is advice. As she was
nearing the entrance to the barracks she met a crowd. She asked what was
happening. A bystander said, "The mutineers have just murdered the Count
of Mirasol. There he lies." Poor woman. Sad world, indeed.

CHAPTER VI

WITH DON CARLOS AGAIN

When I left Don Carlos in Spain after my visit to his Army I little
thought that we were again to come into close touch and I was to spend
much time with him and my cousin, Pepe Ponce de Leon, his A.D.C. It was a
few days after I had received my commission and I was enjoying my leave
previous to joining up at Woolwich in April (1876), when (I think it was
the morning of March 8) I received a telegram from the War Office asking
me to call there as soon as possible.

As, for the next four or five months, I was a great deal with Don Carlos
in London and in France, I think it will be of interest to my readers if
I describe shortly the validity, or otherwise, of his claim to the throne
of Spain. Ferdinand VII of Spain, when an old man, married in 1830 Dona
Maria Cristina, a young girl, sister of Dona Carlota, wife of his
brother, Francisco de Paula. Cristina was not only young but also clever
and beautiful. Contrary to expectation, it was announced later on that
the Queen was about to become a mother. If the expected child was a son,
then of course that son would be the heir to the throne. If it was a
daughter, the question of her right to the succession would arise! In
1713 Philip V had applied the Salic Law; Carlos IV had repealed it in
1789. Now Don Carlos, brother of Ferdinand VII, had been born in 1788 and
therefore claimed the succession in case his brother Ferdinand died
without male issue. On October 10, 1830, Cristina gave birth to a girl,
the Infanta Isabella. In March of that same year Ferdinand had made a
will bequeathing the Crown of Spain to the child about to be born,
whether male or female.

Ferdinand, who had become very ill, fell again under the influence of the
clerics and of the supporters of his brother, Don Carlos, who induced him
to revoke his will. However, to the surprise of everybody, Ferdinand
recovered, and under the direct influence of Dona Carlota, Cristina's
sister, he tore up the document and, before a representative assembly of
his Ministers of State, swore that he had repealed his will only under
direct pressure while sick to death. Ferdinand's illness had become so
severe that Cristina was appointed Regent, and acted as