THE KING OF SPAIN.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1772, 24 October 1879, Page 2

THE KING OF SPAIN.

King Alfonso has gone to Arcachon to meet the Austrian Archduchess Marie Christine, whom it is expected ho will marry in November next. For months past rumours have prevailed as to this second marriage of the King, and as to who would be the bride. Some reports, as far back as the month of February, had mentioned the Austrian Archduchess Marie Christine Henrietta Desiree, daughter of an uncle of the present Empei or by his marriage with a Princess Palatine of Hungary. The young Archduchess was born in 1858, and is consequently now of full ago. She lost her father six years ago. Her mother, the Archduchess Elizabeth Fransoiso Marie, was born January 17th, 1831, and was a widow of the Archduke Ferdinand Victor, of Bate, when she married the Archduke Charles Ferdinand, of Hapsburg, cn April 181 h, 1854. Of this marriage were issue four children, still living. In direct descent the father of the future Queen of Spain was a grandson of the Emperor Leopold, of Austria, who married the Infanta Maria Luisa, daughter of the most famed of the Bourbon Kings, Charles 111. Tho Archduchess had entered one of the orders of Chanoinossos, which exist in Prague for ladies of noble birth, and she is abbess of her chapter, though not bound to remain in the order lor life, no vows being required in these lay establishments. Within tneir walls, in both Austria and Q-ormany, tho daughters of noble families lead a life of quiot and agreeable seclusion, returning to society when they choose, and free to marry as they like. Each lady in the house of Prague enjoyed an income of twelve hundred marks a year, and the Archduchess possessed about fifteen thousand. It was in this peaceful existence, apart from the gay capital of Austria, and away from tho brilliant Court of the Hapsburghs, that the Princess was one day startled with, the intelligence that tho Ministers of King Alfonso had cast their eyes on her as the successor to Queen Mercedes. It seems that when the Archduchess got tho first intimation she was very irresolute, as it came so soon after tho whole of Europe had been touched and painfully interested by the untimely and premature death of Queen Mercedes. Tho idea of an Austrian alliance had been originated by Don Manuel Silvela, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Oanovaa del Castillo Cabinet. Arcachon, where they have mot, is a sort of Brighton for Bordeaux. Several trains every day take the people down in loss than two hours, and on Sundays thousands of tho lower and middle classes from Bordeaux change the place into a sort of Bushey Park on Whit-Monday. Arcachon is composed of two towns; one, the older, built on the beach close to the large salt water lake, called Bassin d’Aroachon. The panorama is best from this lough, as you have before yon, first, the long row of villas, built at tho edge of high water, each in ita

own grounds, and unlike in architecture; behind them, peeping from the pine woods, is the rest of the town, three miles long. High above, on the dunes or sand fulls m the noble forest, one can descry the Casino, a splendid Moorish building standing in a beautiful garden, and hundreds of villas, whose roofs dot, here and there, the vast unbroken surface of eombretinted woods, in which, at all seasons, the wind moans and sings. Upon the beach tiny ■waves ripple on the fine sands, for the ocean is far away, but its distant roar can be heard in the pine woods that shut it from our view. The largo saltwater lake is of great value for its oyster beds, and in winter it affords splendid sport for gun and net, as waterfowl, duck, and snipe abound on its shores. The woods also, in autumn, arc alivo with with wild pigeons, and clouds of birds going south. A mild climato and its salubrious pins forest made Arcaohon a few years ago become famous as a winter retreat for invalids, and the enterprising Pereires family created the Villo d’Hiver, which now possesses more than 200 chalets, close to the shrine of the Virgin, where forty years ago mariners used to come and deposit their votive offerings.