FUNERAL OF KING ALFONSO.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2111, 19 January 1886, Page 2

FUNERAL OF KING ALFONSO.

The funeral of King Alfonso took place on Sunday morning, Nov. 29. The responses having been solemnly chanted in the Royal chapel, the funeral procession started. The streets of Madrid were thronged by. many thousands of spectators, and the mute of the Northern railway station was lined with troops. The hearse was covered with rangmficMit wreaths of flowers, and, as the funeral cortege passed, -people respectfully raised their hnts. The Royal train left for the E-cmial about midday, the body being accompanied thither by Senor Alonzo .vlartinez, Minister of Grace and Justice, the Chamberlain, and other high officials. On the arrival of the train at the E«curial the funeral procession was re-formed, and proceed ed flowly to the Monastery, where, according to ancient custom, those in charge of the coffin formally took an oath that the body was that of King Alfonso. A solemn reglious servious was then celebrated, at the conclusion of which the coffin was carried dowti to the Royal vault, and the cennony terminated. Among the wreaths on the coffin was one from the 15th Prussian Regiment of Uhlans, of which the late King was honorary colonel, and another from the German Crown Prince. \. correspondent describes the following strange and striking ceremonies at the monastery :— When the funeral car' reached the principal door it was closed. The Lord Ch<*.;riufrliiin knocked for admittance. A voice inside asked, " Who wishes to enter?" The ani»\ve." given was "Alfonso XII." The doors were then thrown open. The LVior of the monastery appeared. The b'id.y was carried into the church and placed on a raised bier before the grand altar. The coffin was then covered with the four cloaks of the noble orders. A thousand tapers were lighted, and the church assumed a magnificent appearance: Black hangings, embossed with the arms of Spain, 'covered the stone walls. A mass was then said, and the Miserere sung. .The coffin was raised once more, and carried to the entrance of the stairs leading down to the vaults. No one decended except the Prior, the Minister of Grace and Justice^ and the Lord Chamberlain. The coffin was placed on a table in a magnificent black marble vault, in which the Kings of Spain lie in huge marble tombs all around. Now came the most thrilling part of the ceremony. The Lord Chamberlain unlocked the coffin, which was covered with cloth of gold, raised the glass covoring from the King's face, then, after requesting perfect silence, knelt down and shouted three times in the monarch's ear, "Senor, Senor, Senor!" Those waiting in the church upstairs heard the call, whish was like a cry of dispair ; for it came from the lips of the Duke of Sexto, the King's favourite companion. The Duke then rose, saying, according to the ritual, " His Majesty does not answer. Then it is true the King is dead." He locked the coffin, handed the keys to the Prior, and, taking up his wand of office, broke it in his hand, and flung the pieces at the foot of the table. Then everyone loft the Monastery, as the bells tolled, and the guns announced to the people that Alfonso XII. had been laid with bis ancestors in the gloomy pile of Philip 11.

Tug farm and grazings of Bltirao, on Lord Dalhoaaie's estates, expending to about 300 acres arable and 1100 aorea pasture, have been let to Mr D. Benny, Tillyarblet, at an annual rent of £215, a reduction of £75 from the rent paid by the outgoing tenant, Mr Speed. A curious suggettion is under conaideration in London for the erection in front of Sb. Paul's and the Royal Ex« cliauge of a dais or platform from which citizens properly licensed might air their grievances, or preachers and orators hold forth to the people under protection. The scheme it simply the revival of *a aqcient ArrftDfipmeat.