There were more people than usual going into the museum, most of them country folk come to Madrid for the fêtes. Patsy and I stood in the crowd and watched the Prince and Princess get out of the carriage with Mr. Keppel, the equerry. Villegas met the Prince at the door and asked leave to present his English pupil (J.). Then they all disappeared together into the Prado, Villegas leading the way with the Princess. She is tall, slender, with pretty yellow hair and an air of great distinction; there is a strong family resemblance between her and the young Queen.
Villegas said that the Princess, like most of the royalties he escorts over the museum, was greatly interested in the royal portraits. When the pictures are artistically important like the Velasquez, the Moros, even the Goyas, he is able to tell all about the originals; but when they are of mediocre value, by unimportant painters, poor Villegas is harrassed with fear lest he may not always give the right name, date and title.
The Prince admired immensely, and seemed to enter into the spirit of the Velasquez “Siege of Breda.” When the magnanimous attitude of the conqueror was pointed out—he cannot take the keys of the city because both hands are occupied, the Prince said:
“That was so nice of him!”
He paused a long time before Paul Veronese’s picture of the Marriage of Cana. On the table before the Saviour is a dish of meat that, the Prince pointed out, resembled a roast sucking pig. “But,” he said, “they were all Jews; they would never have eaten pork!”
J. said this showed that the Prince really looked
THE SPINNERS. Velasquez