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 Introduction To Conformal
Prediction With Python
A Short Guide for Quantifying Uncertainty of Machine
Learning Models

Christoph Molnar
Introduction To Conformal Prediction With
Python
A Short Guide for Quantifying Uncertainty of Machine Learning Models
© 2023 Christoph Molnar, Germany, Munich
christophmolnar.com
For more information about permission to reproduce selections from this book,
write to [email protected].
2023, First Edition
Christoph Molnar
c/o MUCBOOK, Heidi Seibold
Elsenheimerstraße 48
80687 München, Germany

commit id: 7319978

Content

1 Summary 7

2 Preface 9

3 Who This Book Is For 10

4 Introduction to Conformal Prediction 11

4.1 We need uncertainty quantification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.2 Uncertainty has many sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.3 Distinguish good from bad predictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.4 Other approaches don’t have guaranteed coverage . . . . . . . . . 15
4.5 Conformal prediction fills the gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

5 Getting Started with Conformal Prediction in Python 19

5.1 Installing the software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.2 Let’s classify some beans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
5.3 First try: a naive approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.4 Second try: conformal classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
5.5 Getting started with MAPIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

6 Intuition Behind Conformal Prediction 33

6.1 Conformal prediction is a recipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6.2 Understand parallels to out-of-sample evaluation . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.3 How to interpret prediction regions and coverage . . . . . . . . . 41
6.4 Conformal prediction and supervised learning . . . . . . . . . . . 41

7 Classification 43
7.1 Back to the beans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
7.2 The naive method doesn’t work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
7.3 The Score method is simple but not adaptive . . . . . . . . . . . 46

4
 7.4 Use Adaptive Prediction Sets (APS) for conditional coverage . . . 51
7.5 Top-k method for fixed size sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
7.6 Regularized APS (RAPS) for small sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
7.7 Group-balanced conformal prediction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
7.8 Class-Conditional APS (CCAPS) for coverage by class . . . . . . 63
7.9 Guide for choosing a conformal classification method . . . . . . . 64

8 Regression and Quantile Regression 65

8.1 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
8.2 Rent Index Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
8.3 Conformalized Mean Regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
8.4 Conformalized Quantile Regression (CQR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

9 A Glimpse Beyond Classification and Regression 83

9.1 Quickly categorize conformal prediction by task and score . . . . 83
9.2 Time Series Forecasting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
9.3 Multi-Label Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
9.4 Outlier Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
9.5 Probability Calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
9.6 And many more tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
9.7 How to stay up to date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

10 Design Your Own Conformal Predictor 90

10.1 Steps to build your own conformal predictor . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
10.2 Finding the right non-conformity score . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
10.3 Start with a heuristic notion of uncertainty . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
10.4 A general recipe for 1D uncertaity heuristics . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
10.5 Metrics for evaluating conformal predictors . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

11 Q & A 95
11.1 How do I choose the calibration size? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
11.2 How do I make conformal prediction reproducible? . . . . . . . . 95
11.3 How does alpha affect the size of the prediction regions? . . . . . 95
11.4 What happens if I choose a large 𝛼 for conformal classification? . 96
11.5 How to interpret empty prediction sets? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
11.6 Can I use the same data for calibration and model evaluation? . . 96
11.7 What if I find errors in the book or want to provide feedback? . . 97

5
12 Acknowledgements 98

References 99

6
1 Summary
A prerequisite for trust in machine learning is uncertainty quantification. Without
it, an accurate prediction and a wild guess look the same.
Yet many machine learning models come without uncertainty quantification. And
while there are many approaches to uncertainty – from Bayesian posteriors to
bootstrapping – we have no guarantees that these approaches will perform well
on new data.
At first glance conformal prediction seems like yet another contender. But con-
formal prediction can work in combination with any other uncertainty approach
and has many advantages that make it stand out:

• Guaranteed coverage: Prediction regions generated by conformal predic-

tion come with coverage guarantees of the true outcome
• Easy to use: Conformal prediction approaches can be implemented from
scratch with just a few lines of code
• Model-agnostic: Conformal prediction works with any machine learning
model
• Distribution-free: Conformal prediction makes no distributional assump-
tions
• No retraining required: Conformal prediction can be used without re-
training the model
• Broad application: conformal prediction works for classification, regres-
sion, time series forecasting, and many other tasks

Sound good? Then this is the right book for you to learn about this versatile,
easy-to-use yet powerful tool for taming the uncertainty of your models.
This book:

• Teaches the intuition behind conformal prediction

7
 • Demonstrates how conformal prediction works for classification and regres-
sion
• Shows how to apply conformal prediction using Python
• Enables you to quickly learn new conformal algorithms

With the knowledge in this book, you’ll be ready to quantify the uncertainty of
any model.

8
2 Preface
My first encounter with conformal prediction was years ago, when I read a paper
on feature importance. I wasn’t looking for uncertainty quantification. Never-
theless, I tried to understand conformal prediction but was quickly discouraged
because I didn’t immediately understand the concept. I moved on.
About 4 years later, conformal prediction kept popping up on my Twitter and
elsewhere. I tried to ignore it, mostly successfully, but at some point I became
interested in understanding what conformal prediction was. So I dug deeper and
found a method that I actually find intuitive.
My favorite way to learn is to teach, so I decided to do a deep dive in the form of an
email course. For 5 weeks, my newsletter Mindful Modeler1 became a classroom
for conformal prediction. I didn’t know how this experiment would turn out. But
it quickly became clear that many people were eager to learn about conformal
prediction. The course was a success. So I decided to build on that and turn
everything I learned about conformal prediction into a book. You hold the results
in your hand (or in your RAM).
I love turning academic knowledge into practical advice. Conformal prediction is
in a sweet spot: There’s an explosion of academic interest and conformal predic-
tion holds great promise for practical data science. The math behind conformal
prediction isn’t easy. That’s one reason why I gave it a pass for a few years. But
it was a pleasant surprise to find that from an application perspective, conformal
prediction is simple. Solid theory, easy to use, broad applicability – conformal
prediction is ready. But it still lives mostly in the academic sphere.
With this book, I hope to strengthen the knowledge transfer from academia to
practice and bring conformal prediction to the streets.

1
https://mindfulmodeler.substack.com/

9
3 Who This Book Is For
This book is for data scientists, statisticians, machine learners and all other mod-
elers who want to learn how to quantify uncertainty with conformal prediction.
Even if you already use uncertainty quantification in one way or another, confor-
mal prediction is a valuable addition to your toolbox.
Prerequisites:

• You should know the basics of machine learning

• Practical experience with modeling is helpful
• If you want to follow the code examples, you should know the basics of
Python or at least another programming language
• This includes knowing how to install Python and Python libraries
The book is not an academic introduction to the topic, but a very practical one.
So instead of lots of theory and math, there will be intuitive explanations and
hands-on examples.

10
4 Introduction to Conformal
Prediction
In this chapter, you’ll learn

• Why and when we need uncertainty quantification

• What conformal prediction is

4.1 We need uncertainty quantification

Machine learning models make predictions and to fully trust them, we need to
know how certain those predictions really are.
Uncertainty quantification is essential in many situations:

• When we use model predictions to make decisions

• When we want to design robust systems that can handle unexpected situa-
tions
• When we have automated a task with machine learning and need an indi-
cator of when to intervene
• When we want to communicate the uncertainty associated with our predic-
tions to stakeholders

The importance of quantifying uncertainty depends on the application for which

machine learning is being used. Here are some use cases:

• Uncertainty quantification can improve fraud detection in insurance claims

by providing context to case workers evaluating potentially fraudulent
claims. This is especially important when a machine learning model used
to detect fraud is uncertain in its predictions. In such cases, the case

11
 workers can use the uncertainty estimates to prioritize their review of the
claim and intervene if necessary.
• Uncertainty quantification can be used to improve the user experience in a
banking app. While the classification of financial transactions into “rent,”
“groceries,” and so on can be largely automated through machine learning,
there will always be transactions that are difficult to classify. Uncertainty
quantification can identify tricky transactions and prompt the user to clas-
sify them.
• Demand forecasting using machine learning can be improved by using un-
certainty quantification, which can provide additional context on the con-
fidence in the prediction. This is especially important in situations where
the demand must meet a certain threshold in order to justify production.
By understanding the uncertainty of the forecast, an organization can make
more informed decisions about whether to proceed with production.

ė Note
As a rule of thumb, you need uncertainty quantification whenever a point
prediction isn’t informative enough.

But where does this uncertainty come from?

4.2 Uncertainty has many sources

A prediction is the result of measuring and collecting data, cleaning the data, and
training a model. Uncertainty can creep into the pipeline at every step of this
long journey:

• The model is trained on a random sample of data, making the model itself
a random variable. If you were to train the model on a different sample
from the same distribution, you would get a slightly different model.
• Some models are even trained in a non-deterministic way. Think of random
weight initialization in neural networks or sampling mechanisms in random
forests. If you train a model with non-deterministic training twice on the
same data, you will get slightly different models.
• This uncertainty in model training is worse when the training dataset is
small.

12
 • Hyperparameter tuning, model selection, and feature selection have the
same problem – all of these modeling steps involve estimation based on
random samples of data, which adds to uncertainty to the modeling process.
• The data may not be perfectly measured. The features or the target may
contain measurement errors, such as people filling out surveys incorrectly,
copying errors, and faulty measurements.
• Data sets may have missing values.
Some examples:

• Let’s say we’re predicting house values. The floor type feature isn’t always
accurate, so our model has to work with data that contains measurement
errors. For this and other reasons, the model will not always predict the
house value correctly.
• Decision trees are known to be unstable – small changes in the data can lead
to large differences in how the tree looks like. While this type of uncertainty
is “invisible” when only one tree is trained, it becomes apparent when the
model is retrained, since a new tree will likely have different splits.
• Image classification: Human labelers may disagree on how to classify an
image. A dataset consisting of different human labelers will therefore con-
tain uncertainty as the model will never be able to perfectly predict the
“correct” class, because the true class is up for debate.

4.3 Distinguish good from bad predictions

A trained machine learning model can be thought of as a function that takes the
features as input and outputs a prediction. But not all predictions are equally
hard. Some predictions will be spot on but others will be like wild guesses by
the model, and if the model doesn’t output some kind of confidence or certainty
score, we have a problem: We can’t distinguish good predictions from wild guesses.
Both are just spit out by the model.
Imagine an image classifier that decides whether a picture shows a cat, a dog
or some other animal. Digging a bit into the data, we find that there are some
images where the pets are dressed in costumes, see Figure 4.1b.
For classification, we at least have an idea of how uncertain the classification was.
Look at these two distributions of model probability scores in Figure Figure 4.2:

13
(a) Clearly A Dog (b) Don’t let these dogs bamboozle you.
They want you to believe that they are
ghosts. They are not!

Figure 4.1: Not all images are equally difficult to classify.

14
One classification is quite clear, because the probability is so high. In the other
case, it was a close call for the “cat” category, so we would assume that this
classification was less certain.

(a) Easy Dogo (b) Difficult

Figure 4.2: Classification scores by class.

At first glance, aren’t we done when the model outputs probabilities and we use
them to get an idea of uncertainty? Unfortunately, no. Let’s explore why.

4.4 Other approaches don’t have guaranteed

coverage
For classification we get the class probabilities, Bayesian models produce pre-
dictive posterior distributions, and random forests can show the variance across
trees. In theory, we could just use rely on such approaches to uncertainty. If we
do that, why would we need conformal prediction?

15
Random documents with unrelated
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 Then was the time for General Pavia’s action. Arthur Houghton,
correspondent to The Times at Madrid, gives, in his “French History
of the Restoration of the Bourbons,” the account of this coup in the
General’s own words; for, favoured by the soldiers’ friendship, Mr.
Houghton had the opportunity of hearing the story first-hand, and the
smart General, looking spruce and trim in his well-cut black frock,
would often talk to the Englishman, when he met him in the salons of
Madrid, of the way he took matters into his own hand when the
republican Parliament could not manage the Congress.
“No, no,” said the former Governor of Madrid, “I admitted nobody
into my counsel, but, under the stress of circumstances, I took all the
responsibility upon myself. When I heard how the Assembly had
given voice to a vote of want of confidence in Castelar, I thought the
hour had come; and as the session the next day increased in force
and disorder, whilst the hours of early dawn succeeded those of the
evening and the night in fruitless and violent discussion, I called a
company of the Civil Guard, and another of the Cazadores, and, to
their surprise, I led them to the square in front of the Congress, and
stationed them all round the building. Then, entering the Parliament
with a few picked men, I surprised the deputies by ordering them to
leave the House. A few shots were fired in the corridor on those who
sought to defy the military order, so the members did not long resist,
and by four o’clock in the morning I found myself in complete
command of the House. I called a Committee, with the power to form
a Ministry, of which General Serrano was once more elected
President, and thus ensued the second period of the republic.”
This brilliant and successful coup reminds one of that of our
Oliver Cromwell when he freed the country of a particular
Government; but in this case of military sway in Spain General Pavia
acted from no aims of self-interest, but only for the restoration of
order, which it was his duty as Governor of the city to preserve.
 During the second period of the republic, which lasted from
January 4, 1874, till December 30 of the same year, Serrano had his
hands weighted with two civil wars—the never-ceasing one of
Carlism in the Peninsula, as well as that of Cuba—and, as Francisco
Paréja de Alarcon says, in the criticism which he publishes in the
above-mentioned work on this period, the Government formed under
Serrano proved unable to restore order and save Spain from the
dishonour which was threatening it.
So when the Ministers heard of the rising at Sagunto, on
December 29, 1874, for the restoration of the monarchy, they knew
that the movement was really supported by leading military men,
who had been inspired thereto by the ladies of the land, who
resented the irreligion and disorder of the republic; and, as they saw
that resistance would only lead to another disastrous civil war, they
resigned their posts peacefully.
It was thus that the son of Isabella II. was raised to the throne.
And Alarcon says: “The hypocritical banner of ‘the country’s honour’
was set aside; for had it not meant the support of a foreign
monarchy, destitute of prestige; and then an unbridled, antisocial,
impious, and anarchical republic, which was a blot on the history of
our unhappy Spain in these latter days, which have been so full of
misfortunes under the government of the ambitious parties which
harrowed and exploited under different names and banners?”
The Circulo Hispano Ultramarino in Barcelona, agitating
continually for the restoration of Alfonso XII., was a strong agent in
the monarchical movement. Figuerola Ferretti worked strenuously as
secretary of the society, and this officer is the possessor of the only
escutcheon signed by Alfonso XII., in which he paid tribute to the
Colonel’s valiant conduct in the Cuban War of 1872.
It is interesting to see that the opinion of the republic published in
“Contemporaneous Truths” by this Ferretti was echoed by the great
leader of the party himself, for Señor Castelar writes: “There were
days during that summer of 1874 in which our Spain seemed
completely ruined. The idea of legality was so lost that anybody
could assume power, and notify the fact to the Cortes, and those
whose office it was to make and keep the laws were in a perpetual
ferment against them.
“It was no question then, as before, of one Ministry replacing
another, nor one form of government substituting another; but a
country was divided into a thousand parts, like the Kalifat of Cordova
after its fall, and the provinces were inundated by the most out-of-
the-way ideas and principles.”
When the great republican speaks in such a derogatory way of
the republic of which he was the leader, it is not strange that public
opinion turned to the restoration of the Bourbons as the salvation of
the country. Society clamoured for such balls and entertainments as
had formerly taken place at Court, or which had been patronized by
the palace, and the dreary disorder wearied both politicians and
patriots.
The house of the Dukes of Heredia-Spinola never ceased to be
the scene of the reunion of Alfonsists, and as General Martinez
Campos played his daily game of tresillo at their table, many
expressions of hope for the return of the ex-Queen’s son fell upon
his ears; whilst the Countess of Tacon, who had been Lady-in-
Waiting to the little Prince of Asturias as a child, was loud in her
opinions. It is interesting to note that this lady subsequently filled the
same office for the restored King’s little daughter, the Princess of
Asturias, Doña Maria de las Mercedes.
From a social point of view the salon of the old Countess of
Montijo ranked foremost in Madrid, and it assembled within its walls
the frequenters of Court society in the reign of Isabella. Scenes from
“Don Quixote” were given with great success at the Countess’s little
theatre; and the year of the restoration was marked by a very
successful dramatic representation, in which some of the members
of the old nobility took part.
Moreover, the services held every Friday in the private chapel of
the mansion, where great preachers made remarkable orations,
were a protest against the irreligion of the period. On these
occasions ladies of Court society, among whom may be noted Clara
Hunt, wife of one of the diplomats of the English Embassy—who was
quite a notable singer—gave proofs of their talent.
The niece of the Count of Nava de Tajo was another of the
distinguished ladies who frequented the salon of the Countess of
Montijo. The Count was varied in his interests. One afternoon he
paid a series of visits, beginning with the Pope’s Nuncio, going on to
the house of Canovas, then to Roque Barcia, who was asking for
subscriptions for his famous dictionary, and ending with the unhappy
Lopez Bago, who was seeking support for his Review of the Salons,
of which only three or four numbers were ever published.
 CHAPTER XV
THE REVIVAL OF COURT LIFE IN SPAIN UNDER ALFONSO XII.

1874–1884

The foregoing brief sketch of the political and social life in Spain
during the republic will have given some idea of the joy which filled
Spanish hearts at seeing the Bourbons once more on the throne of
Spain in the person of Alfonso XII. Madrid indeed was wild with joy
when the little Prince whom we saw at eleven years of age, in his
blue velvet suit and lace collar, leaving his country as an exile, with
his mother and family, re-entered the royal palace as a young man
eighteen years old in January, 1875, having wisely passed through
Catalonia, which Martinez Campos had gained over to the cause,
and pleased the people by saying: “I wish to be King of all
Spaniards.”
As Isabella had abdicated in favour of her son on June 26, 1870,
there was no impediment to his taking the oath of coronation soon
after he was summoned to the Spanish capital. Of a good figure,
gentlemanly, and well cultured, Alfonso added the art of good
dressing to his other attractions, and the excellent taste and cut of
his clothes led to his being called “the Beau Brummell of Spain.”
 K I N G A L F O N S O X I I . V I S I T I N G C H O L E R A PAT I E N T S AT
ARANJUEZ

From a Painting by J. Bermudo y Mateos

The Countess of Campo Alange, who had assisted at the

ceremony, in Paris, of Isabella’s abdication in favour of her son, was
one of the first to pay her respects to Alfonso XII. on his return as
King to the Court of Spain. She went in a beautiful costume of
crushed-strawberry-coloured satin, and she carried in her hand a
snuff-box decorated with a picture of the entry of Charles IV. into
Badajoz, and it was with a graceful speech that the Countess drew
the King’s attention to the miniature.
“What a memory you have, Marchioness!”
“Oh, facts and people remain in my mind when they are forgotten
by others,” returned the lady; and the affectionate look she cast at
the King reminded him of her fidelity to his family.
 In his youthful exuberance of spirits, the young King was always
ready to join in any frolic, although he was not lacking in serious and
intelligent application to matters of State.
It was the Monday preceding Shrove Tuesday, and Alfonso had
remarked somewhat regretfully that the rollicking spirit of the season
seemed somewhat subdued. This the Duke of Tamanes determined
to remedy, so, when the Cabinet was assembling for a royal
audience, he swiftly emptied a bag of flour over the head of the
Minister of War, who gravely sat down to business in his transformed
condition, much to the amusement of Alfonso.
The young King was always genial and affable, and anxious to
avoid too much ceremonial etiquette when it might cause discomfort
to those who followed it.
One day he came unexpectedly into the Archæological Museum
of Madrid with an Austrian Prince. There he found two men studying
with their hats on; for all those who use public institutions in Madrid
know that the cold is intense during the winter in these buildings. At
the entrance of Alfonso the students promptly bared their heads.
“Don’t do that,” said the young King kindly; “put your hats on
again, or I shall have to take off mine.”
Alfonso was a bright and attractive figure in Spanish Court
society. His gift of making verses, either gay or sentimental, as the
occasion warranted, was always attractive, and he slackened the
stiff rules of Court life as much as possible.
The Ilustracion Española y Americana publishes an excellent
account of the historic ball given by the restored monarch:
“The festivities which celebrated the restoration of King Alfonso
XII. in the feudal mansions of Spain finally saw their culmination in
the magnificent ball given at the royal palace by the young monarch
and his widowed sister, the Infanta Isabella, the heir to the throne, on
January 15, 1877.
“The state apartments were illuminated by millions of candles in
the crystal chandeliers; the double-winged splendid staircase—
guarded at the foot by the historic white marble lions, and lined with
the Royal Guard of the Halberdiers in their high black-cloth leggings,
slashed scarlet cutaway coats, tricorn white-banded hats, and their
glittering Toledan steel halberds, at attention—was crowded with
thousands of guests in gorgeous uniforms and lovely toilettes, who
were radiant at this opportunity of once more greeting royalty at a
great fête.
“The King, with his sister, looked smiling and happy, and their
genial words of welcome warmed the hearts of the guests.
“The fine ballroom was soon filled with the stream of people in
gorgeous array; the large mirrors on the wall reflected the dancing of
the stately rigodons, so that they could be seen from the entrance of
the room even by those who could not obtain a place within its
precincts.
“A magnificent supper was served, and so perfect was the
arrangement that 3,000 people were able to partake of it without
confusion.
“To the royalties who gave this ball it offered little real enjoyment,
for the strict Court etiquette only allowed them to dance a few
rigodons according to the protocol, and to pass through some of the
illuminated salons, where they greeted those privileged to approach
them.”
In his anxiety to make acquaintance with his kingdom, Alfonso
went this year to Barcelona, Granada, Malaga, Seville, Asturias,
Galicia, etc., and he took his place as the head of the grandees of
Spain when, with all due pomp and ceremony, he was made Grand
Master of the Orders of Santiago, Alcantara, Calatrava, and
Montesa.
It was on December 8 in this year that the Duke of Sexto went to
Seville to formally ask for the hand of Doña Maria Mercedes, the
seventeen-year-old daughter of the Duke and Duchess of
Montpensier, in marriage for her cousin Alfonso XII.
The royal suitor had long been attracted to this charming girl, and
during the years of his exile many were the happy days he spent
with his cousin in his vacations from Sandhurst at Vichy. When
walking out together in the watering-place, the thoughts of the young
people would sometimes wander to the possible future, and the
young cadet, whose purse was occasionally very attenuated, would
regretfully turn away from some pretty present he would gladly have
bought for his cousin, saying: “It is rather dear; but never mind, I will
buy it when I am King.”
The account of the delicate mission of the Duke of Sexto, the
Marquis de la Frontera, the Chamberlain, and Don Fernando
Mendoza, Secretary of the Etiquette and Mayordomo of the Royal
Palace, is given in the publication mentioned below.[20] The Duke
and Duchess of Montpensier were in the white salon of their palace
when they received the request for the hand of their daughter in
marriage to the reigning King of Spain; and they were well pleased
with the suggested alliance, as they trusted that the hope of Louis
Philippe, that his descendant should sit upon the throne of Spain,
would soon now be fulfilled.
[20] “The Wooing and Marriage of Alfonso XII.”

When Alfonso followed the favourable reception of his request by

a visit to Seville, all went merrily enough in the royal circle.
A magnificent Court ball was given at the Palace of San Telmo on
December 26, to celebrate the royal engagement. The first rigodon
was led off by the King with his fiancée, looking fascinating, gowned
in white and glistening with jewels; the Infanta Doña Luisa Fernanda
danced with the Duke of Sexto, and Alfonso excited much admiration
by the able way he conducted the cotillon.
However, the Princess of Mercedes had not been the only girl
friend young Alfonso had had during his exile. For when he could not
go to the Montpensiers at Vichy, the ex-King liked to visit the Austrian
Archduke and Duchess at Biarritz, as he found their daughter Maria
Cristina très bonne camarade, and well able to hold her own with
him in a game of tennis or billiards. Maria Cristina seems to have
been attracted by Alfonso, for when his marriage was announced
with Mercedes of Montpensier, she joined the rich and noble Chapter
of Prague, of which she accepted the responsible office of Lady
Abbess, with an annual income of 20,000 marks.
The marriage of Mercedes and Alfonso took place on January 23
with all befitting ceremony. The Patriarch of the Indias blessed the
union in the Church of Atocha. The ex-King Francisco was best man,
and the Infanta Isabella represented her grandmother, Queen Maria
Cristina, as the chief lady at the ceremony.
The retinue of the palace, the grandees, the fine caparisoned
horses with their bright-liveried lackeys, the gorgeous coaches with
their magnificent trappings, all made a striking show as they swept
through the Spanish capital from the church to the Court.
But a note of horror was struck when a sudden awful sound was
heard, and a woman fell dead struck by a bomb; but no other fatality
occurred, and cheers filled the air as the troops of the capital filed
before the palace, where the Royal Family witnessed the review
from the windows.
The genial character of the young King was seen in a letter to an
Archduke, a college friend, shortly before the death of his beloved
Mercedes. This friend, with all due respect to Alfonso as King,
mentioned the fact of his marriage with a young Princess of Spain.
To this communication the King replied that he never forgot college
friends, whom he preferred in many cases to later ones.
“I forbid you to address me as ‘Majesty’; treat me as you treated
me in the Teresiano. When you marry, come to Madrid with your
wife, whom I shall at once regard as a friend. Mercedes is very kind;
we will hunt, and we will chat about old times, and so your
honeymoon will be spent as happily as mine was....”
But a telegram soon followed this bright and happy letter. It ran
thus:

“My dear Frederick,

“Queen Mercedes is dead. May God give you in your
marriage the happiness which He has denied me! In your
approaching days of joy remember the woe of your friend.
“Alfonso.”

It may be mentioned that Queen Isabella wrote to Madrid to

signify her displeasure at her son’s marriage, for the fact that the
daughter of Montpensier, who had intrigued to succeed her on the
throne, became Queen of Spain was rather a bitter pill to swallow.
However, all animosity on that score ceased at the death of the
beautiful and lovable Queen, who had had undisputed sway in the
heart of her young husband, and whose intelligence and good
feeling at the age of eighteen had promised so much good for the
country. There were not lacking those who attributed the dreadful
event to the enemies of the Montpensiers, but others said it was due
to a chill. During the sufferings of the last few hours the young
husband sat in sorrow by the bedside, and the much-loved wife
strove between her attacks of pain to comfort him with the hope of
meeting in a future world.
At last all was over, and the poor young Queen was laid out in
state on a low couch in the stately Hall of Columns. This Hall of
Columns was often used for state banquets, but, after being the
scene of the last sad functions in honour of his beloved wife, Alfonso
had a new banqueting-hall built, and the salon of such sad memories
has never since been used for any but solemn ceremonies, such as
the washing the feet and feeding the beggars by royalty on Maunday
Thursday, the Chapter of one of the grand military Orders, etc.
The corpse of the young Queen was dressed in the white garb
and black cape of a nun of the Convent of Don Juan de Alarcon; the
lower part of her face was covered with a white gauze handkerchief;
her beautiful white hands, which looked like wax, were crossed on
her bosom; and her face, which had been so admired a few short
weeks before—when, according to the custom of Spain, she passed
through the streets on foot on Holy Thursday, to make her visits to
the churches in company with her husband and the Court—looked
drawn with pain and fever as it lay in the light of countless candles.
The public defiled sadly through the mortuary chapel, and many
were the Masses celebrated by the Church dignitaries on the altar
erected at the end of the hall.
On the day of the funeral the royal cortège solemnly passed
down the soldier-lined streets to the station. The sound of the
horses’ hoofs was deadened by the tan with which the roads were
strewn, and the silence was only broken by the piercing note of an
occasional clarion or the dull tattoo of the muffled drums. Grandees,
Gentlemen-in-Waiting, mace-bearers, and officers, all with crape
badges, preceded the catafalque, before which was borne the
standard of the Sisterhood of the Royal House, followed by the cross
and the clerics in their vestments. Finally came the band of the
halberdiers, whose soblike strains of a funeral march was in tune
with the occasion.
At last, for the first time in history, the remains of a Queen were
placed on a railway-train for the Escorial, and so the coffin of
Mercedes left the station amid the booming of the cannon and the
strains of the Royal March played for the last time in her honour.
A short time after the death of the Queen, Alfonso was the object
of a regicidal attempt as he was passing No. 93 of the Calle Mayor,
on his way from the station to the royal palace after a visit to
Asturias. The criminal was a young fellow, twenty years of age, from
Tarragona, named Juan Oliva Montcousi, and he was caught with
the pistol in his hand before he had time to discharge it. The young
King was enthusiastically acclaimed when he calmly pursued his
way home as if nothing had happened.
Alfonso’s three younger sisters, Doña Pilar, Doña Paz, and Doña
Eulalia, were often seen at this time in a quiet carriage making
excursions together, so when the news of the death of Doña Pilar
spread through the capital it gave quite a shock to Spain.
It was said that the death of the Infanta Doña Pilar was indirectly
due to a shock received during the review held in honour of the
Prince of Austria. This Prince was known to have made a favourable
impression on the Infanta, and if she had lived it would probably
have resulted in a marriage. But, unfortunately, as the artillery
carriages in the military function were passing down the Alcalá, one
blew up and killed several soldiers on the spot. Perhaps for a
moment the Infanta feared that the honoured guest was among the
killed and wounded. Be that as it may, she and other members of the
Royal Family were upset in the carriage, and she died six weeks
later.
Talk of the second marriage of the King followed very soon after
the death of Queen Mercedes, as a direct heir to the throne was so
essential to the country, and all eyes turned to Maria Cristina
Enriqueta Reniera, daughter of Charles Ferdinand, Archduke of
Austria, as the future Queen of Spain. The Duke of Bailen went to
Vienna to ask the Emperor Joseph of Austria for the hand of his
daughter, the Archduchess Maria Cristina, for his Sovereign, King
Alfonso of Spain.
On August 22 Alfonso arrived at Arcachon, incognito, under the
title of the Marquis of Covadonga, to claim in person the hand of the
Archduchess.
Alfonso had reason to expect he would be favoured by Maria
Cristina, as she had always seemed to enjoy his society when he
came to visit her family, as a young cadet from Sandhurst. The royal
wooer gave expression to his poetic feeling when he found himself
on such a delicate mission at the beautiful spot which had been so
frequented by our poet Shelley. People in the place seemed at once
to recognize the royal visitor, especially as he wore his arm in a
sling, from the effect of a carriage accident which had been noised
abroad.
Anxious for the interview which was to decide his fate, Alfonso
took a basket pony-carriage from Monaco to Arcachon, and, in
company with the Duke of Tetuan and the Spanish Ambassador from
France, he soon found himself at the Villa Bellegarde, the abode of
the Archdukes of Austria.
When the young King passed into the salon, where he was soon
welcomed by Maria Cristina, his eyes fell upon the portrait of
Mercedes, whom he had lost a few short months before, and he
soon found that his bride-elect was in sympathy with his sorrow for
his loss, for, in a voice trembling with emotion, she said:
“My dearest desire is to resemble Mercedes in all things, and
even if I am to succeed her I can never dare hope to supplant her.”
 Such a sympathetic speech could but unseal the heart of the
widowed King, and, having succeeded in his wooing, Alfonso could
hardly tear himself from the side of the young Archduchess, with
whom he could talk so freely of the wife he had lost.
On August 29 the young King finally left Arcachon; the
Archduchess accompanied him as far as Bordeaux, and the royal
marriage was fixed for November 29.
When the Archduke and Duchess and their daughter arrived at
the Casa de Campo on November 23, they were met by the King, his
three sisters, and the royal retinue, who accompanied them to the
Palace of the Pardo, where the marriage settlement was signed on
the 28th.
The bride-elect won all hearts by her delicate and sympathetic
behaviour on the occasion, for, turning to the Patriarch of the Indias,
she said, in a voice broken with feeling: “Pray that I may make the
King happy, for it is a difficult task to succeed a Queen who was a
saint, and who will always live in the affections of the King and the
people of Spain;” and here she drew a miniature of Mercedes from
her bosom, and gazed at it with respectful admiration.
This ceremony took place in the banqueting-hall of Ferdinand
VII., and, to the delight of the Spanish people, it was graced by the
presence of the ex-Queen, Isabella II.
“The great Isabella is coming!” was the cry that rang through the
capital, and the dethroned Queen was moved at the enthusiasm of
her quondam subjects as she passed through the city, for she saw
that there was more fidelity in her people of low degree than there
had been gratitude in the hearts of the great whom she had
overwhelmed with favours.
The wedding ceremony took place in the Church of Atocha, and
hardly was the service concluded when the King’s bride went and
knelt at the feet of Isabella and kissed her hand. It was a tribute of
gratitude to her royal mother-in-law, for it was a fact that the
influence of his mother had led the young King to take his new bride
from the House of Austria. Isabella had signified her disapproval of
the union with the Montpensiers by not being present at that
wedding, but this marriage she favoured from the beginning.
A few days after the royal marriage an attempt was made on the
lives of the young couple, by a man named Francisco Otero
Gonzalez, as they arrived at the chief entrance to the royal palace;
but, fortunately, although the bullet almost grazed the forehead and
neck of the King and Queen, they escaped unwounded.
Queen Maria Cristina is a very accomplished woman, and she
soon set herself to learn the language of her adopted country. In her
eagerness to master the tongue, she often turned to King Alfonso to
supply her with the word she required, and, in fun, he would often
supply her with some expression which she saw, by the looks of her
entourage, was hardly fitting for a lady. Maria Cristina proved she
had made great progress in Spanish when she was able, with all the
gracious courtesy for which she was noted, to ask of a certain
academician, who was complaining of the hatred of Sagasta, would
he not do better to use the word inquina than inquinia?
The affection with which the Queen inspired the young King was
seen in his daily letters to the Court when journeys on State
business obliged him to absent himself from Madrid.
“I have just put your carnation in water,” he would write; and the
many other allusions to their little domestic joys showed that the
heart of the King was with the Queen in his absence.
The Queen had to contend with national jealousy at Court when
she intimated her wish that her Austrian physician, Dr. Riedel, should
attend her in her forthcoming accouchement. Court etiquette was
not, however, to be set aside even by the chief lady in the land, so
the matter was finally settled by the doctors of both countries
presiding jointly over the event. Thus the little Princess of Asturias
made her entry into the world, on September 11, 1880, with her right
hand held by the Austrian physician, Dr. Riedel, and her left in the
grasp of the Court doctor of Spain.
The young King proudly presented his little daughter to the Prime
Minister and his Cabinet, the Court officials, and the military
diplomats and clerical dignitaries, assembled in the antechamber, as
she lay in a nest of costly lace on the historic silver tray.
On September 14 the baptism of the infant Princess of Asturias
was celebrated with all the pomp usual to the occasion. The galleries
were hung with the historic tapestries, representing Bible scenes.
The Royal Guard, in their classic dress and with their shining
halberds, formed a line on either side of the gallery between the
people and the royal procession.
First came the Gentlemen-in-Waiting, de casa y boca (of the
house and the mouth), their gold or silver keys signifying the
respective offices of attendance; then came four mace-bearers,
grandees of Spain, the men-at-arms with the royal arms, all the
Infantes and Infantas in full Court dress, with their ladies and
gentlemen in attendance; the seven gentlemen of the Chamber—the
Marquis of Salamanca, the Dukes of Almenara and Valencia, Count
Villanueva de Perales, the Marquis of Sotomayor, the Marquis of
Benamejis de Sistallo, and the Count of Superunda—all passed in
gorgeous dress and with stately step, bearing respectively the salt,
cut lemon, cruse of oil, piece of cotton-wool, the cake, the white
cape, and the water of Jordan, which all had their part to play in the
baptismal service.
The royal infant itself was carried between Isabel II., who was
godmother, and the Pope’s Nuncio, who represented His Holiness as
godfather. Then followed the proud young father, accompanied by
his military suite, and the procession ended with the band of the
halberdiers, playing a cheerful march from an opera. By the wish of
the Queen, the infant Princess was named, after her predecessor,
Mercedes.

D O N C A R L O S , P R I N C E O F A S T U R I A S , A N D H I S L AT E W I F E , T H E
I N FA N TA M E R C E D E S

It was in 1882 the King and Queen paid a visit to the Duke and
Duchess of Montpensier at their beautiful Palace of Sanlucar de
Barrameda, and the Queen won the hearts of her host and hostess
by her charming manners and the admiration with which she always
spoke of their daughter, the late wife of Alfonso.
On November 12, 1882, the Infanta Maria Teresa was born, and
two days later she was baptized with the customary ceremony.
On April 2, 1883, the King’s sister, Doña de la Paz, was married
very quietly to Prince Lewis Ferdinand of Bavaria. The Prince is a
very able surgeon, and when he comes to Madrid he delights in
going to the military hospital and exhibiting his scientific skill on
some soldier-patient.
The newly wedded pair laid the foundation-stone of the Cathedral
of the Almudena, and, according to the custom, the Princess de la
Paz placed in the casket a poem from her own pen to the Virgin of
the Almudena. The departure of the Infanta de la Paz left the Infanta
Eulalia with no companion in her musical and artistic tastes, for the
sisters had worked, played, painted, and poetized, together.
In September, 1883, Alfonso XII. went to France and Germany.
True to his old friends, the King went to see the Warden of the
Teresian College at his private house. As he was not at home,
Alfonso asked for a pencil and paper to write him a note, which he
handed to the servant. When she saw that the letter ran,

“I came to pay a debt of gratitude by coming to see you. I shall be

going to the Teresian College in two hours.
Alfonso, King of Spain”

she fell on her knees and entreated forgiveness for her stupidity in
having asked the royal visitor into the kitchen.
But Alfonso, with his usual kindness, expressed interest in this,
the first kitchen he had ever seen. He asked many questions about
the utensils, and showed great curiosity about the use of a ceramic
vessel, which, according to the description he subsequently gave
and the sketch he made of it to show the Court officials, proved to be
an egg-poacher.
The enthusiastic reception accorded to Alfonso at Homburg
excited the ire of the French, and so antagonistic was the exhibition
of public feeling as the young King was crossing Paris alone that he
informed the President of the Republic that he would recall his
Ambassador at once. This prompt act brought the necessary
apology, and the King of Spain subsequently attended the banquet
given in his honour at the Elysée, at which the Minister of War was
absent, as the President of France had asked him to send in his
resignation.
The news of this contretemps reached Spain, and when the
Queen returned from La Granja to Madrid she was at first quite
alarmed at the enthusiasm shown by the people at the station. She
clasped her children to her breast, and seemed to think she was on
the brink of a revolution. But her fears were soon stilled when
somebody shouted: “Señora, the Spanish people are only protesting
against the recent events in Paris.”
The return of the King from France saw an ovation of equal
enthusiasm, and, in defiance of all Court etiquette, the people
pressed up the staircases and into the galleries of the palace, crying:
“Viva el Rey y la Reina!”
It was on Maunday Thursday, 1884, that the Court went for the
last time in state to make the customary visits on foot to the chief
churches of the capital. There was the usual service in the morning
in the chapel of the palace, the washing of the beggars’ feet and
feeding them,[21] and the solemn, imposing public procession at
three o’clock in the afternoon. The streets were strewed with tan to
soften the cobbled stones to the feet of the ladies, whose high-
heeled velvet shoes rather impeded their walk. The streets were
lined with troops, and the Plazas de Oriente, Mayor, and La
Encarnacion, were respectively filled with the regiment of the
Princess of Pavia and the artillery.
[21] This ceremony is described on pp. 332-4.

First came a mounted company of the Civil Guard; then a long

line of kettle-drummers, the grooms and all the officials of the Court,
all in full dress; then the six men-at-arms with their embroidered
vestments, the Chamberlains, gentiles hombres, the grandees of
Spain, the King’s military retinue, etc.
Their Majesties walked between the lines of halberdiers, followed
by the Patriarch of the Indias, the Ministers of the Crown, the chiefs
of the palace, the Ladies-in-Waiting, and the Aides-de-Camp of the
King and Queen.
A Captain of the Guard and about thirty lackeys carried the
historic sedan-chairs, and notable among them were those of the
Dukes of Granada, Osuna, and Villahermosa, ornamented with
beautiful paintings.
The procession ended with a company of halberdiers and a
squadron of the royal escort.
Don Alfonso walked with martial step, his head in the air, and
smiling pleasantly to all the friends he saw. He was in the uniform of
Captain-General, with the Order of the Golden Fleece and other
decorations.
In this final public visit to “the Virgins,” the Queen wore a white
velvet robe embroidered with gold and ornamented with sapphire
buttons, and her necklace and bracelets were of the same precious
stones. She wore the Orders of Maria Luisa and the starred Cross of
Austria. The dress of the Infanta Isabella was of pale blue velvet
embroidered with flowers, and all the dresses and mantles of the
royal ladies were of equal magnificence, with tiaras of jewels and
feathers and mantillas on their heads, and, as all the ladies of the
Court also had their places in the procession in splendid attire, one
can imagine it was a superb show; but it was not one to be seen
again in the public streets.
The health of the King was now beginning to give anxiety at
Court, and loyal subjects regretted that people in high places did not
use their influence to stimulate the King in his good desires for the
welfare of the land, instead of pandering to his fancies with adulation
and flattery.
Charming ladies literally forced their way into the palace, and one
day Queen Maria Cristina gave a well-deserved[22] box on the ears
to the Duke of Sexto, when she came upon him introducing a dancer
of light character to His Majesty. It is noteworthy that one of the first
acts of the Queen as a widow was to ask this Duke to resign his post
at the palace.
[22] “La Vie intime d’Alfonse XII.,” par Croze.

It was to such flattering courtiers that Maria Cristina owed the

shadows which crossed the happiness of her married life, for under
good influence Alfonso would always have been true to Maria
Cristina, as the King loved and venerated her above all women; but
when politicians encouraged the escapades of an attractive young
Sovereign the wife’s influence was weakened. Queen Maria Cristina
was deeply offended when she found that her husband’s connection
with this Elena Sanz was a well-known fact, two sons being born to
the singer.
It was then that it was seen that the Queen was no mere weak
woman who would submit calmly to what might be termed los
costumbres (custom) of the Court; and when she found that the King
had a rendezvous with a señorita in the Casa de Campo, the
magnificent wide-stretching park beyond the palace, she declared
she would leave Spain and go back to Austria.
Nothing but the strong pleas and arguments of those about her,
including Alfonso XII., persuaded her to stay at the Spanish Court,
and it was certainly due to this illustrious lady that a higher morality
there became customary. For, as nobody ever was able to breathe a
word against her honour, she subsequently exercised her right, as
Queen-Regent, of sweeping the Court clean of those who smirched
its purity.
Moreover, those who had expected Alfonso XII. to save Spain by
the introduction of a pure and unmystified suffrage, such as he had
seen in England when studying at Sandhurst, were disappointed in
their hopes; for Canovas, the leader of the Conservatives, openly
said at Court: “I have come to continue the history of Spain”—which
meant the history when the voice of the people is not heard; and
Sagasta, the head of the Liberals, acted in the same spirit, although
he did not express himself so openly.
Canovas, the leader of the Conservatives, and Sagasta, the chief
of the Liberals, used all their eloquence at the Court of Spain to
persuade Alfonso XII. that sincere elections in Spain would lead to
the Carlists attaining a majority in the Congress. So the King, not
seeing that the leaders of both parties wished to prevent the
realization of a true Parliamentary representation, because it would
lose them their patronage of deputies’ seats, ended by signing the
Pacto del Pardo. This document, endorsed by the King at the
country palace, was simply an arrangement between Canovas and
Sagasta, by which each was insured an equal period as Prime
Minister, so that their respective partisans could feel that their
patrons had the same amount of influence.
 P R A X E D E S M AT E O S A G A S TA , L I B E R A L P R I M E M I N I S T E R

And yet Alfonso XII., who was overborne by what he considered

the experience of the two leaders, had the welfare of his country at
heart, for he said to Ernest Daudet: “I am Sovereign, and as long as I
am King of Spain I will never allow a Ministry to be overthrown by an
intrigue in the palace, as it has frequently happened hitherto. If the
country wants a Liberal Government, it shall have it; but, before
talking of liberty, Spain herself must have both liberty and stability. As
to those who say I am not accessible to truth, it is because they have
not tried to show it to me. The country is difficult to manage; it is
impatient, and cannot see, as I do, that its condition requires
prudence and management. We have remade the army; we have not
had a manifesto for three years. We have a standing army of 80,000
men, and we have been able to send 20,000 to Cuba. The
insurrection of Cuba is a great wound, and it must be healed before
we can cure the other evils.” But the King was never allowed to take
the sure means of healing these wounds; he was never permitted to
say: “I wish to respect the people and their votes, and by the Law of
the Universal Suffrage they can go to the polls.”
With the loss of the love of his life, the young Queen Mercedes,
Alfonso seemed to become enervated, and self-interested courtiers
found that they could use the King’s pocket for the protection of
needy ladies of all ranks.
Canovas and Sagasta were both aware of this abuse, and,
indeed, both these Ministers were themselves under the influence of
certain ladies, who used their power over these Ministers to their
own pecuniary advantage; for they themselves were liberally
rewarded for the titles which they persuaded these politicians to ask
the King to grant.
The Queen’s ignorance of Spanish when she first came to Madrid
made it more difficult to contravene the influence of the camarillas,
which wove their nets round the young husband, whose real wish for
the welfare of the country would have made him a willing disciple of
good advice.
Moreover, flattering courtiers carefully concealed from the King
the sad results which would inevitably follow his course of self-
indulgence, and the palace became a constant scene of camarillas
and intrigues which could but be disastrous to the land.
Even Nakens (whose protection of the anarchist Morral, after the
bomb tragedy of the royal marriage morn of May 30, 1906, led to his
being imprisoned for nearly two years) pays tribute to the wish of the
young King to act for the welfare of the kingdom, for, in a collection
of his articles published when he was in gaol,[23] we read an appeal
to Alfonso to consider his own good with regard to his health, and
not to listen to self-interested advisers.
[23] “Muestras de mi Estilo,” Nakens.

“Nobody,” says the writer in this appeal, “has the courage to warn
you of the impending evil. When the doctors order you change of
climate, the Government opposes the course for reasons of State.
‘Reasons of State’ imperil the life of a man! And a man to whom we
owe so much!
“Therefore, even as a republican, I beg you, as the occupier of
the throne, to look to your health, if it be only to overthrow some
iniquitous plan, or some unworthy object which is contingent on your
illness; and if scientists think it well for you to pass the winter in
some other place in Spain, or abroad, follow their counsel, and not
that of interested politicians, in sacrificing your life to their ambitions.”
It was certainly true that the King was overborne by the intrigues
of the politicians in the palace. Even in such a little social matter as
that of wishing to go in costume to a fancy ball, the King could not
have his own way, for Canovas showed such aversion to Alfonso
donning fancy attire for the occasion that he had to abandon the idea
and wear his ordinary dress.
If such influence had been used to the prevention of the King
favouring a danseuse like Elena Sanz, which brought so much
sorrow and so many complications in the Royal Family, his life might
certainly have been prolonged. It was true that the doctors advised
the King’s wintering in Andalusia, but “State reasons” led to the
failing Sovereign being exposed to the colder climate and sharp
winds of the Palace of the Pardo, where politicians could use their
influence with the invalid, and remind him continually that he alone
was the arbiter of parties.
 Alfonso was only twenty-seven years of age when he felt he was
doomed to an early death; but his natural energy led him to take
horse exercise, despatch business with his Ministers every day, and,
in spite of daily increasing weakness, to do as much as possible.
If his longing for the sea-breezes of San Sebastian had been
gratified, his life might have been prolonged; but politicians gave little
heed to the plea, and their authority was paramount.
On November 24, 1894, the royal invalid was seized with
faintness when he came in from a walk. Queen Maria Cristina,
Queen Isabella, and the Duchess of Montpensier, were called to his
side. Seeing his wife by him when he recovered consciousness, the
King embraced her, and the alarming symptoms vanished for a time;
but the following day he was seized with another fainting fit, which
proved fatal.
We read in La Ilustracion Española of this date, that when Queen
Maria Cristina was told by Dr. Riedel that all was over, she fell
weeping at the head of the bed of her unhappy husband, whilst
covering his hand with kisses.
 D E AT H O F A L F O N S O X I I .

After the Painting by J. A. Benlliure y Gil

Cardinal Benavides performed the sacred office of the occasion.

The doctor could not suppress his emotion, and hid his face, covered
with tears, in his hands; and Count Morphy, the King’s faithful
secretary, went sorrowfully to announce the sad news to the Queen-
mother and the rest of the Royal Family.
At nine o’clock the next morning the little daughters came to
embrace their father for the last time. The Queen, with only the
assistance of Dr. Camison, prepared the body of her husband for
burial, and she assisted at the obsequies in the Escorial with her little
daughter, the Queen of Spain. Arrived at the historic monastery, the
Augustine Brothers came to meet the sad cortège, in their black
vestments and holding lighted torches, and, headed by the Prior and
the Principal, the procession passed to the burial-place of the Kings.
 The iron seemed to enter the soul of Maria Cristina when the
Chief of the Palace cried before the catafalque: “Señor, señor,
señor!”
Solemn silence reigned. “Then our Sovereign really is no more,”
said the Chamberlain. He broke his wand of office, whilst the drums
of the halberdiers, the bells of the cathedral, and the booming of the
cannon, added to the solemnity of the occasion. The Bishop of
Madrid officiated at the final office, after the coffin was finally carried
with countless candles down into the Pantheon, which he had
entered ten years before in all the exuberance and with all the
illusions of youth.
Then the unhappy widowed Queen returned to Madrid, there to
pass the sad months till the child should be born who might prove
the future King of Spain.
It was an impressive sight to see the Queen, with her orphaned
little girls, take the solemn oath of Regency. Putting her hand on the
Gospels, which the President held open, she said:
“I swear by God to be faithful to the heir of the Crown during the
minority, and to guarantee the Constitution and the laws. May God
help me and be my Defence; and if I fail, may He require it of me!”
Then the Queen sat down with her little girls, and the Prime
Minister made the following formula:
“The Parliament has heard the solemn oath just made by Her
Majesty the Queen-Regent, to be faithful to the legitimate successor
of Don Alfonso XII., and to guard the Constitution and its laws.”
The marriage of the Infanta Eulalia with Don Antonio, son of the
Duke and Duchess of Montpensier, in 1886, was the next interesting
function at the Court of Spain.
The Montpensiers seized this fresh opportunity of becoming
connected with the Spanish Royal Family, and Doña Eulalia
augmented their riches by a large sum of money; but it seemed as if
fate wished to warn the Infanta that the marriage would not be
happy, for it was postponed through the illness and death of her
brother, and she was weeping as she came out of the royal chapel
on her wedding-day. And, indeed, it was not long before the Infanta
found her husband was utterly unworthy of her, and she now lives
apart from him.
The Infanta Eulalia was a great loss to the Court of Spain, where
her bright intelligence and charming ways had made her presence
like sunshine. She was twenty-two years of age when she married,
very pretty and high-spirited, an expert in riding and driving, and a
lover of all kinds of activity.
Her father, Don Francisco, and the Duke of Montpensier—who,
we know, killed Don Enrique, her uncle, in a duel—supported her at
the altar; and Queen Isabella, the Comtesse de Paris, the Queen-
Regent and her little daughters, were also at the ceremony.
This Infanta is often seen at the Court of Spain, with her son
Alfonso. It was she who warned Alfonso XIII., when he presented his
new-born son to the assembled Ministers, that the infant might catch
cold if exposed too long; and at the royal baptism on June 2, 1907,
she looked striking in her long train of scarlet velvet, with the satin
front sewn with jewels, and with scarlet plumes surmounting her tiara
of diamonds.
Even those who had not been in favour of Alfonso were rapidly
gained over to the Bourbons when they saw the difficult position of
the Queen-Regent. All the chivalry of the Spaniards was aroused to
support the young widowed mother in her trying task.
When a lady of the Court condoled one day with the royal widow,
and expressed wonder that she could so valiantly seek to steer the
ship of State whilst suffering the pain of loss, and not knowing how
fate would settle the question of the future Sovereign of Spain, Maria