SPAIN. 



707 



these disturbances, for which ho claimed a 

 reactionary origin ; but, respecting the wish 

 again expressed on this occasion by the Provi- 

 sional Government, he immediately returned 

 to Portugal. In the following letter, addressed 

 to the Politico,, a Madrid newspaper, the Duke 

 publicly explained his views : 



ESTEEMED SIR : I had resolved to observe an abso- 

 lute silence as long as the transitory situation of our 

 country should last, till its definitive termination. 

 The excitations of the press, sometimes hostile and 

 sometimes favorable, the manifestations of which 

 have assumed a personal character to which I cannot 

 remain indifferent, have sufficed to induce me to 

 change my intentions. I have thought that the 

 Infanta and myself ought to make public, as our last 

 word, the manifesto we addressed to the Provisional 

 Government on October 30th, which ended by the 

 declaration : " We are willing to respect all the reso- 

 lutions arrived at by the national vote, the legitimate 

 source of political rights in free countries." You 

 will remark that there is not a single reserve in that 

 frank and loyal manifestation. Spain, whatever may 

 be her form of government, would reckon us among 

 her citizens ; we should serve her, if we could be 

 useful to her, and forever and in all circumstances, 

 our hearts will share her fortunes and her misfor- 

 tunes. But if my resolution to remain silent bas 

 been unshaken till now, if I have been able to bear 

 witb patience tbe absurd fables invented against us, 

 I am in duty bound not to consent tbat tbe feeling or 

 patriotic abnegation tbat, in spite of our wishes, 

 would have kept us at tbe mouth of tbe Tagus till 

 tbe day wben, thinking tbat tbe freedom of Spain 

 was endangered in Andalusia, I came to offer my 

 sword to tne Provisional Government, should be 

 construed as a want of sympathy for the complete 

 regeneration of our country. Tbat step of mine 

 having met the approval of some and the censure of 

 others, I find myself in tbe imperious necessity of 

 explaining it. Absent from Spainj but without hav- 

 ing been prohibited from reentering her territory, 

 and belonging to tbe Spanish army, I felt it was both 

 my duty and my rigbt to offer my services, should 

 the passing events require it. I learned what had 

 occurred at Cadiz, and judging the seriousness of 

 those events by the narrations and the telegrams 

 published in the newspapers, I concluded, with the 

 aid of the information I possessed, that perhaps 

 those events were the result of a combination be- 

 tween the several elements opposed to the revolution, 

 and I thought my duty was to proceed to the point 

 of junction of the army forces to place myself at the 

 disposal of the Government. In the conviction that 

 it was more honorable in a soldier to wait for orders 

 at the immediate centre of danger rather than at a 

 long distance, I did not think necessary to officially 

 announce my voyage before having arrived on the 

 field of action. Another consideration confirmed me 

 in my views that, if events had been decided and 

 order restored before having reported myself to the 

 governor-in-chief to offer to him my services and 

 accept the post assigned to me, I should be able to 

 return to Lisbon without having taken any official 

 step which could be possibly taxed with vainglory 

 and useless offer of service. My prevision was well 

 founded, for on my arrival at Cordova I learned that 

 the events of Cadiz were on the point of having a 

 favorable issue. I learned also that there were no 

 reactionary elements to fight against, and my duty 

 being to abstain from any interference in the con- 

 flicts between the Liberal parties conflicts which I 

 deplore I immediately returned to Lisbon. My last 

 step being explained, I must tender my thanks to all 

 the members of the press who have justified it ac- 

 cording to their own inspiration. To those who have 

 censured it I will only say that, when I crossed the 

 frontier to offer my services as a citizen, I exercised 



a right, and I fulfilled my duty as a soldier ; and it 

 is lamentable that, in a free country, there should be 

 persons who reprobate the exercise of rights and the 

 performance or duties. My task might terminate 

 here 5 however, now that I have broken the silence I 

 had imposed on myself, I believe it is better not to 

 throw the pen aside without refuting certain un- 

 founded accusations concerning events anterior to 

 the revolution of September. Among other things 

 is has been circulated that we had seen with indif- 

 ference from our retreat at San Telmo the accom- 

 plishment of the events which had caused the deepest 

 sensation hi Spain. The allegation is completely 

 false. If I did not take part in the war in Africa in 

 1859, most certainly it was not my fault. Official 

 documents show that I did crave at that time the 

 honor of pouring out my blood for my adopted 

 country, as I had done in 1844 for the defence of the 

 interests of France on the very same African soil^ at 

 the head of a company of brave Spaniards belonging 

 to the Foreign Legion. One must remember, also, 

 that in 1866, when many agitators of nowadays did 

 not show any sign of life, the Infanta, at the peril of 

 her life, on account of the state of her health, after 

 having unsuccessfully demanded an amnesty, under- 

 took to travel to Madrid, to give to the court liberal 

 counsels ; she was only requested not to utter any 

 other word relating to politics. We have been also 

 accused by some or being fanatic, by others of being 

 atheists ; therefore we must be very explicit upon 

 that point. We, fervent Catholics, who have been 

 able to publicly fulfil our religious duties in the An- 

 glican town of London, in the Evangelical city of 

 Edinburgh, in the Calvinistic city of Geneva we do 

 not understand that those, not belonging to the 

 religion we deem the true one, possess, for that rea- 

 son, in our beloved country, less liberty than we 

 found in other nations. I conclude, because I in- 

 tended to write a refutation and not a programme of 

 political principles. It is enough for me to express, 

 clearly and peremptorily, that I do share those which 

 have been proclaimed by the revolution and wel- 

 comed by the nation. By authorizing you to publish 

 my letter, in the exercise of a right now practised in 

 our country, which, among other liberties, enjoys 

 the freedom of the press, I nave only to assure you 

 that I have no anibition, and that I have only re- 

 solved, perfectly and entirely, to continue to belong 

 to the new Spain to the free Spain. 



(Signed) ANTOINE D'OELEANS. 



LISBON, December 19, 1868. 



The aspiration of the Duke de Montperisier 

 found a very determined opponent in the In- 

 fante Don Henry de Bourbon (a brother of the 

 King), who addressed to the Provisional Gov- 

 ernment the following curious letter : 



GENTLEMEN : When I observe the feverish ambition 

 which devours the Duke de Montpensier; when I 

 witness the explosion of pretensions hatched for many 

 a year to take possession of the monarchical power in 

 Spain in Spain, free and independent, to which he 

 returned without honor as a fugitive, when his father, 

 Louis Philippe, fell from the throne by that provi- 

 dential justice which marks chastisement on the brow 

 of certain kings ; when everybody knows that he has 

 no title and no right to our country, so jealous of its 

 dignity, more than the hospitality which all civilized 

 people accord to those who take refuge in it when 

 driven from their own ; when I examine this stranger, 

 a prince without energy or elevation of character, and 

 so full of vanity and selfishness that he thinks every 

 thing due to him, and that no one in the world should 

 refuse him the distinguished honor of becoming his 

 courtier ; when his cupidity accepts with one hand 

 the gifts and favors of Isabella II. , and when, ungrate- 

 ful and traitorous, he strives with the other to usurp 

 the place of his benefactors who reposed full confi- 

 dence in him ; when I see him coldly speculating at 



