Santa Rita.”
[113] Spaniards have not waited for Pius IX. to come and acknowledge the immaculate conception as a dogma of the faith. This belief has existed in Spain from time immemorial. Murillo has immortalised it in his master-works, and Charles III. declared her to be the patroness of Spain, commanding her image to be placed in the badges of the order which he founded under the title of “The Royal and Distinguished Order of Charles III.”
[115] The Virgin of Atocha is the patron of the sovereigns of Spain. Her image, which is small and of a colour as dark as a mulatto, appeared, as tradition asserts, at the spot on which the chapel was afterwards erected, and in which, in the present day, it is deposited. This chapel is situated near the magnificent promenade called the Prado, in Madrid, and was formerly part of a convent of Dominican Friars, converted, after the suppression of the religious orders, into barracks for sick soldiers. When the court is in Madrid, the sovereign goes every Saturday evening to this sanctuary with a great procession of grandees and guards. The Virgin of Atocha has an immense fortune, consisting of jewels and trinkets which have been presented to her by the monarchs. Among these presents, one is the distinguished velvet dress, embroidered with gold, worn by Isabella II. at the time she was wounded by the Priest Merino.