early--there were a great many people sitting in the chairs or pacing
slowly under the trees of the Recoletos. All Madrid was drawing its
breath, trying to steady its nerve by a little air and exercise. Without
warning, without escort, the King and Queen whirled by in an open
automobile. The bride and groom had slipped out of the palace and had
been driven to the hospital to see the eighty people who were wounded by
the bomb that had been meant to kill them. They had flashed through the
Puerta del Sol, through the most crowded quarter of the city, and were
now returning to the palace, attended only by a chauffeur.
“_Bravo va!_” cried the seller of orgeat from his booth; then, yielding
to enthusiasm, he vaulted over the counter, left the till unprotected,
and joined in the chase.
“_Viva, viva!_” The crowd in the Recoletos lost its head; women waved
parasols, men hats or handkerchiefs. The applause was fine, spontaneous,
electrical.
“They’re game!” cried Patsy. “He’s a man, and I guess she’s a good deal
of a woman.”
They looked so brave, the blonde bride so grave, so loyal, so fresh,
that we were all moved; there was heart in the cries of _viva_, _bueno_,
_bravo_, that followed them, applause of a very different calibre from
the rather perfunctory toasting and hurrahing of yesterday.
There was but one dissentient voice. I heard the old gentleman who had
been forty years in diplomacy say: “It is against all precedent! Without
even an escort! It will be much criticised.”
It may have been criticised at Court; the people liked it. Don Alfonzo
is wise enough to know that the applause of the gallery is more
important to the actor than the appreciation of the stalls.
The wedding fêtes lasted a week. The gala performance at the opera, the
bull-fight, the battle of flowers, the balloon race, the ball at the
palace and all the more private festivities such as dinners and
luncheons, had been carefully planned, so that no hour should hang heavy
on the wedding guests. Time had to be made for one more function, the
funeral of the officers and soldiers killed by the bomb. It took place
the very day after the disaster. I did not see that black pageant of
death, I wish I had; but J. saw and told me about it.
At very nearly the same hour as that gorgeous marriage procession, there
passed over the same ground, through the Puerta del Sol and down the
Alcalá, a long string of black hearses. The first two, the coaches of
honor, were splendid with sable trappings; on the top lay the arms of
the dead officers. The King, the Prince of Wales, and most of the other
royalties walked in the procession that followed.
In spite of the gloom cast by the dreadful disaster, the fêtes went on
with slight modifications, as if nothing had happened. The ball at the
palace was changed into a reception. Dancing when so many mourned their
dead was out of the question. It was decided that the King and Queen
must not appear at the battle of flowers. It was too dangerous; the
deadly bouquet that masqued the bomb held a warning.
For perhaps a day there was a panicky feeling. The crowd was nervous,
keyed up; it would take nothing to make a stampede. I was never allowed
to go out alone lest “something should happen.” Very soon, however,
Madrid recovered its tone. Crowds of orderly, well-dressed people
thronged the streets day and night, admiring the magnificent
illuminations, the splendid decorations. Where other cities use bunting
and cotton cloth, Madrid used satin, silk, damask, brocade. The fronts
of the houses were brave with rich embroideries and priceless
tapestries. The famous ruby velvet hangings covered the façade of the
Duke Cestus’ palace, the pattern of the silver blazonry outlined at
night with electric light. During the whole week those priceless
treasures hung exposed to the burning sun, or to the chance of rain,
which fortunately never came.
Villegas was busier than ever, devising schemes for decoration, giving
advice about a costume, receiving a distinguished visitor. He was
continually summoned to the Prado to show the pictures to one or other
of the wedding guests. Some days he hardly did more than look into the
studio, where Cisera always had his brushes ready, and Angoscia, the
model, waited, sometimes all day, to pose for one little half hour.
One morning we met the Maestro on the stairs--J. had the studio next
door to his. “Just in time!” cried Villegas. “I was afraid I should not
get you. They have telephoned from the palace that
[Illustration: VILLEGAS IN HIS STUDIO.]
we must meet the Prince and Princess of Wales at the museum. They
haven’t given me time enough even to go home and put on a black coat.”
Villegas had on his funny little blue studio jacket, buttoned up to the
neck, a jacket not quite like any other; he designed it for himself when
he was a student. I never saw him in any other coat, except when on
Court duty.
It was so late that Villegas and J. jumped into a cab; Patsy and I
followed them on foot.
“We are in time,” said Patsy, as we drew near the Prado; “there are the
red legs.”
Each of the King’s guests was provided with two carriages, a court
carriage and a state-department carriage. The every-day carriages, in
which they drove about in the morning and did their shopping or
sight-seeing, were handsome but simple landaus with the royal
coat-of-arms on the panels. The main distinction was the red stockings
and blue velvet breeches of the servants. Patsy always kept a sharp
lookout for the red legs.
There were more people than usual going into the museum, most of them
country folk come to Madrid for the fêtes. Patsy and I stood in the
crowd and watched the Prince and Princess get out of the carriage with
Mr. Keppel, the equerry. Villegas met the Prince at the door and asked
leave to present his English pupil (J.). Then they all disappeared
together into the Prado, Villegas leading the way with the Princess. She
is tall, slender, with pretty yellow hair and an air of great
distinction; there is a strong family resemblance between her and the
young Queen.
Villegas said that the Princess, like most of the royalties he escorts
over the museum, was greatly interested in the royal portraits. When the
pictures are artistically important like the Velasquez, the Moros, even
the Goyas, he is able to tell all about the originals; but when they are
of mediocre value, by unimportant painters, poor Villegas is harrassed
with fear lest he may not always give the right name, date and title.
The Prince admired immensely, and seemed to enter into the spirit of the
Velasquez “Siege of Breda.” When the magnanimous attitude of the
conqueror was pointed out--he cannot take the keys of the city because
both hands are occupied, the Prince said:
“That was so nice of him!”
He paused a long time before Paul Veronese’s picture of the Marriage of
Cana. On the table before the Saviour is a dish of meat that, the Prince
pointed out, resembled a roast sucking pig. “But,” he said, “they were
all Jews; they would never have eaten pork!”
J. said this showed that the Prince really looked
[Illustration: THE SPINNERS. _Velasquez_]
at the pictures and thought about them; many of the people he has helped
Villegas take through the museum walk through as if it were a duty to be
got over as soon as possible. The Prince asked how much various of the
pictures were worth. He studied carefully St. Paul and St. Gerome in the
desert, by Velasquez (the dear one with the ravens flying to the
hermitage carrying loaves of bread in their beaks to feed the unthrifty
old saints).
“How much is that picture worth?” he asked. “Almost anything, isn’t it?”
Villegas says royalties never know what things cost. They may have a
sense of the value of money, but no sense of the value of things.
The Prince lingered longest in the portrait room. Well he might--it
contains some of the consummate portraits of the world!
“That is very fine,” said the Prince, pointing to Van Dyke’s portrait of
himself with his patron the Earl of Bristol; “and that Cardinal of Pavia
by Raphael, and this Holbein. Yet one hears more about John Sargent’s
portraits. I don’t think them as good as these, do you?”
It was very hot in the Ribera room, where they had lagged a little
behind the others. J. took off his hat to mop his brow, and for the sake
of being cooler did not put it on again.
“Keep on your hat,” said the Prince. Supposing this was merely
politeness J. forgot all about it, and a few minutes after did the same
thing again.
“_Please_ put on your hat,” said Mr. Keppel; “we don’t want to attract
attention to the party.”
“Yes, yes,” laughed the Prince lightly, “we don’t want to attract
attention!”
That, then, was the reason such short notice of the visit had been
given--they did not wish to attract attention! The only person who
showed the least nervousness was the detective from Scotland Yard, who
followed with the Chief of the Madrid police. The detective, J. said,
“was in a blue funk; he seemed to see a nihilist in everybody who came
within bomb-shot of the Prince.” While they were lingering in the Ribera
room, the detective begged Mr. Keppel that the Prince should keep up
with the Princess and Villegas; “they must all keep together; it was too
dangerous, too difficult for the chief of police to watch them if they
scattered.”
We heard that the English police had informed the Spanish before the
outrage that a man had been observed practising throwing various
articles from a balcony, as if gauging the distance to the street.
The shadow of fear darkened every sunny hour of these festival days. It
was with us when we started at eight o’clock one golden June morning to
drive to the review, held on the Castilian plain eight miles from
Madrid. We had tickets for the grand stand of the Senate. We were a
little late; by the time we arrived the seats were all taken. We were
turning sadly away when Patsy espied Don Luis.
“Here is the Key!” he cried. “He will get us in somewhere.” Don Luis was
called the Key because he contrived to open every door to us. How did he
manage it? It was not with a silver key; Don Luis was very poor. He had
an uncle who stood high in office; he was never caught without the
uncle’s card, the open sesame of many doors. This time it opened the
military tribune, where we found admirable places. This tribune was less
crowded than the others; most of the military were busy with the
manœuvres. It was a morning of extraordinary emotions; there was a
thrill of controlled excitement in the air; every face wore a smile,
every heart held a fear. The royalties were all present; the young
Queen, looking fresh and rosy, drove by with her mother-in-law. Don
Alfonzo, in the uniform of an officer of halberdiers, rode at the wheel
of her carriage. All through the fêtes the young lovers were the centre
of interest; we saw them so often that we grew to feel quite intimate
with them.
All the ambassadors extraordinary were there, and all the royalties. We
saw the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Crown Prince of Sweden, the
Russian Grand Duke Vladimir, the Duke of Genoa, Prince Albert of
Prussia, and Prince Louis Philippe, the young Crown Prince of Portugal;
a lovely looking lad, about whose future consort, young as he was, the
court gossips were already busy.[4]
We trembled for these great people, come together from every part of the
world to take part in the wedding celebration; our hearts were full of
fear and pity for them.
“It seems,” said Patsy, “as if the Reign of Terror had returned, only
instead of being in France alone it is over the whole world. A list has
been found of Anarchy’s next victims, headed by----” he whispered three
great names.
Meanwhile the infantry regiments, the backbone of the army, were
marching by. The men were well dressed, well looking, full of dash and
vigor; they marched worse than any troops I ever saw.
“When it comes to the drill, the steady hammer, hammer, hammer, of the
drill sergeant, they haven’t it in them,” said Patsy. “They may get it,
they haven’t it now.”
The music was very bad; the military bands lacked the same thing that
the soldiers lacked,--training, the stiff, hard, daily grind, the thing
that makes the difference between every man and his brother, between
every nation and her sister. What remains, if marching and music are
bad? The glory and insolence of youth in those squadrons of cavalry and
artillery dashing by. The vast arid plain soon became like a battlefield
as soldiers describe it and as painters of battles try to paint it. The
bands of cavalry began to pass slowly, the officers in advance, picked
men, with picked horses, as gallant a troop as I ever saw. The officers
rode with the naked sword raised as if for a charge. Just after they
passed our stand, the pace quickened from a trot to a canter, to a mad
gallop, as each troop swung short round an imaginary curve and
disappeared in a cloud of dust. The dust they raised gave the effect of
dust and smoke combined. A real battle-field must look like a thing
seen on the stage with transparencies of dust and smoke. Through the
veil of gray haze, we caught glimpses of distant squadrons marching and
countermarching, pack mules with mountain batteries, engineers with
field telegraph apparatus and pontoon bridges, long boats made very
squat and solid so they will not easily capsize, and longer planks to
lay upon the boats.
“They can bridge a river in fifteen minutes,” said Don Luis.
“The Guadalquiver or the Manzanares, perhaps,” murmured Patsy, “hardly
the Amazon or the Mississippi. These pontoons are metal, the latest
thing. Ours are of wood; we shall soon have them of metal like these
Spanish ones.”
“Who told you so much?” I asked.
“I heard Lieutenant Grant say so,” said Patsy. “Didn’t you see him drive
by with our Ambassador? I should like to ask him if this looks to him as
it does to me, like a miniature Gettysburg.”
We were thankful when the review was safely over and everybody gone home
safe and sound. It seemed to us the most dangerous of all the fêtes. The
distance covered was so great that to protect all these royal people
must have been well-nigh impossible.
“Lightning never strikes twice in the same place,” said Patsy. “The
only thing to do is to assume that there is no danger.”
The most original of all the fêtes was the balloon race. Engracia sent
us invitations to the Park of the Society of Aeronauts to see the start.
We found all Madrid in the large enclosure; what was more important, we
found Engracia in the midst of that crowd of smartly dressed people.
“The race,” Engracia told us, “has been arranged as a compliment to the
Queen. She and the King will see it from their windows. All the balloons
will pass over the palace.”
“Wind and weather permitting,” laughed Patsy. “Isn’t this the latest
word in the way of Sport? I never heard of such a thing in New York or
Paris.”
“_Claro!_” the _Madrileña_ flashed out at him. “You think Spain is
behind the rest of the world, yet you must come to Madrid to see a
balloon race.”
The centres of attraction were the thirteen balloons entered for the
race. Each monster air ball swaying in the stay ropes was surrounded by
a group of people. Engracia led the way to one where the crowd was
thickest.
“It is a good thing to have a friend in every place, even in the
inferno,” she said. “I have a friend who is going up in that balloon. It
must be terrible to go alone!”
Way was made for Engracia; Patsy and I followed, and took a good look
at the balloon at close quarters. It was shaped like a globe with a
stovepipe coming out of the bottom. The basket car was small and high,
coming up to the armpits of Engracia’s friend, a man of average size.
The color of the balloon was like a modern warship’s neutral gray, the
tint most easily confounded with cloud or smoke. Patsy peeped inside the
basket, hoping to see some interesting apparatus for steering or at
least guiding the flight.
“Nothing inside,” he reported, “except a few bags of sand just like
those:” he pointed to the sand bags hanging from the outer edge of the
basket. “That,” he showed a small instrument shaped like a pedometer
hanging in the shrouds, “is to measure the distance, and that to gauge
the velocity of the wind.”
“What, nothing more? No modern contrivance to help them navigate the
air?”
“Nothing but sand,” said Patsy. “It takes a lot of two kinds of sand.”
It was such a breathless afternoon: it seemed as if there could not be
wind enough to lift the great captive swaying awkwardly in its ropes.
The breeze must have come up without our noticing it, for there was a
sudden commotion in the crowd, and we were all ordered to stand back.
Engracia waved a last adieu to her friend.
“_Abour!_” she cried, as the balloon shot up to a great height. “If he
had only taken some one with him!” There was something terrible in the
loneliness of that solitary figure in the balloon.
In a few seconds another balloon shot up; it was perhaps lighter than
the first, for it seemed to overtake it immediately. The two great
balloons drifted nearer and nearer to each other; when just above our
heads they noiselessly collided.
“_Por Dios!_” cried Engracia, and hid her face.
There was a slight depression in each balloon, then they sprang apart,
like two vast rubber balls, and sailed off, each in a slightly different
direction, neither the worse for the collision.
Taking advantage of the light breeze, the remaining eleven balloons were
loosed and shot up to a great height. Soon the whole fleet looked no
larger than so many toy balloons. We watched them sail away over the
palace of the King, where the young Queen was watching for them,
forgetting perhaps for a moment her terror, as the balloons sailed over
the palace, over the bare plains of Castile, towards the Guadarramas,
and the grim Escorial, her last home.
In the Park of the Society of Aeronauts, there was a deal of jesting, as
the toy balloons sent off by Engracia and a dozen other ladies, followed
the real ones.
“They all behaved,” said Patsy, as we drove home after the race, “as if
there were no such things as bombs; courage, it seems, is still an
aristocratic virtue.”
* * * * *
The night of the reception at the palace was very dark. The sky looked
like black velvet; the streets blazed with clusters, chains, pyramids of
light. The Puerta del Sol was a sea of sparkling flames, that shone on
triumphal arches, flags, flowers, and the entwined letters A and V.
The servants at the palace recognized Villegas. They did not even look
at our invitation, but motioned us to pass with him through that door we
knew so well from the outside. We found ourselves in a big shining hall
at the foot of the _escalara principal_, a magnificent double staircase,
guarded by fierce marble lions and fiercer halberdiers standing on each
step, their halberds touching, making a line of flashing steel on either
side, just as the Argentino described--a sight “well worth seeing
indeed!” We lingered at the foot of the stair to watch some of the
people pass up.
“Who is that?” I asked, as a lady of superb bearing walked slowly up the
stair. “I think she is the most distinguished looking woman I have seen
in Spain.”
“That is the Duquesa San Carlos,” said Engracia, who had just come in.
“And who is that?” A beautiful Saxon woman in white satin and rubies was
passing.
“That is one of the English party, Lady Castlereagh.”
As each Grandee or Ambassador passed, the halberdiers saluted by
striking the marble stair with their halberds. It had a fine effect,
like a peal of thunder or a salvo of artillery. When we had seen a few
of the King’s guests go up, we followed after them.
Bang, bang! the halberds came down again in another salute. I looked
behind to see who was coming. Nobody, we were the only people on the
stair.
“Can that be for you?” I cried.
“Oh, no!” laughed Villegas. “For this,” touching the decoration he wore,
“or possibly for the Director of the Prado.”
We entered a room paved with marble, ceiled with porcelain, hung with
ivory satin embroidered in gold. It was filled comfortably, not crowded.
Many of the uniforms were very handsome; some of the ladies were
sumptuously dressed, with beautiful jewels, others wore very simple
evening gowns. In Spain you cannot judge people by what they wear; they
dare to be poor here as nowhere else. The King and Queen were receiving
the Ambassadors in the Salon de Embajadores. This we could not see at
the time. Later in the evening we went in and admired the superb throne
with its four steps guarded by big gilt lions, the rock crystal and
silver chandeliers, the painted ceiling by Tiepolo, representing the
“Majesty of Spain.” Standing under this picture, the King said to one of
the Ambassadors:
“Well, here I am, you see. I came very near not being with you
to-night!”
A little later the King and Queen made the tour of the apartments
leading from the throne rooms. The crowd here was so great that we could
see nothing but two lines of people bowing and curtseying as the royal
cortége passed down the middle.
“Come,” said Villegas, “you can see nothing here.” He led us through
hall after hall. I caught glimpses of a marble room and a porcelain
room, of cabinets filled with precious pictures, sculpture and
bric-a-brac. We halted in a perfectly empty gallery hung with the most
astonishing tapestries.
“Flemish,” said Villegas, “but unlike any others ever made in Flanders.
_Miré_, they are worked with silver and gold thread.”
While we were looking at the wonderful tapestries, and puzzling out the
subjects, Isabel and Larz Anderson came into the room. We were all
studying the tapestry representing the “Conquest of Tunis” when we heard
voices, and suddenly, without a moment’s warning, the royal party
entered the gallery. The King and Queen walked first. Don Alfonzo wore a
white broadcloth uniform. The Queen looked charming; there was no trace
of what she had endured in her radiant complexion or her calm blue eyes.
She wore white satin brocaded with little pink and blue velvet flowers,
and on her head the new diamond crown made especially for her, Engracia
had told us about. It was small, of the real classic shape, like the
crown of the queen in Walter Crane’s picture book.
The King and Queen both bowed and smiled to the Andersons and ourselves.
Then Don Alfonzo, recognizing the Maestro, waved his hand and cried out
in a cheery genial voice:
“_Ai Villegas, com’ esta V.?_”
Queen Maria Cristina, who was walking next, stopped, called Villegas,
and gave him her hand. The Infanta Isabel, the Infanta Eulalia, and the
Infanta Maria Teresa, all stopped and spoke to him. The tall Swedish
Crown Prince followed suit, and the Russian Grand Duke Vladimir, who
seemed overjoyed at seeing him, patted him on the shoulder.
When the royal cortége swept out of the room, I was breathless with
surprise and excitement.
“They all seem to know you,” I cried. “What is the bond between you and
the Russian Grand Duke?”
“_Quien sabé?_” said Villegas. “He has been at my studio; and the Czar
once bought a picture of mine.”
That reminded me of the portrait of the King. I persuaded Villegas to
take me to the room where it hangs--and holds its own--among the other
royal portraits.
XVII
HASTA OTRA VISTA
“Are you painting?” Don Luis, the Valencian, put his head into the
studio. “Am I too early? The fandango is to-day, isn’t it?”
“_Adelante!_” cried Villegas, “the ladies have come. Imperio will be
here soon. I am only preparing my work for to-morrow.” He stood before a
new canvas making a charcoal drawing of Angoscia.
“He cannot waste five minutes!” sighed Lucia.
“It seems that we are either working, or getting ready to work, day and
night. Where does life come in?” asked Don Luis.
“Turn the head this way,” said Villegas to the model. “Hold the guitar
better--so.” Then to Don Luis: “To those accustomed to work, work is
life.”
“I have noticed,” said the Argentino, who came in at that moment with
Patsy, “that only working people know how to play. That’s the reason
artists play so much better than the rest of us.”
“What did you see in Barcelona that made up for missing the fêtes?” I
asked the Argentino.
“A woman clerk who sold me a railroad ticket. A butcher’s shop where the
meat was cut up and sold by women,” he answered.