The foregoing brief sketch of the political and social life in Spain during the republic will have given some idea of the joy which filled Spanish hearts at seeing the Bourbons once more on the throne of Spain in the person of Alfonso XII. Madrid indeed was wild with joy when the little Prince whom we saw at eleven years of age, in his blue velvet suit and lace collar, leaving his country as an exile, with his mother and family, re-entered the royal palace as a young man eighteen years old in January, 1875, having wisely passed through Catalonia, which Martinez Campos had gained over to the cause, and pleased the people by saying: “I wish to be King of all Spaniards.”
As Isabella had abdicated in favour of her son on June 26, 1870, there was no impediment to his taking the oath of coronation soon after he was summoned to the Spanish capital. Of a good figure, gentlemanly, and well cultured, Alfonso added the art of good dressing to his other attractions, and the excellent taste and cut of his clothes led to his being called “the Beau Brummell of Spain.”
KING ALFONSO XII. VISITING CHOLERA PATIENTS AT ARANJUEZ
From a Painting by J. Bermudo y Mateos
The Countess of Campo Alange, who had assisted at the ceremony, in Paris, of Isabella’s abdication in favour of her son, was one of the first to pay her respects to Alfonso XII. on his return as King to the Court of Spain. She went in a beautiful costume of crushed-strawberry-coloured satin, and she carried in her hand a snuff-box decorated with a picture of the entry of Charles IV. into Badajoz, and it was with a graceful speech that the Countess drew the King’s attention to the miniature.
“What a memory you have, Marchioness!”
“Oh, facts and people remain in my mind when they are forgotten by others,” returned the lady; and the affectionate look she cast at the King reminded him of her fidelity to his family.
In his youthful exuberance of spirits, the young King was always ready to join in any frolic, although he was not lacking in serious and intelligent application to matters of State.
It was the Monday preceding Shrove Tuesday, and Alfonso had remarked somewhat regretfully that the rollicking spirit of the season seemed somewhat subdued. This the Duke of Tamanes determined to remedy, so, when the Cabinet was assembling for a royal audience, he swiftly emptied a bag of flour over the head of the Minister of War, who gravely sat down to business in his transformed condition, much to the amusement of Alfonso.