THE BOY KING OF SPAIN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5733, 28 November 1896, Page 1

THE BOY KING OF SPAIN.

In the English Illustrated Magazine a writer writes pleasantly concerning* Alfonso XIII., the boy King of Spain, who is tho youngest sovereign in Europe : — Alfonso XIII., when I saw him first, seated in his carriage, was a pale, thin, and delicate-looting little fellow. With, liis fair hair, inclined to be curly, his blue eye, and his face gentle in its expression of languor, the little king reminded me of that Philip IV. made famous by the pencil of Velasquez. The thin lips were almost bloodless, the features seemed too fatigued to possess any definite expression, except for the far-off look of dreaming and patience in the eyes. He smiled, nevertheless, continuously, and rather drearily, and looked unmistakably bored. He seemed to be going through his afternoon's drive as he would go through any other of his innumerable royal duties, obediently but mechanically. He was dressed in a sailor costume, his head, bare — a small head, moreover, giving no promise of intellect ; and the little boy, looking like ono in the first days of convalescence from some ' almost fatal fever, still smiled mechanically as the carriage rolled slowly on. Alfonso XIII. has an English governess amongst other instructors, but his education is under the direct and personal supervision of his mother. His exalted rank prevents him indulging in the usual sports of boyhood, and one of the stories related of him has a pathetic side in this respect. | Ho was seen one day gazing with uncommon interest out of one of the windows of the royal palace in the direction of the Manzanares. He was asked what he was looking at, and he pointed out a couple of urchins who were busy and happy making mud-pies, and Alfonso XIII. begged, even with tears in his eyes, to be allowed to go and make mud-pies with them. He was little consoled by the information that etiquette forbade kings to indulge in pastimes so unexalted. At other times Alfonso takes his monarchy more seriously, and frequently clinches an argument by announcing autocratically, " I am the King." Not long ago the King was taken to his first bull-fight. He was much pleased at first with the pomp and glitter and gorgeous pageantry that the southern races know so well how to make effective, but when it came to the bull goring the defenceless horses with his " spears " — as they call the horns in bull-ring parlance — Alfonso turned pale, became much terrified and demanded to be taken home. This display of aversion to the national sport of Spain made an unfavourable impression on the populace.