MADRID, _October 24, 1864_.
DEAR FRIEND: I came here by chance, for I am stopping in the country,
and shall remain there until Saturday. It is abominably cold and damp,
and in consequence Madame de M.’s niece has taken erysipelas. Half of
the household are ill, and I have a severe cold. You are aware that
colds are serious matters to me, who find it difficult enough to breathe
even when I am well. The bad weather has continued a week, with shocking
violence, in harmony with the fashion of this country, where
transitions, of whatever sort are unknown.
Can you imagine the misery of people living on an elevated plateau,
exposed to every wind that blows, and having no means of keeping warm
excepting _braseros_, a primitive article of furniture which gives one
the choice of freezing or suffocating? I find that civilisation here has
made great progress, which, in my eyes, is no improvement. The women
have adopted your absurd hats, and wear them in the most grotesque
fashion. The bulls, also, have lost much of their merit, and the men who
kill them are nowadays ignorant, cowardly fellows.
This is the delightful story which now absorbs the minds of the
respectable public. Lady C., the wife of the minister of ----, she young
and pretty, he old and ugly, sued for divorce, on the grounds that her
husband was unjust towards her. The trial took place in London, and it
was decreed gallantly that he was a good-for-nothing. There are,
however, women in Madrid who assume to know that it was a calumny.
However that may be, the woman obtained her divorce, and almost
immediately afterwards married the duke of ----, who had for some time
paid court to her in Madrid. It seems that she has not the same grounds
of complaint towards her new husband as she had to the former, but here
is the devil of an affair. The duke of ---- has sued his half-sister, the
duchess of ----, on account of certain deeds, estates, etc. She has just
discovered that her brother, who was born in France, in order to succeed
to his inheritance, had presented a certificate of baptism signed by a
_curé_, an act which in France is illegal. It is found, moreover, that
this certificate is a counterfeit, and is contradicted by the
certificate of birth at the office of the Registry of State, which
proves that the present duke was born in Paris several years previously,
of an unknown mother. This mother is the third wife of the duke of ----,
married at that time to a fourth, for in that family the marriages are
always out of the ordinary.
This is going to make a pretty lawsuit, as you will see, and it is quite
possible that ex-lady C. will find herself some fine morning with no
peerage and no fortune. Meanwhile, she will soon arrive in Madrid with
her husband, and sir J. C. has requested a change of residence.
I have taken steps to find the _Nipi_ handkerchiefs, but I have not yet
succeeded in discovering any. Apparently they are no longer fashionable.
However, I am promised some the first of next month. I hope they will
keep their word.
Everything, it seems, is quiet enough, politically speaking. Besides, at
this moment it is too cold to fear a _pronunciamiento_. I think of
remaining here until the 10th or 12th of November, if I do not die of my
cold before then.
Where are you? What are you doing? Write to me soon.