1830.] Secrets of the Court of Charles the Fourth of Spain. 197 



moment he felt himself locked in the embrace of his unknown benefac- 

 tress ! 



******* 



The lady, whose kindness renewed life's charter to the grateful 

 Manoel, although considerably above forty, bore a prepossessing appear- 

 ance, but in, his eyes she appeared an angel; it should, however, be 

 recollected, that she was the first of her sex with whom the warm, 

 impassioned boy had conversed, since his expulsion from the paradise of 

 the convent, his raptures therefore were natural enough at his period of 

 life. 



The following morning's first light saw Don Manoel on his road to the 

 Escurial, attended by two servants, who appeared ready to anticipate 

 his wants and wishes. Arrived within the gloomy gates of that little 

 world of masonry and window, the thoughts of the church, the shaven 

 crown, and sable robe, once more cast a gloom over his handsome 

 countenance ; but it was as the fleeting cloud passing over the brilliant 

 sun for the lively remarks of his attendants soon convinced him that 

 his mode of life was to be any thing but one of monastic seclusion. He 

 was conducted into a suite of comfortable apartments, amongst the 

 several thousands which this vast pile contains ; and informed that 

 horses for exercise were at all times at his command that he had 

 but to name his wishes for ought he might require, whether for improve- 

 ment or for pleasure, and they should be complied with. Such a change 

 in his fate would have turned the brain of the delighted youth, did not 

 the horrors of his two years' solitary confinement perpetually flit before 

 his memory with dreadful recollections, and act as a rebuking monitor 

 to his vanity and his passions. Two years passed away in this state of 

 uninterrupted pleasure ; his tutelar divinity visited him at intervals ; 

 but he could not fail to observe that immediately before her arrivals 

 and departure, means were taken by his attendants to confine him to the 

 remote corner of the quadrangle in which apartments had been assigned 

 to him. He became perfect in the accomplishments of riding, fencing, 

 and dancing, nor was he inattentive to the pleasures to be derived from 

 reading : he had long since shaken off the cumbrous rust of his early 

 education, and indulged in the full range of history and modern litera- 

 ture. At length, at the end of these two years of probation, it was . 

 announced to him that he had been honoured with the appointment of 

 one of the Chamberlains of the Palace through the intercession of his 

 patroness, and his immediate appearance at the court of Madrid became 

 necessary.. He was accordingly conducted with secrecy to the capital, 

 and re-lodged in his former apartments, which, to his amazement, he 

 discovered were a portion of the Royal Palace ; he found his splendid 

 uniform already prepared. On the appointed day, the handsome Manoel, 

 with palpitating heart, attended on the nobleman who was to honour 

 him with an introduction to the Prince of Peace he trembled with an 

 indefinable feeling of terror as that all-powerful minister scanned with 

 piercing eye his whole person and appearance: his fears, however, 

 vanished, as the prince, with that appearance of warm kindness, which 

 he could so well assume, presented him with the massy golden key, 

 and ivory wand, those badges of his courtly office, and directed him 

 to follow in his train to the grand saloon, to kneel before his sovereign 

 and the queen. While endeavouring to collect his agitated senses for the 

 new and dazzling scene in which he had to perform a part, one of the 



