THE BIRTH OF THE SPANISH INFANTA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 252, 15 December 1880, Page 4

THE BIRTH OF THE SPANISH INFANTA

The New York Times," -after a detailed account of all the anticipations of and preparations for the birth of a Prince of the Asturias as heir to. the throne of Spain, gives the following description of the birth of the infant°: — "The eventful day at last arrived. The Prime Minister, who had been sleeping for a week in the back kitchen, so as to be handy in case of an emergency, was aroused at half past 2 p.m., and mounting his horse, rode at a terrific pace to summon the doctor. Sixtyfour Cabinet Ministers and eminent grandees were summoned by the District Telegraph messengers, and rushed to the palace in hot haste, and they were assembled in tho front parlor, where they were supplied with gingerbread and lemonade, and passed six consecutive and very tedious hours, etiquette forbidding them to read newspapers or to employ their time in any way except by looking at the family photograph album and tho Spanish Patent Office reports. At length a joyful blast on the cornet — which was played by the Queen's private chaplain — announced that the happy moment had arrived and that Spain had an heir to the throne of the Bourbons. Twenty minutes later tho King entered the room, carrying a gold platter in his hand, on which was laid the new prince 9 carefully wrapped up in an Afghan made for the purpose by his grandmother, Isabella. The sixty-four Cabinet Ministers and grandees sprang up,

I bowed in that courtly manner with j which the artists of the oper.'v-boiiffe j have familiarised Us, and shouted with one accord, ' Long live the prince/ They, then crowded round the platter and remarked what a manly little fellow the prince was, and how strikingly lie tesembled his father, and swore that he had the same expression of mouth. as the late Charles V., and that, on the whole, he was just such a prince .as they had expected. "What was , their ittismay when the King, with many blushes and much hesitation, managed to say, ' Thank you very much, but it's : a girl, you know.' An awful silence fell oh the assembly. One by one they solemnly climbed out of the window — as Spanish etiquette forbids a subject to go out of a door when the sovereign is present — and went home. The news spread -rapidly, and as the Spaniards learned that the expected prince was a girl, their discontent found expression in loud murmurs, and a half-a-dozen leading assassins went home to clean their guns and make ready to relieve their feelings by a shot at the King. It has certainly been a most unfortunate affair. True, it is a mistake which can be remedied at a comparatively early {late, but the obstinacy of the German mind is proverbial, and no one can feel sure what course the Queen will see fit ,to adopt. In the meantime, the seventy-" ;five thousand dollars' worth of presents suited only for a prince, are to be sold for what they will bring, and the King is understood to have taken to smoking the strongest cigars, and to be plunged in melancholy."