In the hope of regaining his strength he had gone to the baths of Santa
Aguada, at Guesalibar, on the Bay of Biscay, not far from San Sebastian,
where the court is summering.

[Illustration: Senor Canovas]

He was sitting reading his paper in the grounds of the bath-house when
he was shot and killed by an Italian ruffian.

In Senor Canovas, Spain has lost one of her greatest statesmen. It was
he who put Alfonso XII., the father of the present king, on the throne
of Spain.

During his whole career Spain has been the scene of many stormy trials.

In 1868 the people forced the old Queen, Isabella II., to resign the
throne. She was a very wicked woman, and did so many bad things that the
people would not be disgraced by her any longer. They rose against her,
and she was obliged to flee to France to seek the protection of Napoleon
III.

On her departure a council was appointed to choose a new sovereign.
There were several claimants, among them Alfonso, the son of the deposed
Isabella, and Don Carlos, the grandson of Don Carlos I. (See p. 563.)

The council rejected all the candidates, and chose a German prince.
Napoleon III. objected on Queen Isabella's account; the Germans were
incensed at his interference, and the argument that followed gave rise
to the Franco-German War in 1870.

The Spanish council, disappointed of their German prince, finally chose
a son of Victor Emmanuel of Italy, and made him King of Spain under the
title of Amadeus I.

The new King did not take kindly to his throne. The Carlists were
striving to gain the crown for their candidate, and the country was
plunged into the horrors of a civil war.

After a reign of two years and one month Amadeus abdicated and went back
to Italy, disgusted with the honors that had been thrust upon him.

This did not help the Carlists. A republic was declared which lasted
until 1874. In August of that year the republic was formally
acknowledged by all the countries of Europe except Russia, and in the
following December the people changed their minds once more, and
Alfonso, the son of Isabella, was proclaimed King by the Republican
armies.

Alfonso reigned eleven years, and died in the winter of 1885. In the
spring of 1886 the young King was born, his mother, Maria Christina of
Austria, was declared Regent, and will continue to govern the country
for the young Alfonso XIII. until he is old enough to take care of the
country himself.

During all these troublo