1
la vecina corte, or la villa y corte, means 'Madrid'.
2
con vivas instancias, with hearty urging. Cf. the kindred sense in "instant (urgent) in prayer".
3
1848: Isabel II being queen. She was dethroned in 1868.
4
la República : it was twenty-five years later that Spain became a republic, and then relapsed in one year.
5
Ataulfo, Visigoth king; with Alaric, he overran Italy; died assassinated 415 A.D.
6
Pelayo, called "first king of the Spaniards". Died about 737.
7
Trastamara became king as Henry II. Died 1379.
8
Isabel II: 1830-1904; queen at three; niece of Don Carlos, who always opposed her.
9
Narváez: 1800-1868; general and statesman of great energy.
10
acontecimientos, happenings. Let the student note the ending -imiento, so common with -er and -ir verb stems.
11
vivían: the student must learn to recognize the subject far after the verb, constantly in this text, and commonly.
12
piadosas: any adjective may precede its noun in a complimentary way.
13
éranse que se eran, there were so there were: children's style; que, in such clauses as this, is frequently to be ignored in translation, or else is to be rendered by and. The verb ser rarely takes a reflexive.
14
salido en todo a su padre, had turned out to look like her father: salirse a, in the sense of parecerse a, to look like.
15
doméstica, servant: this poor girl is abused throughout the story.
16
hasta cierto punto, to a certain extent: not used here seriously, but rather trivially. The author often drops into a coterie style.
17
con faldas, with skirts on: facetious. Cf. hígado con pies y sombrero, 'a liver with feet and hat'. Niña de la Bola, p. 126. Such often in Alarcón.
18
Facilísimo: Felicísimo in the 10th edition.
19
dejara de, should fail to: preposition echoes the prefix.
20
prendarse de, be taken with: a common construction.
