A PRINCESS AT LARGE.*
THE Infanta Eulalia, youngest daughter of Isabella II. of Spain, accompanied her mother into exile in 1868, living in Paris at the Petah: de Castile, and epending her summers in Normandy with her grandmother, Queen Maria. Cristina, widow of Ferdinand VII. She returned to Spain on the accession of her brother, Alfonso XII., lived there during his reign, and was married early in 1886, shortly after hie death, to her cousin, Antoine d'Orlians, eon of the Duo de Monthensier. In June, 1886, she left Spain for good, and spent ten years travelling from Court to Court in Europe, passing from England to Berlin and thence to St. Petersburg, representing the Throne of Spain at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893, and concluding her travels with a visit to the Courts of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, which she calls "the Scandinavian democracies," in 1913. After her mother's death she made her permanent home in Normandy, where, in her own words, she can say and do and think and write what she pleases, "untroubled by the prohibitions of crowned heads, who can enforce no command on me and impose no punishment—except to deny me an entrance to Courts from which I have been only too glad to escape." . The book before us celebrates her "final realization of freedom." As she puts it "I have escaped, mind and body, from my gilded cage. It has taken a lifetime, but it was worth it. I have no respect for any- thing in the world except intelligence. I live in France because it is the most intelligent of all the countries I have known. I have seen the world waking to the fact that the rule of money is no better than the rule of rank, except when it is more intelligent; and I can foresee the day when the inequalities of property will have no more authority than the inequalities of rank. to oppress man- kind. I road and write to keep my own intelligence in health by exercising it. And I am afraid of no critic except the one who
• Court Life from Within. By H.B.H. the infanta Eulalla of Spada. With 8 Ehotogravurea London Cassell and Co. gds. 8d. ast.1
may find my intelligence feeble, with a prison pallor, in spite of its joy in its escape."
In view of her parentage, her opportunities, and her unorthee dox views, the title of the book raises expectations which are only partially fulfilled. Court Life from Within is a much better book than the memoirs of broken or deelosses Royalties with which we have been familiarized of late years. The Infanta Eulalia's indiscretions are very mild, and singularly free from animosity. It is the system rather than the representatives of it that she criticizes and ridicules. For her brother King Alfonso XII. she had a sincere affection and admiration. She speaks handsomely of the Tear, the late King Edward, King He ken, and King Albert, and her criticisms of the Kaiser are tempered with a good deal of appreciation. In regard to her amazing mother, again, she displays a reticence which is entirely to her credit. There are two curious anecdotes, however, worth quoting. Ones given in illustration of the mysterious way in which things happen in Spain, and describes the manner in which Isabella came to the throne :— " When her father, Ferdinand VII., was taken with his final illness, there was a Salle Law in Spain by which his brother Carlos would be his heir and successor. Buten old enmity existed between Don Carlos and my mother's aunt, the Infanta Luisa Carlota. She had said to him, ' You'll never reign.' And he had laughed at her. But when the King was plainly dying of paralysis, she put before him a paper that she had prepared, abolishing the Sane Law; and, placing a pen in his hand, she took hold of his fingers and began to sign his name to the decree. The Prime Minister, Calomarde, seeing what she was doing, put his hand over hers to stop her. She stopped long enough to strike him a blow on the head that dazed him. When he reciovered himself the document had been signed and King Ferdinand was dead. Calomarde bowed gallantly and said to her, in the words of a Spanish proverb, ' A fair hand can do no wrong.' She replied, 'No; but it can strike, sh r And the law against the succession of a won= having been thus repealed, my mother came to the throne, an infant, under the regency of her mother, Queen Maria Cristina, and protected by her aunt. Don Carlos made war upon her, but he was unsuccessful."
This story, the Infanta assures us, was told her by her mother. The other illustrates Queen Isabella's inability to understand the value of money :— " Once, to reward some service, she ordered one of her Ministers to pay a vast sum of money. 'But, your Majesty,' he protested, 'it is a great deal.' Not at all,' she said. 'See that it is paid,' So the Minister secretly sent out instructions that the sum should be brought, to him in coin, and he stacked it on the Queen's writing-table in piles. She asked, • What is all this money for ?' 'That,' he said, 'is the money that your Majesty has ordered me to pay to So-and-so.' She cried, 'Good heavens ! Not all that You are giving him a fortune. Here ; this is enough.' And she took one of the piles and gave it to the Minister, and the rest was sent back."
From her earliest days the Infanta Eulalia was galled by the restrictions which hedge round Royalties in general, and Spanish Royalties in particular. Being of an active, robust, and venturesome disposition, she was in a state of chronic warfare with governesses, ladies-in-waiting, and Court officials. Not infrequently she gained her point, but in the main the system was too strong for her. Her book is not merely an indict- ment of the Oriental seclusion of the Spanish Court, but of the Orientalism of Spanish society, the petrifying influence of Spanish clericalism, and the corruption of Spanish bureau- cracy. A great deal of what she says is borne out by observers who were not born in the purple. Yet though her ultimate emancipation was long deferred, she had her alleviations. During the brief reign of her brother, whom she repre- sents as an enlightened and reforming monarch, she enjoyed a considerable measure of liberty at his Court, and found in him a thoroughly sympathetic companion. Her marriage, though it was founded on convenience rather than affection and ended in estrangement from her husband, had certain indirect advantages. Apart from her affection for her father-in-law, the Due de Montpensier, it enabled her to gratify her desire for travel, enlarged her circle of acquaint- ance, and brought her into more intimate contact with her fellow-beings. It is impossible to regard her as a martyr to the inheritance of majesty, as it is depicted, for instance, in the novel of Louis Couperus, or even as a tragic figure. She was simply a round peg in a square hole, with an inborn die- taste for tradition, a somewhat sceptical mind, and a great desire to do what she pleased. It was her misfortune to be born so near the throne as to share its aloofness without possessing any of its powers. The book is well written, and the Infanta's speculations on the results of the war on the English character will be read with interest. But the best thing in these pages is the delightful story of the parrot with which the Infanta appropriately prefaces the record of her life :-
"Once, when I was making an official visit to the South of Spain with my brother (who was then King), we were told of a gentle- man of the Province of Seville who had had a. talking parrot sent to him from South America; and this parrot had been taught to say ' Viva is Reins! '—that is, 'Long live the Queen !' Soon after its arrival in Seville, however, there was a revolution, and Spain became a republic, and it was not at all comfortable for the gentleman to have a parrot screaming 'Long live the Queen ! ' So be shut it op in a room in his house and sot himself to teach it to cry Viva la Republies!'—' Long live the Republic!' It was very intelligent parrot, and be easily taught it to say • Viva /a Republica!' ; but it had a tenacious memory, and it took him along time before he could be sure that it would always say Viva in Republica!' and never forget its change of politico and cry out, inopportunely, in a voice to be heard by the neighbours, • Viva Is Reins!' Then there was another revolution, and Spain became a monarchy again, sad .everyone shouted Viva el Bey ! Long Eve the King!' And the gentleman carried his parrot back to the closed room, and after many days spent in trying to teach it to cry • Viva el Rey !' he wrung its neck. It was a very valuable parrot, and most intelligent, but it was not sufficiently facile to take a speaking part in Spanish polities of those days. I have remembered this sad story of the parrot because the events of its life were so important to my own. The Queen whom it first supported was my mother, Isabella IL The King on whose account it lost its life was my brother, Alfonso XIL And the Republic (which lasted from 1868 to 1874) was the one that made it possible for me to escape, at least mentally and spiritually, from the prison —very gilded, very Imrarious, but mere guarded than a Bastille— in which Royalty is compelled to live."
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