Page:Catherine of Bragança, infanta of Portugal, & queen-consort of England.djvu/30

6 Then his wife spoke again. "This day our friends are assembled to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of our little Catherine, and who knows but this new guest may have been sent to certify you that it is the will of Heaven to invest you with that crown of which you have long been unjustly deprived by Spain ? For my part, I regard it as a happy presage that he comes on such a day." Turning to her attendants, she ordered them to bring into the Duke's presence the little daughter to whom he was so devoted. She took the child in her arms, and made her kiss her father, and she said softly, "How can you find it in your heart to refuse to confer on this child the rank of a king's daughter?" It is curious to reflect that, but for Catherine's own unconscious intervention, her life s history would never have been written as Queen of England. As the daughter of the Duke of Bragança she was no match for royalty. Her baby kiss turned the scale that made her a king's daughter; for her father instantly declared that he was willing to accept the proposals of the revolutionary party, and to place his life, his fortune, and his happiness at the service of his country. Dom Caspar Coutigno at once left Villa Viçosa, travelling over the fine roads where the bullock carts—unaltered in shape since the Roman occupation—grated on their united wheels and axles with a horrible sound, supposed by their drivers to scare away the devil. The rains of the winter weeks had not yet begun. He travelled swiftly to Lisbon. The plot was now complete in every particular.

On the morning of December 1 a pistol shot was fired as a signal. The assembled conspirators burst into the royal palace of Lisbon, drawing their swords, and shouting with one voice, "Liberty and Dom Joao the Fourth, King of Portugal!" They rushed through the rooms unresisted, beating back the Swiss guard and the Spaniards of the household. Vasconcellos, the Vice-Queen's secretary, urged by the officers and servants of the palace, fled before the approaching