Page:Impressions of Spain in 1866.djvu/45

Rh 'it is more modest!' There is a charming little stud belonging to the Prince Imperial, which in- cludes two tiny mules not bigger than dogs, but in perfect proportions, about the size required to drag a perambulator. Some of the horses are English and thoroughbred, but a good many are of the heavy-crested Velasquez type. The carriages arc of every date, and very curious. Among them is one in which Philip I. (le Bel) was said to have been poisoned, and in which his wife, Jeanne la Folic, still insisted on dragging him out, believing he was only asleep.

More interesting to some of our party than horses and stables were the charitable institutions in Madrid, which are admirable and very nmnerous. It was on the 12th of November, 1856, that the M^re Devos, afterwards M^re Generale of the Order of St. Vincent de Paul, started with four or five of her sisters of charity to establish their first house in Madrid. They had many hardships and difficulties to encounter, but loving perseverance conquered them all. The sisters now number between forty and fifty, distributed in three houses in different parts of the city, with more than 1,000 children in their schools and orphanages, the whole being under the superintendence of the Soeur Gottofrey, the able and charming French