378 CONVERSATIONS WITH A SPANISH LIBE11AL. 



of absolute power, coupled with the personal moderation of the late 

 king towards the constitutionalists in 1823, first led to the formation 

 of a plot by the absolutists to compel him to abdicate and to raise 

 Don Carlos to the throne. Thus you will observe that the aposto- 

 licals see in this prince a principle identified with their own exist- 

 ence ; for had Don Carlos's own wishes been consulted, I verily be- 

 lieve he would have preferred, a life of obscurity to the stormy part 

 he is now enacting, and which a regard to the rights of his sons, 

 rather than any ambitious views of his own, has exacted when too 

 late for action ; for had he on the death of his brother boldly set up 

 his standard, and have offered the same guarantees to the nation as 

 he now does, the aspect of affairs would have been very different. 

 But his flight into Portugal, and his support of the infamous Miguel, 

 ruined his cause." 



" The infamous Miguel, do you say ? You cannot surely have 

 read the flaming panegyric on this prince that has appeared in a 

 recent publication, in which, down to a beard a la Vandyke, he is 

 arrayed in all the attributes of a hero of romance." 



" Difficult as it is," said the Spaniard, " to distinguish truth from 

 falsehood, probability from improbability, in times of civil dissen- 

 sions, when the characters of princes are embellished or disfigured 

 by the pencils of blind and devoted loyalty, or of factious malignity, 

 posterity will nevertheless entertain but one opinion of Miguel's 

 character ; he is a monster, as the following anecdote, which is not 

 generally known, but which I had from authority, will convince you. 



tf Some time after Miguel's return from Brazil he paid a visit to 

 the College of Surgeons at Lisbon. After viewing the various anato- 

 mical subjects it contained, he at length asked if it were possible to 

 kill a person without leaving any traces of violence upon the body. 

 He was told that by introducing the point of sharp instruments into 

 the brain through the mouth it could be done. On receiving this 

 information he was observed to muse for some minutes in the recess 

 of a window. The feelings of the medical men present on that occa- 

 sion may be well imagined, when some time after this conversation 

 the unfortunate Marquis de Louie was found murdered in the 

 identical manner described. Even to him, of whom Louis XVIIIth 

 observed that he was the most ill-bred prince in Europe, his hand- 

 some countenance, and his beard a la Vandyke, may I grant you 

 impart a certain imposing exterior that may captivate a superficial 

 observer, but under this fascinating exterior there lurks the heart of 

 a demon. " Apropos des barbes Have you heard the recent anec- 

 dote of Louis Philippe?" I had not, and he proceeded. 



" During his recent progress through the provinces, the Hotel of 

 the Sous Prefecture of one of the small towns through which he 

 passed was brilliantly illuminated. In the centre of the fa9ade there 

 T*as a large transparency of the King of the Barricades. One of the 

 spectators, well versed in the etiquette of costume, observed with 

 surprise, that the citizen king wore the grand cordon blue of the 

 Order of the Saint Esprit this led to a narrower scrutiny of the pic- 

 ture, when it was discovered to be a full-length portrait of Charles X, 

 converted without ceremony into a Louis Philippe by the addition 



