KING MANUEL.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 289, 30 July 1908, Page 2

KING MANUEL.

That the young King of Portugal will marry before long is, of course,fa necessity of his high position, and, therefore, a foregone conclusion. The mother of a King, unlike the mothers of ordinary young men, takes her son s marriage very seriously. At the present moment Queen Amelie is very anxious to see her son s future settled, and we are told would gladly favour an English Princess. It seems, however, that King Mann el has already settled the rna.tter to his own satisfaction ; that, in fact, he is in love, and has been for some time, with a high-., born Portuguese maiden of great beauty. He declares his intention of making her his wife despite all opposition, and will have no other plans. The young King has, it appears, absolutely refused to listen to what his Royal mother and Ducal uncle call reason. He is, he declares, willing to go to any extreme to have his own way in this matter, even to the extent of abdicating and living the life of a private gentleman. The Portuguese people are not likely to require such a sacrifice on the part of their popular andromantic young King. The powers that guard him have, however, arranged that the maiden in question shall leave Portugal for a time, in the hope that her Royal lover’s ardour may cool down sufficiently to allow him to look at matrimony as becometh a King. A diplomatic marriage that would strengthen his position politically is, of course, the idea of bis elders. But we shall learn later if King Manuel’s love affair is a young man’s passing fancy or something thg.t has gone deeper than reason.