The popular songs expressing loyalty to Queen Isabella have not been forgotten in the forty odd years that have elapsed since she was dethroned, for in 1909 they were revived, with such slight alterations as were needed to bring them up to date. Here is a specimen:
“Si la Reina de España moriera
Y Don Carlos quisiera reinar,
Los arroyos de sangre correrian
Por el campo de la libertad.”
(“If the Queen of Spain were to die and Don Carlos wanted
to reign, the streams would run with blood on the field of
liberty.”)
The intricacies of succession being little understood by the people, this song was modernised by substituting “Victoria” for “de España” and “Don Jaime” for “Don Carlos.” During the suspension of the Constitution the song was not sung aloud: the people said that “Maura had forbidden it.” Directly the Liberals came in it was heard again everywhere.
Here is another:
“No reinará Don Jaime,
No reinará, no, no!
Mientras España tenga
Bayoneta y cañon.”
(“Don Jaime shall not reign while Spain has a bayonet and
a cannon.”)
And another, perhaps in some ways the most interesting of the three:
“Dicen de Barcelona
De un mitin clerical,
Que Don Jaime asistió
Provisto de un disfraz.
Al ver la bronca de palos y morral
Creyó que le tiraban bomba encima de nocedal!”
The literal translation is as follows: “They say from Barcelona, of a clerical meeting, that Don Jaime attended it provided with a disguise. When he saw the row with sticks and a nosebag, he thought they were throwing a bomb on the top of a walnut-copse.” Taken in its literal meaning it is of course nonsense, and the popularity of the song was evidently due to the puns on “morral” and “nocedal.” By writing these words with capitals we get the names of the man who threw the bomb at the King’s wedding (Morral), and of a well-known Carlist leader (Nocedal). This song was sung in Barcelona when the colonies were lost, with another name in place of Morral’s, and was revived in 1909, brought up to date as above, until with the suspension of the Constitution it was severely repressed. It expresses the popular opinion as to the authorship of the bomb of 1906 and the troubles in Cataluña.