THE QUEEN OF SPAIN'S BOGUS BABY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 89, 14 April 1908, Page 2

THE QUEEN OF SPAIN'S BOGUS BABY.

. The King and Queen of Spain live in almost hourly danger of assassination by anarchists, a fact that'has been demonstrated again and again by actual occurrences. ; Whenever they venture on a journey of any length they are uTparticuiary great danger, because it is almost impossible to protect them against murderous missiles along a line extending perhaps for hundreds ol miles and through several countries.

When the King and Queen decided recently to pay a visit to England, a terrible question confronted them. They wanted to take their baby son, the only successor in the male line to the throne of Spain, with them. They were warned by the police that an anarchist outrage would probably be attempted against them on the way to. the station in Madrid^ Should they expose their child to the danger of being blown to pieces? No. . The idea was unendurable. After an anxious council between £• V mg- and Queen and various high officials, an ingenious plan was devised to save the royal baby from danger. It was decided to substitute another baby for him. Tfie child of a servant of the palace,, born within a few days of the King's son and bearing a strong resemblance to him, was chosen for this purpose. When the King and Queen left1 the

royal palace at Madrid there was, of course, a cortege of carriages to convey them and suite to the station. The start was made early in tlie morning. In the first carriage rode, the King and Queen; After them,, came the Countess del Pureto, the lady-in-waitirig, who' usually! has charge of the Prince of the Asturias, as the royal baby is called. She carried the baby in her arms, and was > accompanied by two regular nurses. All of them entered the second royal carriage. The Countess displayed the baby freely to the people, who cheered, lustily. The police shadowed all notorious anarchists and kept them away from the procession. Six suspicious characters noticed along the line of route were arrested. Probably these miscreants never suspected that had thpy thrown a bomb at the baby's carriage they would have killed the child of a poor man working hard for slender

wages

By keeping the child at a reasonable distance from themselves, ,the King and Queen lessened the danger of the little one, for presumably an attack have been directed against the King in the first place. It must have been an : anxious ride for the pair. The King, who at one time showed an almost frivolous indifference to the acts of the anarchists, has grown anxious recently, on account of the danger to his wife and child. - ..''

! As the carriage drove rapidly along, he glanced uneasily from side to side, politely acknowledging the cheers of the populace, but uncertain whether a deadly missile would come with the cheers. Wherever he looked, two or more policemen would gro^ busy, restraining those who pressed too far j forward and keeping a close eye on i those of anarchistic aspect. When the station was at last reach!ed the King and Queen entered first. After them came the Countess del Pureto with the royal baby, whom she with the' same ostentation as during the whole procession. Before entering the station she held up the baby once fore and the people cried: ; "Long live the Prince of the ! Asturias!"

The bogus baby was taken on board the special train and began the journey with the King and Queen. It is said that on the way to the French frontier the substitute baby was replaced by a life-sized doll baby, which made a good enough appearance during brief trips between boats and trains and gave less trouble than the live one. The useful substitute baby was quietly returned to his parents in Madrid.

When had fallen on the day of the royal departure from Madrid another party set out from the palace. It consisted of another lady of the Court, a baby and two nurses. They rode _in a very unpretentious closed carriage. The baby they carried was the Prince of the Asturias. No. soldiers lined the route, no cheering crowds greeted him, but he made the journey in perfect safety. The small party reached the station without attracting any attention, and there they entered not a special train,' but just a special car, and started on their journey to England. The substitution of an ordinary baby for the royal Prince was .afterwards officially acknowledged. When the King and Queen were in England the people were never quite sure whether they saw the royal baby.or not, when a blonde infant, accompanied by a suite of Spanish land English nurses, was ostentatiously paraded in Kensington Gardens.

The English police were extremely fearful that an attempt would be made on the King or his family at this time. Ordinarily few anarchist outrages are committed in England, for the peculiar reason that they have been left undisturbed in that country and permitted to make it a headquarters for operations against the Continent. But on this occasion, when about half tffe rulers of the Continent^ were in England, the anarchists must have been tempted to depart from their-usual rule.