ROMANCE OF THE SPANISH MARRIAGE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LI, Issue 9065, 10 April 1906, Page 3

ROMANCE OF THE SPANISH MARRIAGE.

(Lady's Pictorial, F«b. 10.) As a matter of oauaee, any number of wonderful aod B©n9Ritional stories have been set afloat now the Spanish, marriage is about to beoome an accomplished fact. Some have done doty many times before, and few have the ting of probability, but one little fairy-taSe is so pretty that it will bear tepertibioo, without too dose inquiry ac to its -veracity, especially as quite a majority of King Alfonso's poorer subjets believe in it impliorty. A little while before his JQTJrney his Majesty encountered an old gipsy- woman whose face int-eirested him, and be would.have given her money, but she ptoudly refoised it. "King," she said, "keep yowr money. My race is older than yours. lam the last- of the AJmoravidi, who reigned in. Morocco and the south of Spam in the ©leventh and twelfth centuries. I will give you this piece oi gold." Bo eaying, the gipsy placed to Alfonso's hand a coin with the effigy of Ishag, so© of Tach&Bn, and the last king of the line of Alraoxavidi, who died in 1147. "Preserre this talisman carefully," she warned the young monarch ; "it will shield you from every peril. There exists but- on© similar coin. I gave it to a good and beautiful maiden, who one day rode past me jus* as I had fallen, into a dibch, and had received serious injury to the head. She dJamoanted from her bxxrse ' and bound up the wound with her handkerchief. Thn» who were with her called her 'Highness/ King, if you maawy, do not wed aayoff» boy© *Ws girl. She alone can male* you happy." This oharmia^ legend spread throughout Spam, and many assert prewiveiy tfaat a* the moment of the bomb explosion ia the Rue de RivoJi, Paris, Alfonso XIII. held the coin in his hand' being in the wry act of showing it bo "pWident Lonbefc, and that this fact accounts for both awapimg injury. It is further related tha* white ia England the King discovered that it w» Princess Eno, \*ho possessed the companion coin. Henoe the wedding to come, aod^ all the romance connected witk it. Needless to add, the romantic Spa-manfe would much prefer thai/ all this should be true, and wouW dislike a tsontradiotioo, intensely.