Leopold of Hohenzollern would have accepted had not France arisen to object, only to receive a sound thrashing for her pains.

Thus, for the second time in the world's history, Spain was the means of bringing a French empire to the dust.
Ferdinand of Portugal, a cousin to the Queen of England, himself a Coburg, finally declined the honour.

And Spain could not wait.

There was a certain picturesqueness in Prim, the usual ornamental General through whose hands Spain has passed and repassed during the last century.

He was a hard man, and the men of Spain, unlike the French, understand a martinet.