How Don Carlos Entered Spain.

Manawatu Herald, 16 August 1898, Page 2

How Don Carlos Entered Spain.

In the July number of the Widsor Magazine their appears a most oppor'une article on Don Garbs, and the fortunes of this exiled king. The following is told of his first attempt to win the throne of his ancestors. ■' On the night of May Ist, 1872, a iittle company of men were lying in the grass on the summit of the Pyrenees impatiently awaiting the dawn. They were Oarlisti, who, with great difficulty, had at length found the means of evading the cordon of French soldiers guarding the frontier andfliad crossed to the Spanish si<U>. fa the hour of dawn approach-?], the nigbt grew darker, as often* happens in tho South of France, whoiv, after having shone in the clear heaven until nearly three o'clock, th(< stars seoui suddenly to disappear, as if annoyed at having so awn io give place to the orb of the day. A young man, . jast awakened, felt the pressing necessity whicb always characterises the Spanish vacs — to light a cigarette— for a Spaniard can go without bread, but be cannot go withou.t'smoking j Having no match he turned to his neighbour, and in the still prevailing darkness asked for a light. Willingly hi* neighbour, who had not slept — as one enn well imagine— struck a in-ifeh. By the l%ht of it the young man recognised Don Carlos. 4 Viva el Rf»y. Carlos VII he cried. 1 Viva la E*pana,' joyfully replied thd king. When the day dawned the little company descended the mountain to a borda, one of the am ill Spanish farms in the Pyrenees. Here they expeoted to meet a hundred armed men, but instead they found eighteen and one bayonet ! ( No matter,' said Don Carlos. His followers wished him to re* cro3? the frontier, but he refused energetically. Then this handful of men went twenty four hours without touching food; braving a thousand risks in trying to raise others to join them. A year later the eighteen men had given place to an army of one hundred thousand and Don Carlos commanded in all the North of Spain.