Five days later Madrid was en fête for the baptism of the royal child. Wearing a robe of the richest English lace, and the broad velvet sash, embroidered with fleurs-de-lis, that his father had worn at his baptism, the royal infant was borne on a silver salver, draped with costly coverings, through the lines of officers, statesmen, and Court ladies, into the chapel of the palace, where at a solemn service he received the names of Alfonso León Fernando Maria Santiago Isidro Pascual Antony.
The second birthday of the baby King was celebrated by a review in the Prado. The Queen was on horseback, dressed in black, without any ornaments. The Minister of War was on her left hand, and the Duchess of Medina behind her. Her horse was startled by the quantity of flowers thrown before the royal rider, but, being an excellent horsewoman, the Queen controlled the animal, and no mischance happened.
Aided by the Duchess of Medina de las Torres, the Señora Tacon, and an excellent nurse, Queen Cristina devoted herself entirely to the care of her child. His rooms were in close proximity to her own private apartments, and “Puby” (a German pet-name), as she called him, learned from an infant to look for the loving good-night visit of his mother, who, seating herself at the head of the blue silk curtained cot, would hush her boy to sleep. Her soothing caresses grew, as time passed on, to be tender counsel to the child.
Unwilling to sacrifice his physical health to his mental progress, the Queen waited till her son was seven years old before planning for him a course of serious study. With an hour’s steady instruction daily, the young monarch soon learnt to read and write with ease. It is interesting to know that he was never allowed to use a word without being thoroughly acquainted with its meaning. By this means he acquired an intelligent interest in things about him.
It was at the seaside resort of San Sebastian, in the beautiful palace of Miramar, that the royal child’s second course of instruction commenced. Don Regino Zaragoza was his tutor for geography and history. About this time also he began rapidly to gain ground in French and Latin. But the quick intelligence of the lad did not impair the mischievousness natural to his age. I was told by the King’s Chamberlain that once, when he was about eight years old, streams of water were seen running down the corridor from the bath-room of the royal palace. The door of the apartment was found to be locked, and it was only when the Queen herself insisted on its being opened that the young delinquent was discovered enjoying what he called “a naval battle in high seas,” the ships being logs abstracted from the wood baskets, and the high seas the overflowing bath.
The same courtier told me that once, when staying at the Casa de Campo (the country place near Madrid), the boy escaped from his governors to climb up on to the roof of a building, which he had remarked as the resort of some roosters.
It must be remembered that the young King’s courses of instruction were always those of the Universities and institutes of the kingdom. He usually wore the uniform of a cadet of the Military Academy, except when, on a visit to a man-of-war, he adopted the naval dress. That his tutors found him a docile pupil can be gathered from the following anecdote: When one day a professor stood waiting for his royal pupil to be seated, he laughingly shook his head, saying: “No; you are the master, and I am the pupil. It is for you to be seated first.”
ALFONSO XIII., KING OF SPAIN
Queen Cristina overcame her son’s difficulty with German by composing a small grammar for him, which enabled him to master the rules of the language in a simple and amusing form. His inquiring turn of mind and his desire to thoroughly understand many subjects were early made apparent by his leaning towards natural science, chemistry, etc.