* * * * *

THE LATE KING OF SPAIN.--A Madrid correspondent gives an account of the
ceremony at the Escuriel, on the occasion of the funeral of the King of
Spain. "The procession from the station," he writes, "wound slowly up
the hill to the monastery. When the funeral car reached the principal
door it was closed. The Lord Chamberlain knocked for admittance. A voice
inside asked, 'Who wishes to enter?' The answer given was 'Alfonso XII.'
The doors were then thrown open. The prior of the monastery appeared.
The body was carried into the church and placed on a raised bier before
the high altar. The coffin was then covered with the four cloaks of the
noble orders. A thousand tapers were lighted, and the church assumed a
magnificent appearance. Black hangings embossed with the arms of Spain
covered the stone walls. The Mass was said and the _Miserere_ sung. The
coffin was raised once more and carried to the entrance of the stairs
leading down to the vaults. No one descended there," continues the
correspondent, "except the Prior, the Minister of Grace and Justice, and
the Lord Chamberlain. The coffin was placed on a table in a magnificent
black marble vault, in which the kings of Spain lie in huge marble tombs
all around. Now came the most thrilling part of the ceremony. The Lord
Chamberlain unlocked the coffin, which was covered with cloth of gold,
raised the glass covering from the King's face, then, after requesting
perfect silence, knelt down and shouted three times in the dead
monarch's ear, '_Senor_, _Senor_, _Senor!_' Those waiting in the church
upstairs heard the call, which was like a cry of despair, for it came
from the lips of the Duke of Sexto, the King's favorite companion. The
duke then rose, saying, according to the ritual, His majesty does not
answer. Then it is true, the King is dead." He locked the coffin,
handed the keys to the prior, and, taking up his wand of office broke it
in his hand and flung the pieces at the foot of the table. Then every
one left the monastery, as the bells tolled, and the guns announced to
the people that Alfonso XII. had been laid with his ancestors in the
gloomy pile of Philip II.

* * * * *

The Catholic committees of the north of France, assembled in Congress at
Lille, have addressed to the Pope a letter of adhesion to the
Encyclical, in which the whole teaching of the Papal document is
recapitulated at considerab