Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 February 1886 — Alfonso’s Ring of Ill-Omen. [ARTICLE]

Alfonso’s Ring of Ill-Omen.

Superstitious people in Spain comment on the fact that the late King wore a fatal ring. Among the presents which Don Alfonso gave to his wife, Donna Mercedes, there was a magnificent ring, ornamented with a large black pearl encircled with diamonds. The Queen wore it until the day of her death. The young King, after the loss of his first wife, presented the ring to his sister, the Infanta Pilar, who also wore it until she died. The superstitions shay easily have suspected, in such a land aS Spain, that the ring itself was not wholly unconnected with the rabidly successive deaths of the two beautiful yoking ladies who had worn it. The King would not give it. to a third lady, but he wore it himself until he also died. Queen Christina, who drew the ring from the finger of the dead monarch, debated for awhile whether she would herself wear it in memory of him, or would place it among the historic family jewels. She decided to take the latter course. A satirical fellow-countryman of Cervantes, in the Spanish court, is reported to have asked,“ \\ kv did nfit her Majesty send that ring to Don Carlos?” To Which another courtier replied; “The pretender would have marched straight to the pawnbroker’s with it; and so it would have failed to produce the result so desirable for Spain.”