By public prints of weight and information, it has been estimated,
that during Don Enrique's brief stay at Paris, he indignantly
rejected certain friendly overtures made to him by the King of
the French. The nature of these overtures can, of course, only be
conjectured. Perhaps, indeed, they were but a stratagem, employed
by the wily monarch to detain his young cousin at Paris, that the
apparent good understanding between them might damp the courage
of the national party in Spain, and win the wavering to look with
favour upon the French marriage. There can be little question
that in the eyes of Louis Philippe, as well as of Christina, Don
Francisco is a far more eligible husband for the Queen than his
brother would have been, even had the latter given his adhesion to
the project of the Montpensier alliance. Rumour--often, it is true,
a lying jade--maintained that at Paris he firmly refused to do so.
She now whispers that at Brussels he has been found more pliant,
and that, within a brief delay, the happy family at Madrid will be
gratified by the return of that truant and mutinous mariner, Don
Enrique de Borbon, who, after he has been duly scolded and kissed,
will doubtless be made Lord High Admiral, or rewarded in some
equally appropriate way for his tardy docility. We vouch not for
the truth of this report; but shall be noway surprised if events
speedily prove it well founded. Men there are with whom the love
of country is so intense, that they would rather live despised in
their own land than respected in a foreign one. And when, to such
flimsy Will-o'-the-wisp considerations as the esteem and love of
a nation, are opposed rank, money, and decorations, a palace to
live in, sumptuous fare, and a well-filled purse, and perhaps,
ere long, a wealthy bride, who would hesitate? If any would, seek
them not amongst the Bourbons. Loath indeed should we be to pledge
ourselves for the consistency and patriotism of a man whose uncle
and grandfather betrayed their country to a foreign usurper. The
fruit of a corrupt and rotten stem must ever be looked upon with
suspicion. It is the more prized when perchance it proves sound and
wholesome.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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