Excerpt from Spain and the Spaniards, Vol. 2 of 2 The minister Castelar had written in his memo randum a few days before that the fall of the ancient Spanish monarchy was predoomed on that day when a mob of the populace, with curses on their lips and hatred in their hearts, had invaded the palace of Aranjuez to disturb the majestic repose of their sov ereigns. I had reached that square where on the 17th of March, 1808, occurred those events which were the prologue of the national war, and, as it were, the first word of the death-sentence of the ancient monarchy. My eyes quickly sought the windows of the apartments of the Prince of Peace; I imagined him, as he fled from room to room, pale and dis tracted, Searching for a hiding-place as the echo of the cry followed him up the stairs; I saw poor Charles IV., as with trembling hands he placed the crown of Spain on the head of the prince of the Asturias all the scenes of that terrible drama were enacted in fancy before my eyes, and the profound silence of the place and the sight of that palace, closed and desolate, sent a chill to my heart. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.