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XXII. THE FLIGHT OF EUGENIE. THIS lady, formerly styled Empress of France, and for years the most conspicuous woman in Europe, is now (1883) living in retirement in an English country house, a childless widow. Who else has had such a career as she ? She was born in Spain in 1826, in the province of Granada, the picturesque scenery and romantic traditions of which the pen of Irving has made familiar. Her father, the Count de Monti jo and Teba, was a grandee of Spain, from whom she inherited many titles of nobility. He died before her birth. Her mother, Maria Manuela Kirkpatrick, was a descendant of a Scotch family of the Roman Catholic faith, who emigrated to Spain after the fall of the Stuarts. Her childhood was passed in Madrid. The graceful self-possession which in after years characterized her demeanor was probably due to her early drill in the old Spanish etiquette. Washington Irving, who was then in Spain, knew her mother well, and was a frequent visitor at her house, where he soon made friends with the little Eugenie and her beautiful sisters, Maria and Henriquetta. In later years, when she was amazing Europe with the costliness of her costumes and the splendor of her court, he recalled with interest and amusement the many times he had held the future Empress on his knee, when she was an alert, dark-eyed little girl, doubtless very happy to be entertained with such stories of her native land as he could tell her. (288)