It is not probable that this order will be maintained,
though it may be, for it was maintained under Prim, and the Princes are rushing to seize the vacant prize. Don Carlos, it is expected, will take the field in person ; Alfonso has arrived in Paris ; the Duke de Montpensier is consulting all his friends ; the Duke d'Aurnale utters enigmas to members of the Extreme Right; and the Princes among them have subscribed £800,000. That is quite a large in- vestment for them, and one they would hardly have made with- out hope of its yielding interest. The nominee of the family is apparently Montpensier, for whom Louis Philippe designed the Crown ; but he is rejected by Queen Isabella, who has influence in the army, and is despised in Madrid. Spanish politics are too much influenced by intrigues for outsiders to form an opinion, but we should say, as we have argued elsewhere, that the chances lie between Don Carlos, Alfonso, with his mother as Regent, and the Republic ; and that the third was the but of the three, —the two Royalties neutralising one another.
Previous page
