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Show THE THORNS OF ROYALTY. Few people in this country have any idea of llio suffering Avhirh royal personages have to endure in Europe from the lack of privacy inherent in their rank. An extraodinary illustration thereof was furnished the other day at .Madrid on the occasion of the particularly sad death of the king of. Spain's elder sister, the -'2-year-old prince.-..-? of the Asturias, who succumbed to failure of the heart forty-eight hours after giving premature birth to an infanta. If ever people yearn for privacy it is when gathered around the death bed of a dearly loved daughter, wife, and sister to receive her last fare-avcII. fare-avcII. Queen Christina, King Alfonso, the Infanta Haria Theresa and Don Carlos of Bourbon, husband hus-band of the dying Avoman, Avere thus assembled affpr the princess had received absolution from the father confessor of the family, Avhen suddenly the great folding doors of the apartment Avere throAvn open, and, escorted by the halberdiers of the royal guard, the grand almoner of the court, followed by all the canons and dignitaries of the chapel royal, some forty in number, by all the grand dignitaries dig-nitaries of the court and officials of the royal household, house-hold, and by all the grandees, men ami women, Avho happened to be apprised in time of the impending ceremony, marched into the death chamber, each bearing a lighted candle. All dropped on their knees, the halberdiers as avcII as the others, and after administering the viaticum the grand almoner commenced to recite the prayers for the dying, to Avhich the responses Avere made by the attendant. . clergy and by all others present. Before twenty miiiutes had gone by the princess had passed away. While the scene Avas solemn, yet the presence of that vast crowd of people, some of them comparative compara-tive strangers and barely known to the royal family, at such a moment must haA'e added to the distress of the bereaved huband, mother and other rela- ,jj : tiAes. They avouM naturally haA-e preferred that the young princess should haAC been left to them and to their family chaplain and trusted spiritual adviser during those last sad moments. But. the inexorable laws of Spanish court etiquette eti-quette require that it should be otherwise, and that Avhen a member of the royal family is about to die and sometimes the death agony is terrible to behold, be-hold, though it Avas not so in the case of the princess of the Asturias all the dignitaries of the court, all the guards on duty, the servants of the palace, Jnd all the noblemen and noblcAvomen of grandee rank Avho may happen to be at the palace should haAe the right to put in an appearance around the royal death bed and to Avitness the royal demise. It is in keeping Avith those other barbaric customs cus-toms which exact that the corpse of Spanish royalty should be reduced to the condition of a mummy by not merely months but years of exposure to the dry atmosphere of the vaults cut in the rock on which the palace of the Escurial is built before being be-ing laid to their last rest in the tomb that forms a feature of the palace mausoleum and church ; Avhieh requires the presence of all sorts of great dignitaries digni-taries of state at royal births, to safeguard against any danger of supposition, and Avhich at Vienna, at Dresden, at llunich. etc., demand that the heart. Q the viscera, and the brain of the royal dead should """ be consigned to the care of other churches and cathedrals ca-thedrals than those Ahere the mutilated body is laid. The existence of royalty is marred by many thorns, and one cannot feel astonished that they should sometimes express their eagerness to barter all the advantages of their rank for those enjoyed by even the humblest peasantly name: privacy and immunity from the Liaas of court etiquette. |
