The secret history of the court of Spain during the last centuryChallice, Rachel
History
The secret history of the court of Spain during the last century
Challice, Rachel
Spain -- Court and courtiers; Spain -- History -- Bourbons, 1700-
Long inquiry and investigation never revealed convincingly the hand
that shot the General in the street. It was supposed by some to have
been a partisan of an unsuccessful candidate to the throne; others
think it was a gipsy, who did it as a deed of outlawry. Be that as it
may, strong suspicion fell upon Señor Paul y Angulo, who expressed his
indignation strongly in the prologue to his paper on “Revolutionary
Truths”:
“The sacrifices that I have made for my country have been no light
matters, and all I have in return is to find myself obliged to leave my
poor country, to be the victim of vile calumniators, and to have to fly
from persecution as if I were some horrible criminal.”
Prim’s death was accompanied with much suffering, for some of his
fingers were so seriously injured by the shot, it was thought that
their amputation would save his life. But the operation was in vain,
and the General died in two days, just as Amadeus landed at Carthagena.
When the sad news reached the new King, that his ardent supporter had
fallen a martyr to his cause, he said:
“Gentlemen, my duty is clear: I must go on to Madrid.”
Arrived at the Spanish capital on January 2, 1871, where a fall of snow
added gloom to the occasion, Amadeus at once repaired to the Church of
Atocha, to pay his respects to the remains of the man to whom he mainly
owed the throne of Spain.
As the young King gazed at the corpse of the great leader, who had
inspired trust and confidence in all with whom he came in contact, he
prayed for strength to be able to fulfil the hopes which the Spaniard
had directed to himself. With Prim, the pioneer of Liberty in Spain,
young Amadeus, who had fought for the same cause in his own country,
had always felt in sympathy.
Those who had suffered for their religious opinions had looked to the
great soldier as the herald of a new era. Juan Cabrera, the leader
of the Protestant movement, who had fled to Gibraltar for fear of
imprisonment, and there led a life of exile and hardship, hastened to
meet Prim after the _coup_ which put Spain practically in his hands.
“May I return to my country?” asked Cabrera, when he saw him at
Gibraltar.
“Yes, yes, my man,” replied the General, whilst fixing his keen eyes on
the Protestant’s face, worn with study and anxiety, “you can go back to
Spain now with your Bible under your arm.”
And this the preacher of the reformed faith found to be true, for
Spain had no longer to fear the active persecution of those who
resisted the introduction of the Bible into their land.
As Amadeus gazed at the features of the General, set in death, he
sighed deeply in sorrow at his loss, and when he arrived at the royal
palace, the magnificent setting of so many scenes of struggle for
supremacy in the country, he sat down wearily, and said:
“I feel sure that my loyalty will not be able to save Spain from the
fury of contending factions.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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