But
That Which Made The Most Profound Impression Upon Me, Was The
Manner Of The Minister Himself, Who, When I
Entered, sat upon a
sofa, with his arms folded, and his eyes directed to the ground.
When he spoke there
Was extreme depression in the tones of his
voice, his dark features wore an air of melancholy, and he
exhibited all the appearance of a person meditating to escape from
the miseries of this life by the most desperate of all acts -
suicide.
And a few days showed that he had, indeed, cause for much
melancholy meditation: in less than a week occurred the revolution
of the Granja, as it is called. The Granja, or Grange, is a royal
country seat, situated amongst pine forests, on the other side of
the Guadarama hills, about twelve leagues distant from Madrid. To
this place the queen regent Christina had retired, in order to be
aloof from the discontent of the capital, and to enjoy rural air
and amusements in this celebrated retreat, a monument of the taste
and magnificence of the first Bourbon who ascended the throne of
Spain. She was not, however, permitted to remain long in
tranquillity; her own guards were disaffected, and more inclined to
the principles of the constitution of 1823 than to those of
absolute monarchy, which the moderados were attempting to revive
again in the government of Spain. Early one morning, a party of
these soldiers, headed by a certain Sergeant Garcia, entered her
apartment, and proposed that she should subscribe her hand to this
constitution, and swear solemnly to abide by it. Christina,
however, who was a woman of considerable spirit, refused to comply
with this proposal, and ordered them to withdraw. A scene of
violence and tumult ensued, but the regent still continuing firm,
the soldiers at length led her down to one of the courts of the
palace, where stood her well-known paramour, Munos, bound and
blindfolded. "Swear to the constitution, you she-rogue,"
vociferated the swarthy sergeant. "Never!" said the spirited
daughter of the Neapolitan Bourbons. "Then your cortejo shall
die!" replied the sergeant. "Ho! ho! my lads; get ready your arms,
and send four bullets through the fellow's brain." Munos was
forthwith led to the wall, and compelled to kneel down, the
soldiers levelled their muskets and another moment would have
consigned the unfortunate wight to eternity, when Christina,
forgetting everything but the feelings of her woman's heart,
suddenly started forward with a shriek, exclaiming: "Hold, hold!
I sign, I sign!"
The day after this event I entered the Puerta del Sol at about
noon. There is always a crowd there about this hour, but it is
generally a very quiet motionless crowd, consisting of listless
idlers calmly smoking their cigars, or listening to or retailing
the - in general - very dull news of the capital; but on the day of
which I am speaking the mass was no longer inert. There was much
gesticulation and vociferation, and several people were running
about shouting, "Viva la constitucion!" - a cry which, a few days
previously, would have been visited on the utterer with death, the
city having for some weeks past been subjected to the rigour of
martial law.
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