.^V V ^O She ruled fourteen miUion souls ; she disposed of an enormous fortune, for 93 1 94 A Queen at Bay her late husband had left five million pounds in the Bank of England. But with this magnificent position, the Regent was not content. She was a woman and wished not only for power but love. There were many ready to love the Queen of Spain, but in the eyes of only one did she read love for Cristina de Bourbon. Once when driving she let fall her handkerchief. It was picked up by a young guardsman who pressed it to his lips and thrust it inside his tunic. The lover-like action did not escape the Queen's notice. The guardsman was a strikingly handsome fellow, about twenty-five years of age ; his name, she discovered, was Agustin Fernando Munoz. He came of a gentle but im- poverished family at Tarancon, where, it is said, his father at one time kept a tobacco store. Sus- pected of sympathy with Don Carlos, he had escaped dismissal from the guards only through his friend- ship with Franco, one of Teresita's lovers. The Queen found the soldier often in her thoughts. Their eyes met (we may believe) on the promenade and at levees. Perhaps they read their common secret, but while Fernando lived no word was said. Now that she was free, Cristina knew that her lover was waiting for her summons. Not a day, we may be sure, did Munoz ride out beside her but that he told himself his hope would now be realized. At last the moment came. As the royal carriage was driven towards the Buen Retiro palace, a white hand beckoned. The guardsman rode up A Secret Marriage and Open War 95 to the window of the coach, and his Queen spoke with him. It is strange that slander should have assailed Cristina, whose conceptions of morality were osten- sibly orthodox and conventional. The course she now pursued was very different from Catharine of Russia's. Either she would not take Munoz merely as a lover, or he would not take even the Queen- Regent of Spain as a mistress. The man, it should be said, was deeply religious. For that matter, once he had inspired the Queen with a deep-rooted passion, conscientious scruples could only prove profitable to him. Whether Cristina did in fact endeavour to overcome these scruples, or whether she shared them, we do not positively know. In the long run, she determined to make the guards- man her husband. It could have been no light love that prompted her to take this step. According to the law of Spain, if the Queen married again without the consent of the Cortes, she forfeited the regency. If she kept the marriage secret and it were later on discovered, all the acts of her government were liable to be declared void, and she, moreover, could be called upon to refund to the state her enormous salary of ^^450,000 a year. During the three months that followed Fernando's death, Cristina must have been a prey to very painful and conflicting emotions. But her passion was too strong to be resisted, and she sought an opportunity to execute her momentous resolution. 9^ A Queen at Bay On the 1 6th December, to the surprise of her household, she announced her determination of pro- ceeding to Quita Pesares, a small country seat which she owned near La Granja, and a very chill and comfortless residence at this time of year. A fire had recently occurred there, and she let it be thought that she proposed to inquire personally as to its cause. She may have had more than one motive for the expedition. Fernando, says one writer, had iron safes and secret chambers at La Granja, of which his widow alone had the keys, and the money soon afterwards lodged in Munoz's name in the Bank of England may have been drawn out of them. She set out, but a heavy fall of snow rendered the roads impassable. Not to be dissuaded from her project, the Queen ordered the way to be cleared, returned to Madrid, and next day started once more. She was accompanied only by Don Francisco Palafox, her aide-de-camp, Carbonell, the gentleman-usher, and by a single guardsman — Munoz. She took no women with her. On reaching the pass of Novacerrada over the Guadarrama Mountains, the coach skidded down the ice-bound slope, and had it not collided with a timber-waggon, would have fallen into a ravine. Cristina alighted, and walked up the pass, leaning on Munoz's arm. The circumstance was remarked at the time, and it was then, it was afterwards supposed, that the two first became acquainted. A Secret Marriage and Open War 97 Arrived at Quita Pesares, the Queen bade Palafox and the guardsman walk with her in the garden. Her Majesty was in good spirits and talked brightly. Suddenly she remembered that she had neglected to give certain instructions to one of the officers of the household. Palafox craved leave to convey the message, and went off leaving the Queen with Munoz. He probably was tactful enough not to return too soon. Cristina and the guardsman re-entered the palace affianced wife and husband. But to be married secretly was no easy task. Munoz applied first to the Bishop of Cuenca, in whose see his birthplace lay. In so grave a matter the bishop referred him to the Patriarch of the Indies. His Eminence was no friend to Cristina, and curtly refused to dispense with the formality of banns. In this extremity the Queen addressed herself to her friend Cardinal Tiberi, and by him the necessary license was granted. And at seven in the morning, on the 28th December, 1833, ^^^^ than three months after King Fernando's death, in the presence of only two witnesses, Don Miguel de Acabado and the Marques de Herrero, the Queen- Regent of Spain was married by the Rev. Antonio Marcos Gonzales to the son of the tobacconist of Tarancon. The love affairs of royal personages never fail to excite curiosity, but neither history nor gossip has much to say on the relations of Cristina and Muiioz. The Queen-Regent of Spain was in a 7 98 A Queen at Bay position to close men's mouths. She presently appointed Don Fernando her chamberlain and gentleman-in-waiting — an office created by the late King but which hardly seemed essential to the convenience of his widow. The courtiers noticed, later on, that the new favourite wore his deceased Majesty's scarf-pins, l^eople winked and shrugged i their shoulders. It was at this time that Cristina and Munoz were seen at the Conservatoire of Music she had herself founded, by Slidell Mackenzie, an officer in the United States navy. He writes : " The little theatre was fitted up with great neatness, simplicity, and good taste ; the curtain, which was very beautiful, represented a scene on the Tagus at Aranjuez. The members of the school were arranged in front ; the young men rather absurdly dressed, in elegantly embroidered coats, cocked hats, and swords, and the girls in shawls and bonnets ; the hats and bonnets were, however, now equally laid aside, and the pupils of both sexes wore the Queen's favourite colour, known in Spain as the Cristino blue. At the appointed hour the clatter of many hoofs in the street, and soon after, the clang of sabres and halberds falling on the marble pavement of the stairway and galleries, and shouts of ' Long live Cristina ! ' mingling with the stern orders of the miUtary officers, announced the arrival of the Queen. All rose to receive her, and she presently entered, accompanied by Don Francisco and Don Sebastian, with her two sisters, A Secret Marriage and Open War 99 their wives. As she advanced up the passage to her seat, she was received with enthusiastic vivas and waving of fans, which she returned with a rare grace, and a captivating smile directed to those she distinguished. Her height is good, and she is extremely well formed, though inclining to become large. She was dressed with great simplicity and good taste, in black with jet ornaments, and a panache in her hair, which was dressed d la Chinoise, Though her nose was somewhat large, and, withal, slightly retrousse^ yet the style of her face was decidedly good, and the effect, enhanced by a sweet air of amiability and goodness of heart, was quite captivating. She did not take her seat on the species of throne, surmounted by a canopy, which was placed at one side, but on the front rank of benches. The three Princesses were attended by their chamberlains, among whom I noticed parti- cularly one, on whose arm hung the Queen's pelisse of velvet and costly furs ... a very noble-looking man, with a classical cast of countenance, and a pale complexion, contrasting strongly with his black and nicely defined moustache, and a full dark eye which, while it reposed languidly within its lids, seemed capable of lighting up and kindling with excitement and fire. His plain dress of black, with no other ornament than the gold key which designated his office, corresponded with the simplicity and striking character of his whole person. I was told that his name was Munoz, whom it was 100 A Queen at Bay impossible not to look on as a most happy fellow, to hold an office of the kind about the person of so charming a lady. Though the acting was the best I had seen in Madrid, I was not sufficiently interested in it, not to find a much greater pleasure in looking at the Queen. Her head was finely shaped, with little ears fitting nicely and tightly on either side ; the first pair, indeed, that struck me as having any beauty ; then her neck was swan- like and faultless, and it so gradually and naturally spread out and expanded into such a noble founda- tion, increasing at each instant in beauty and charms, until it disappeared vexatiously beneath the dress ; but above all, when she turned her head, as she did from time to time, to notice and to salute the ladies about her, her countenance so lit up with smiles and became radiant with sweetness and amiability, that I could not keep from feeling towards her a degree of reverence and enthusiastic admiration, which was less a homage to her as a Queen, than to her exceeding loveliness as a woman." Another contemporary writer, Charles Didier, does not speak in such kindly terms of the Regent and her favourite. Though he entertained republican sympathies, his sense of decorum, oddly enough, seems to have been outraged by this intimacy between a sovereign and a commoner. He found it indecent and absurd that the father and mother of Munoz should come to Madrid, and occasionally occupy a box at the theatre, opposite to her Majesty; A Secret Marriage and Open War loi that they should drive in a chariot with three mules in the Prado ; that they should visit the Queen at the palace, and take leave of her with the words Jdios, hija ! (Farewell, daughter.) We see nothing very shocking in all this — proofs rather, we might consider these incidents, of Cristina's kindliness and independence of spirit. Her passion for pleasure betrayed her into much more unqueenly courses. Following the example of her sister, the Infanta Luisa Carlota, she condescended to organize sub- scription dances at the mansion of Conde Altamira, whose name the tickets bore. At carnival time these entertainments took the form of fancy-dress balls, to which were invited only persons whose names had been submitted to her Majesty. " There never was seen," says Didier, *' anything more comical than this co-operation of a queen and a grandee of Spain to get up cheap dances ; and certainly the thing could not have been done at less expense. The illustrious partners provided only the music and lights ; refreshments were extras, and dear ones at that, even if they took the shape only of a glass of water. You could smoke in the refreshment room, which was the most miserable sort of bar-room that can be imagined. Boys in shirtsleeves and dirty aprons served the ladies with their fingers, and the place reeked with the smell of oil-lamps. This voluptuous perfume, mingled with the odour of stale tobacco, penetrated like incense into the ball-room. The master of the house, who is about 102 A Queen at Bay- four feet tall, and who, they say, married his cook, hid himself in a corner, where no one noticed or spoke to him. His ancestors, painted by the great masters, presided over the ceremony like disdainful spectres. "As to the Queen, she danced a great deal, in spite of her stoutness, and with the first-comer. She was dehghtfuUy easy to please. Half a dozen decrepit old hidalgos, whose united ages would represent from four to five centuries, took dancing lessons at the Marquesa V/s to improve their style, and I have seen the Queen dance a gallop with a diplomatist of full seventy years. What was not less edifying was the public familiarity and quite conjugal intimacy of the Queen and her favourite, Muiioz. If she was dressed as a Napoletana, he was dressed as a Napoletano ; if he was Caius, she was Caia. " At the Altamira ball, Munoz behaved towards her as a husband towards his wife. It was he who conducted her to her carriage under the eyes of the urban militia, who lined the passage and presented arms ; he handed her in, he took his seat facing her, and the coachman whipped up his horses. They got off safely, except for a few jeers from the ranks. " The urban mihtia policed the mansion ; they assisted the door-keeper to collect the tickets and to scrutinize the guests ; they lined the corridors, the stairs, the antechambers, even the entry* to the A Secret Marriage and Open War 103 ball-room. The moment came when they were allowed to take part in the saturnalia : penetrating into the hall in solid squads, they enjoyed in turn the honour of dancing a waltz or rigadoon with the Queen of Spain and the Indies — who, let it be admitted, could not refrain from smiling at the pretentious capers and twirls of the citizen soldiers." Cristina was a true Neapolitan, and had, therefore, no very strong sense of dignity. The court of Spain at this period reminds us of that of Old King Cole of joyous memory. The writer just quoted assures us that the Queen and her intimates took delight in the most extravagant (and we might add, childish) buffoonery. A favourite amusement was to make one of the pages or scullions fish for a piece of money in a basin of soot ; and the more he blackened his face, the louder laughed her Majesty. She sat up a great part of the night playing tresillo ; and as your Neapolitan cannot do without Punchinello, so Ronchi was always at hand — as grotesque in aspect as his career was strange and picaresque. They may sneer who will at the Regent's jolUty ; I, rather, admire the woman who could not forget to laugh amid such dangers and perplexities. The Queen was jolly because she was brave. When her counsellors quaked, she smiled ; while they were pattering their prayers, she was capering about the ball-room in the arms of a militiaman. It is easy 104 A Queen at Bay to be grave when you are afraid. As no load could oppress Cristina, her heart could not be otherwise than light. She had cause enough for anxiety. The quiet at Madrid following immediately on the death of the King and the proclamation of her daughter was but the calm before the storm. The first claps of thunder were heard at Talavera, but the war-cloud burst over Biscay. This and the two other Basque provinces (Guipuzcoa and Alava), with the adjoining kingdom of Navarra, formed the stronghold of the Carlist and Apostolic interest. The Basques were afterwards referred to by a Spanish statesman as republicans who fought that all other Spaniards might be enslaved. Ever since their incorporation with the monarchy, they had enjoyed what was, In fact, a republican government of their own, subject to the overlordship of the King of Spain. The Navarrese also boasted their liberties or fueros. As a result of the immunities thus secured to certain provinces, the burden of defending the vast Spanish empire fell almost wholly on the people of the old kingdom of Castille and Leon. This was an anomaly which Liberals, it was well known, would not tolerate much longer. Carlos, on the other hand, stood for the old system, intact and unre- formed, with its anomalies and abuses. In him the Basques and Navarrese shrewdly recognized their champion. It was indeed a courageous and con- sistent conservatism that maintained liberty in one A Secret Marriage and Open War 105 part of the kingdom and obstinately refused it to another. The citizens of Bilbao — the busiest port on the north coast of Spain — were for the most part staunch adherents of the child Queen ; but in the pro- vincial assembly the Carlists had a large majority and promptly expelled their opponents from the council chamber. On the news of Fernando's death reaching the province, a swarm of royalist volunteers and militia burst into the town, overawed the citizens, and, to the firing of shots and clashing of steel, proclaimed Carlos V. King of Spain and Lord of Biscay. At Vitoria, the capital of the province of Alava, a large force of armed peasantry was raised by a deputy named Verastegui, and the regular garrison was compelled to evacuate the district and to retire on San Sebastian. This port — the chief town of Guipuzcoa — was held in force by the Queen's troops, and its people, like those of Bilbao, were liberal in their sympathies. The other towns in the three Basque provinces all declared, in the first fortnight of October, for the Pretender. Navarra was fain to follow their example. The brand of war was kindled by Santos Ladron, a gentleman of the province, who had fought gallantly against the French, and with equal valour against the friends of liberty in 1821. Since that time, his conservative principles had waxed stronger as his intellect became weaker. He was partially insane io6 A Queen at Bay when he gave battle at Los Arcos to a detachment from the Queen*s garrison at Pamplona. His force was routed, and he was taken prisoner, after an heroic resistance. He was tried by a court-martial, sentenced to death, and shot in the ditch 6f the fortress. He protested when ordered to turn his back to his executioners : " However/' he said, " I will die as you wish. To call me a traitor will not sully my fame ; Santos Ladron has always been a gentleman." The Carlist chief's wife was at Lodosa when she heard of his arrest. She posted off at once towards Madrid, in the hope of obtaining his pardon from the Queen. At Burgos she learned that she was too late. She afterwards married another Carlist general, who met with the same fate as the first, being shot at Estella by order of his own command- ing officer three years later. Rebellions are crushed on the field of battle, not on the scaffold or by the platoon. The Carlists of Navarra were exasperated by the execution of the half-crazy Santos Ladron. Nearly fivt hundred young men — all good potential soldiers — stole out of the town, and went to swell a force that Don Benito Eraso had collected in the far-famed pass of Roncesvalles. The defenders of "the sombre Pampelune " beheld from her girdle of towers the watchfires of the Carlist bands burning on every height, the flag of rebellion floating over every village and steeple. Across the-Ebro, the plains of A Secret Marriage and Open War 107 Castille were scoured by the terrible Parson Merino, one of those human tigers that the incessant war- fare of the past twenty years had bred in every part of Spain. His reverence had found his true vocation in consequence of an insult put upon him by a detachment of French chasseurs. They loaded him with their musical instruments, and forced him to carry them many a weary league, as though he had been a beast of burthen. Casting aside the cassock, he indulged his native ferocity at the expense of the invaders, and at a later period, of his own liberal countrymen. Fernando VII. made much of him and gave him a canonry at Valencia. As, however, he lived openly in the coarsest de- bauchery, and was accustomed to threaten his fellow ecclesiastics with pistols, he was relieved of his functions, though continuing to enjoy the stipend attached to them. Men of this sort naturally sup- port a despotic monarchy, which by its insistence on devotion to the throne as the primary duty of man inevitably weakens his self-respect and his social instincts. Merino did not scruple during Fernando's reign to vow fidelity to his daughter ; but the breath had no sooner left the King's body than he put himself at the head of three or four thousand ex- soldiers and brigands and ** pronounced " for Carlos V. To judge from Auguet's account of the parson, much fighting seems to have unhinged his mind. " Merino [writes the Frenchman] is not more io8 A Queen at Bay than fifty-eight years old. He stands only five feet two inches high, but for all his apparent frailty, is possessed of a vigorous constitution. His features are pronounced, his eyes large and deep- sunken. No man ever endured fatigue so long or so well. He does not smoke, he drinks no wine, he eats very little, and sleeps fifteen minutes only in the twenty-four hours. While in the field, he sleeps only on his horse, or beside it, when it remains saddled. His followers have never seen Merino sleeping among them. When the sun goes down, he halts his troops, and orders them to bivouac in a spot he selects ; then, followed by a single orderly, he buries himself in a wood three or four leagues away, and is seen no more till dawn. " Merino has no particular uniform for his men. He lets every man dress as he likes, and clothes himself almost in rags, wearing a miserable battered hat. On entering a town, he is recognized only by the beauty of his horse. His arms are the sabre, a pair of pistols that he carries in his pockets, and a very short blunderbuss. He loads it with sixteen to twenty balls at the same time ; the powder he places in his saddle wallets. In action, he puts a handful of powder in the barrel of his gun, and to fire it is obliged to place it under his right arm and to hold the end of the barrel by the left hand, to break the force of the recoil of this terrible weapon. " Merino is personally very brave. He is also A Secret Marriage and Open War 109 very lucky, and it is very difficult, if not impossible, to take him prisoner. He has always two horses with him, the finest and the best groomed perhaps in all Castille. They are so well trained that, how- ever fast they gallop, they keep pace with each other. When Merino feels that the horse he is riding is tired, he jumps on to the back of the other without slowing up for the space of half a second. It is thus that he escaped from the Lusitanos, who defeated him at Palenzuela in 1823. " The space of forty leagues that intervenes be- tween Burgos and Madrid affords him a safe asylum. He can pass through every town and village, with no more than four followers, without running any risk or meeting with any other enemy than the troops sent to pursue him, whom he always evades.'' Every messenger that came galloping into Madrid in the first month of the new reign brought tidings of a Carlist rising at some fresh point. Cristina set her teeth, and nerved herself for a Hfe-and-death struggle. A small army was at present stationed on the Portuguese frontier, under the command of Sarsfield, one of the many Spanish officers of Irish parentage. To him the Regent sent orders to march at once into the Basque provinces, which were now seen to be the focus of the insurrection. Sarsfield was half a Carlist at heart, but his word was pledged to the Queen, and he set his troops in motion. He broke up Merino's bands, and the no A Queen at Bay fighting parson was glad to find a precarious asylum with the Pretender in Portugal. The Queen's army passed the Ebro. Vitoria and Bilbao opened their gates. The banner of Carlos V. staggered to its fall. It was seized and uplifted by the strong hands of Tomas Zumalacarregui, a native of Guipuzcoa, and a colonel of infantry. Now forty-five years of age, he could look back on long periods of active service against the French and against the Constitutionalists in the twenties. When des- potism was restored, he was appointed to several important posts, and distinguished himself in all of them as an able administrator and a drastic reformer. As governor of El Ferrol, he ruthlessly and fearlessly suppressed a society of brigands, which included, as sleeping partners, several of the most highly placed persons of the district. When the extreme royalists became objects of suspicion to the King, he was relieved of his command, in dis- regard of his passionate protests. It was this sHght, one of his biographers does not scruple to affirm, that drove him into the arms of Don Carlos. This seems an unfair statement, seeing that his reactionary views must have been the cause and not the result of his dismissal. Zumalacarregui was not, it must however be admitted, insensible to personal con- siderations. He had refused to serve his country in South America, owing to his dislike of his superior officers. Smarting now with a sense of unmerited A Secret Marriage and Open War m injury, he withdrew with his family to Pamplona. The shots that announced the death of Santos Ladron were to him the signal to take the field against the detested Liberals. Muffled up in a cloak, he slipped out of Pamplona, and appeared in the Carlist camp at Piedramillera. Eraso, the first officer to pronounce for Don Carlos, was at the moment a prisoner in France, and Don Francisco Iturralde considered himself the chief of the Pretender's forces. When his followers elected Zumalacarregui to the supreme command, he refused to yield it up, and was placed under arrest in con- sequence. Presently Eraso himself — escaped from France — appeared on the scene, and acquiescing in the Basque's assumption of the leadership, compelled Iturralde to do the same. These divisions healed, the disheartened Carlists were soon conscious of a new spirit throughout their ranks. The straggling bands came to wear the look of an organized military force ; the neatly planned and executed capture of the arsenal at Orbaiceta supplied them abundantly with the munitions of war ; the Queen's troops felt the resistance stiffen before them. Even the obtuse Pretender — slow to recognize merit of any kind — realized that he had a tower of strength in the Basque colonel, and hastened to confirm him in the command of his forces. Spain had produced one of her few great soldiers, only to be a thorn in her side, and nearly to prove her undoing. What manner of man he was, we are told 112 A Queen at Bay by one of his most ardent admirers and devoted followers — a young English soldier of fortune, named Henningsen, who took service under him. Zumalacarregui "was at that period in the prime of life, and of middle stature ; but on account of the great width of his shoulders, his bull-neck, and habitual stoop, the effect of which was much increased by the zamarra or fur-jacket which he always wore, he appeared rather short than otherwise. His profile had something of the antique — the lower part of the face being formed like that of Napoleon, and the whole cast of his features bearing some resemblance to the ancient basso-relievos which are given us as the likeness of Hannibal. His hair was dark without being black ; his moustaches joined his whiskers ; and his dark grey eyes over- shadowed by strong eyebrows, had a singular rapidity and intensity in their gaze — generally they had a stern and thoughtful expression ; but when he looked about him, his glance seemed in an instant to travel over the whole line of a battalion, making in that short interval the minutest remarks. He was always abrupt and brief in his conversation, and habitually severe and stern in his manners ; but this might have been the effect of the hardships and the perils through which he had passed in his arduous struggle and the responsibility he had drawn upon himself I have heard from those who were well acquainted with him before he became the leader of a party, as^ well as from his widow, p. 112] From a lithograph afler the drawing by A. AJaurin ZUMALACARREGUI A Secret Marriage and Open War 113 that he had much changed in temper during the last two years of his life. He had always been serious, but without those sudden gusts of passion to which he was latterly subject ; and also without that unbending severity of demeanour, which be- came afterwards a striking feature of his character. Those who have undergone the painful experience of a civil war, will agree with me in thinking that the scenes of strife and massacre, the death of his partisans, and the imperious necessity of reprisals on fellow-countrymen and often on friends, whom the virulence of party opinion armed in mortal contest ; exposure to innumerable hardships and privations, the summer's sun and winter's wind ; the sufferings and peril in which his followers were constantly placed, and his serious responsibility were enough to change considerably, even in a brief space of time, Zumalacarregui's nature. It was seldom that he gave way to anything like mirth; he oftenest indulged in a smile when he led his staff where the shot were falling thick and fast around them, and he fancied he detected in the countenances of some of his followers that they thought the whistling of the bullets no pleasant tune. To him fear seemed a thing unknown ; and although in the commence- ment a bold and daring conduct was necessary to gain the affections and confidence of rude partisans, he outstripped the bounds of prudence, and com- mitted such innumerable acts of rashness, that when he received his mortal wound, everybody said it 8 114 A Queen at Bay was only by a miracle that he escaped so long. He has been known to charge at the head of a troop of horse, or spurring in a sudden burst of passion the white charger which he rode, to rally himself the skirmishers and to lead them forward. His horse had become such a mark for the enemy that all those of a similar colour, mounted by officers of his staff, were shot in the course of three months, though his own always escaped. It is true that on several occasions he chose his moment well, and decided more than one victory and saved his little army in more than one retreat by what seemed an act of hare-brained bravery. His costume was invariably the same — the hoina^ the round national cap or heret of the province, of a bright scarlet, woven of wool to a texture re- sembling cloth, without a seam, and stretched out by a switch of willow inside ; the zamarra of the black skin of the merino lamb, lined with white fur, and an edging of red velvet with gilded clasps ; grey, and latterly red, trousers,; and the flat heavy Spanish spur, with the treble horizontal rowels, originally used by the caballeros to ring on the pavement when they went through the streets. The only ornament he ever wore was the silver tassel on his cap. As he rode or walked at the head of his column, his staff, about forty or fifty officers, following — his battalions threading the moun- tain roads as far as the eye could reach, with their bright muskets and grotesque accoutrements — the A Secret Marriage and Open War 115 whole presented a scene novel and picturesque. The general gave more the idea of an Eastern chief than a European general. One might have imagined Scanderbeg at the head of his Albanian army ; and certes his semi-barbarous followers could have been no wilder in appearance than the Carlists in the early part of the campaign. To me Zuma- lacarregui seemed always like the hero of a bygone century. He was of a period remote from our own, when the virtues and vices of society were marked in a stronger mould — partaking of all the stern enthusiasm of the middle ages ; something uncommon and energetic in his features seemed to indicate a man formed for great and difficult enter- prises. You might have fancied him one of those chiefs who led the populations of Europe to war in the Holy Land ; he possessed the same chivalrous courage, unflinching sternness, and disinterested fervour which animated those religious zealots who found it easier to win heaven with their blood on a battle-field than through penitence and prayer." His harsh and gloomy temper notwithstanding, Zumalacarregui was loved by his men. To them he was known as Uncle Thomas (^Tto Tomds). Considering his readiness to punish his troops with death for trifling infractions of discipline, this de- votion may seem unaccountable to us ; but we are speaking of a people notorious for their indiff^erence to life, and all willing to take it or to forfeit it on the most frivolous pretexts. The general, in spite ii6 A Queen at Bay of his unattractive manner, exercised a strange fascination over those with whom he came in contact. Henningsen admits that had Carlos aban- doned his own cause, he would have remained to follow Zumalacarregui. He was, in short, a leader who inspired boundless confidence. His shadow it was that fell darkest over the cot of the child Queen at Madrid. CHAPTER VII QUEEN AND PARLIAMENT CARLOS was too little of a man, Cristina too much a woman, to win or to keep a crown. The upbringing of royal personages generally appears to be intended to stifle their humanity ; but the daughters of Francesco I. received little education of any sort, and relapsed into mere womanhood as soon as their gilded fetters were snapped by death. In February 1833 Europe was electrified by the disclosure of the marriage of the Duchesse de Berry with an Italian nobleman. The Princess's political significance at once came to an end. Her sister's fate could not warn off Cristina from the quicksands of love. Only, she resolved not to be found out. But that was to ask too much of herself and of fate. The faithful consort of the King of Spain found her interests bound up with those of the throne — the affairs of the kingdom were her domestic concerns. The mother and regent of the Queen of Spain was governed by the supreme necessity of keeping the crown on the brow of her child. But the wife of Agustin Muiioz had for her chief interest 117 ii8 A Queen at Bay in life — her husband. No longer was she concerned only with the maintenance of the dynasty. Queen- ship was now only her profession, and was a part of, not all, her life. Conjugal love is an egoism a deux. Duty's claims are quickly forgotten in the beloved's. Cristina's interests were at present in- separable from her daughter's, but she was a fond and anxious wife, determined to assure her own and her husband's future. She had never under- stood the meaning of principle — the Bourbons never did — and the bold words about transmitting the sceptre intact and unimpaired to her daughter had been put into her mouth by Cea. She did not wish to go on her travels just then. She had her husband to consider. She was enormously rich, but she wanted more money — for her husband and the children that were to be born. Her second marriage intensified the woman's defects. She became grasping and dishonest. The kingdom, even her daughter, began to take a subordinate place in her thoughts* Munoz, luckily perhaps, was strangely devoid of ambition. He wanted to get through life com- fortably and quietly. The dismal ending of Godoy was ever before his eyes. Considering the love the Regent bore him, his influence must in reality have been great ; but he was contented with the substance of power and did not want the name. We are very well as we are, husband and wife said to each other ; Isabelita must be kept on the throne, of course ; but we must not sacrifice her interests as well as Queen and Parliament 119 our own by a blind adherence to this or that principle. These family considerations saved the little Queen's crown. The progress of the Carlist rising, the lukewarmness of the royal troops, had opened men's eyes to the weakness of the government, and the haughty manifesto signed by the Regent seemed a blast of empty bravado. It was soon answered, and by two of the most trusted supporters of the direct succession. Quesada, appointed Captain- General of Old Castille, announced his assumption of office in a proclamation wherein he went out of his way to attack the autocratic theories of the government and to urge the necessity of re- presentative institutions. His colleague Llauder followed his example. He told the cabinet that their policy could end only in disaster, and that neither men nor money would be forthcoming till there was liberty in Spain. Cea Bermudez was furious at these remonstrances. It was not the business of soldiers to dictate to the civil power — cedant arma toga. True ; but Cristina cared nothing for maxims of government. She talked over the generals' manifestos with her husband. Would it be safe to disregard them } She listened intently. The voice of the country pronounced in favour of the captains-general. There were ovations to Llauder at Barcelona. There must then be more constitution-making. Cristina had realized by this time that her daughter wore the crown by favour 120 A Queen at Bay of the liberal party. To antagonize them would be to give the crown to Don Carlos. Cea Bermudez must go. He accepted his dismissal with ill grace. He believed in his system, and also that he was the one man needful to the country — a delusion common to statesmen. As he handed over the seals of office to Cristina, both must have remembered that day of the King's death, when but for his wise promptitude all might have been lost. Constitutions are the bugbears of the Bourbons, but since one was necessary, it must be framed so as to concede as little as possible while appearing to concede much. To launch such a pseudo-con- stitution, a pseudo-liberal was wanted. Cristina was reminded of Martinez de la Rosa, whose poetry she had read with pleasure. Certainly the verses had betrayed no striking originality of ideas or force of character, but these were not the qualities she required in a minister. The days had long gone by since the writer had demanded the penalty of death for any one who should propose to alter the constitution of Cadiz. The fiery democrat of 1814 had passed a period of exile in England, where the neutral tints of our institutions had soothed his aesthetic soul. On his return to Spain, he was employed by Fernando VII. He had acquired English tricks of thought and expression. He was heard to say that it is better to put up with a known abuse than hazard the possible ills of reform. These sentiments restored him to the favour of the great, Queen and Parliament 121 whose houses he exclusively frequented. In the country he was still reputed a Liberal, on the strength of his youthful performances. This gifted moderate society gentleman seemed to her Majesty the very man for her purpose. He was summoned to the palace, and directed to form a ministry. The Queen talked to him about a constitution. Martinez de la Rosa was prepared to draft one — with every regard, he assured her Majesty, for her royal prerogative and dignity. We can imagine that Cristina was more specific, and took care to define the limits of her prerogative. The minister, having received his instructions, set to work. For the space of three months, he and his colleagues were tremendously busy. They met daily behind closed doors, and suffered no whisper of their portentous deliberations to reach the out- side world. Spain waited patiently for the marvellous political monument that should be the result of their labours. " The great day," says a Spanish writer, '' at last arrived, one morning in April ; Mount Sinai re-echoed with the blast of trumpets, and the new tables of the law fell from the clouds upon the head of Israel." Spain is strewn with the shreds of constitutions, and we need not waste time in discussing the Royal Statute, as the new charter was significantly called. It was supposed to be an affirmation and revival of the ancient institutions of the country, Martinez de la Rosa having heard a great deal in London 122 A Queen at Bay about respect for tradition and the gradual evolution of reforms. He had forgotten another saying of equal authority, about new wine in old bottles. A system that suited Spain in 1300 was not likely to suit her five hundred years later. However, here was a parliament of two chambers — estates, they were called — one, at least, of which was elective, and though it had no other right than that of petitioning the crown, it seemed to Cristina and her advisers that they had conceded all that the nation could have hoped for. On May 25 writs were sent out for the elections, and the Cortes was summoned to assemble in the following July. The Queen went into summer quarters at La Granja to await the results of what seemed to her no doubt a hazardous experiment. It was dan- gerous work handling these strange, unknown people, whom she saw always afar off. What did they think of her ^ What did they really want ? Why did so many millions of strange men obey her, a woman, and her infant child, while never ceasing to grumble and to threaten ? These were questions Cristina must have asked herself over and over again. If the despot is incomprehensible to the people, how much more must the people be incomprehensible to the despot, conscious as he must be of his frailty and isolation. From the height of the throne, the Regent saw the Spanish nation like a great sea — one day calm and smiling, the next, and for no apparent reason, raging, black, Queen and Parliament 123 and terrible ; but always profound, always inscrutable, with undercurrents imperceptible to her. Now, in this torrid July, this great ocean of humanity seemed to reflect the mood of the sky above. A storm was brewing above the earth and on the earth. Madrid lay in the grip of the cholera. In the streets, in the houses, the people died ; their bodies lay in the roadway, for there were not carts enough or hands ready to carry them away. A dreadful heat and silence oppressed the city. It stifled beneath an awful canopy of huge black clouds, seeming to descend closer and closer to earth. The atmosphere quivered with discharges of electricity. Over the vast royal palace the sun, as a direful ball of fire, was visible through a blood- red cloud. The stillness was rent by the discharge of musketry and the ringing of bells. Madrid had turned from terror to fury. The monks had threatened the people with the chastisements of Heaven if they forsook Don Carlos. The penalties the holy men had invoked, they should be held accountable for. It must be they who had brought this scourge upon the city. They had poisoned the wells ! Who started the rumour it will never be known. The Jesuits of San Isidro were the first to perish ; thence the crowd rushed to the monasteries of Santo Tomas, of La Merced, and of San Francisco, burning, slaughtering, pillaging. " Why should all monks be cowards?" asked Becket. Those of San Francisco 124 A Queen at Bay were not. They died with arms in their hands, defending their hearths and altars. The Spanish people had indeed recognized the clergy as the ministers of Heaven. This tempest of indignation exhausted itself almost before the arm of the law could make itself felt. The news was brought to Cristina. A new tide was flowing — the devout Spanish people hated the monks. It was an angry people, too, for the moment at any rate. With such there must be no sign of fear. With infinite relief, the Queen must have congratulated herself that she was not born a coward. She would open parliament in person. She had to face a worse ordeal even than the pestilence and angry populace. Within three or four months, she, the Queen-Regent of Spain, would become a mother. But she did not flinch. On July 24 she drove from La Granja to Madrid. Gracious and smiling, she passed through the plague- stricken streets, as if death dared not attack the ruler of Spain. The courage of the citizens revived as they marked her dauntless bearing. She was more daring f than they knew. Her form cramped and compressed within a panoply of whalebone, she stood on the throne, the cynosure of hundreds of curious eyes, and read without faltering every word of her long speech. Twice she had to run the gauntlet of that numerous assembly ; and then, at last, sank back in her carriage, to be driven at full gallop to La Granja. She had defied exposure, Queen and Parliament 125 the cholera, and the anger of her subjects, and defied them successfully. The winter approached, and it was time to leave the highlands of La Granja. The cholera had almost spent its force, but Cristina suddenly mani- fested fear of it, and would not return to the capital. She shut herself up in the little hunting-lodge of El Pardo, a few miles out of the town, and lived in the deepest seclusion, surrounding herself with a strict sanitary cordon. None were to approach her but her confidential servants living in the palace, so great was her fear of infection. On the night of the 7th November the cry of a child was heard in her Majesty's apartment. Cristina had borne Munoz, as she had borne Fernando VII., a daughter. A discreet dame, Senora Castanedo, was in attendance. To her care the little one was confided. She took it with her to Segovia, and presently the Queen deemed no further precautions against the cholera necessary. She appeared once more in public. Presently the good people of Segovia began to wonder at the luxurious clothing and cradling of the baby that had come amongst them. The child might have been a princess ! They wondered still more when Senora Castanedo took her charge to Aranjuez at the moment the Court removed thither. Busybodies interested themselves in the matter, and said the infant was often taken to Quita Pesares, where Cristina and Munoz had been seen fondling it. Doubt became certainty. 126 A Queen at Bay The Queen-Regent of Spain was the mother of the guardsman's child. It is hard to imagine a situation more painful for any woman. Cristina was the most conspicuous person in all Spain, and in the eyes not only of her own subjects but of all Europe she stood apparently guilty of unchastity. That she had a complete answer to her traducers — that she was the lawful wife of her child's father — must have made her position the more galling, since she could not, or would not, speak. For her silence most people condemn her, which, strange to say, I do not. Speaking in the terms of orthodox Catholic morality, she knew that she was innocent of the " crime " imputed to her. That she should have disregarded allegations she knew to be unjust is a proof possibly of insensibility, certainly of courage ; assuredly it was not a sin. In the reprobation meted out to her for her so-called shamelessness, we have another instance of the persistent confusion of prudence and expediency with morality. It is obvious, indeed, that only a woman of coarse fibre could have endured such a position ; but Cristina did not come of a dynasty noted for delicacy of feeling, and the perils she was called upon to confront were not calculated to , develop the peculiarly feminine qualities. That Cristina was not wholly insensible to her position is shown by the efforts she made to conceal the birth of her children ; but the regency of Spain and the maintenance of her daughter on the throne Queen and Parliament 127 were, after all, to be preferred to her good name as a woman. A few years more, and she could triumphantly clear herself. From another point of view her conduct is not so easily defended. According to the law of Spain, she had forfeited the regency by her second marriage. Therefore, she cheated the nation every time she drew her salary of ^450,000 per annum. No one can deny that Cristina was fond of money and that the salary was a consideration ; but in giving up the regency, salary or no salary, she would have jeopardized her daughter's throne and have been obliged to sacrifice the guardianship of her own child. Surely these considerations abundantly justified her bold front in face of the slanders and gibes of Europe. Except for her husband, she was alone. Almost immediately after the death of Fernando, the affection between her and Luisa Carlota perceptibly cooled. It is clear that in some way she disappointed the expectations of that fiery Princess or of her husband. Probably she proved a less docile instrument than they had hoped. Her obvious intimacy with Munoz seems to have incensed her sister still more against her. So wide became the breach that the two were never seen together in public ; nor would they visit the same houses. But when the spreading of scandalous rumours was traced to the Infanta, the Queen intimated that her patience was at an end. Their Royal Highnesses took the hint, and retired to Paris. Cristina's younger sister also, perhaps 128 A Queen at Bay unwillingly, abandoned her. Her husband, the young Infante Sebastian, had subscribed to the accession of Isabel II. in the church of San Geronimo ; but the threats and entreaties of his masterful mother, the Princess of Beira, prevailed over his sense of honour. He left the court with his young wife and proceeded to Barcelona, intending to raise the Catalans in his uncle's favour ; but Llauder was too clever for him, and the only sword he brought to the Carlist camp was his own. These desertions did not dash the Queen's spirits. So long as she had her ov/n way she was happy. Her husband was submissive, her ministers sym- pathetic. Cristina could only love those who obeyed her, and could thus minister more easily to her pleasures. We must not imagine her a woman loving to conquer, or cherishing those weaker than herself with a protective instinct ; but as an easy- going yet self-willed woman, regarding opposition as a bore and everything unconnected with her own welfare with apathy. She was capable of affection only for those who were the furniture of her environment. Her passion for Mufioz differed in degree, not in kind, from her regard for her favourite cushion. It is always pathetic when persons of this tempera- ment are called upon to confront perpetual enmities and perplexities. We hear them complain. If only everybody would do exactly what I want, I'm sure there would be no trouble ! Cristina, as we know, Queen and Parliament 129 took her troubles philosophically. When Carlos was reported to have escaped from England and to have appeared in Navarra, she shrugged her shoulders. " Un faccioso de mas ! " (One rebel the more !), remarked Martinez de la Rosa, and the words represented not only his but his mistress's state of mind. Rodil, who now commanded the Queen's troops in the north, thought the one rebel more worth capturing. He had no better luck than in Portugal. In his frantic efforts to run the Pretender to earth, he cut up his forces. Zumalacarregui was not the man to miss an oppor- tunity, and inflicted three smart defeats on the Cristino columns. Rodil was superseded in his command by Mina, an old hand at guerilla warfare. The Carlist chief found himself opposed by one of his own kidney. The two were, in fact, so equally matched that neither was able to gain any decided advantage over the other. And so the year 1834 wore away, leaving the rebels still an organized force in possession of many strong positions, but unable to add an inch to their territory or to force their adversary back one foot. Meanwhile the parUamentary horse began to jib and to kick over the traces. Martinez de la Rosa found the constitutional bits powerless to restrain the unruly team he had brought together. The deputies passed with gusto a bill excluding Don Carlos and his heirs from the throne, but took care at the same time to affirm the principle of 9 130 A Queen at Bay national sovereignty. When the ministry pro- posed to recognize all debts contracted by previous governments, there was a loud uproar. Acknow- ledge the loan issued by the Absolutist caucus at Urgel ? never ! At last by some wonderful financial processes — liquidations, consolidations, conversions, and so forth — the measure was presented in a more acceptable form, and voted by the Cortes. The Royal Statute was not working well. When the Regent and her daughter appeared in public, there were cheers for Isabel II., but as many for liberty. In January, the soldiers thought it time to manifest their views. Everybody in Madrid seems to have known what was going to happen. At a masque ball, the final arrangements were con- certed. But the air was biting, and Llauder, the minister of war, spent the night snugly between the blankets. At ^vq o'clock on the morning of the 1 8th, the Second Aragon Light Infantry regi- ment, commanded by its adjutant, Cardero, took possession of the big post-office in the heart of the city, placed the guards under arrest, and called for the dismissal of the Ministry. The news brought the Captain-General, M. de Canterac (a Frenchman of Bordeaux), quickly to the spot. Furious with anger, he stormed and threatened, and in the midst of the mutinous soldiery, tried to take Cardero's sword by force. The troops cried Fiva la libertadl In his excitement, the general shouted Viva el Rey I He was thinking of Queen and Parliament 131 Fernando VII., whose death at the moment he had forgotten. The mistake cost him dear. The men thought he meant Carlos V. He fell the next instant, shot dead. He died, too, unavenged. When Llauder appeared on the scene, he opened up negotiations with the mutineers. Never was rebellion more lightly punished. That afternoon, the people of Madrid saw the battalion march through the streets, with their arms at the shoulder, bayonets fixed and colours flying, on their way (as the terms of the capitulation put it) to win fresh glory for Spain with the army of the north. That was to be all, according to the promise of Martinez de la Rosa. But after a while the officers were reduced and sent to the islands, and the regi- ment broken up and dispersed. The affair was over almost before the Queen had heard of it, but it soon became evident to her that to manage these troublesome Spaniards a stronger man than the poet-minister was wanted. The cabinet resigned one day in June. Charles Didier, the French traveller, met Martinez de la Rosa next morning, taking the air on the Prado. They spoke of the weather. Meanwhile the Puerta del Sol was agitated by rumours. The French ambassador went to see the Regent. '* Well," asked Didier, " did the Queen say anything about a new ministry ? " " The Queen ? — why, no. We spoke only about Rubini the singer, whom she says she will have here at any price." 132 A Queen at Bay- However, a new minister had to be appointed. Her Majesty at last selected the Conde de Toreno, who had earned her regard by entertaining her to brilliant suppers and balls, and had done good work for Spain by bespeaking the aid of England against Napoleon. He soon found that he was called upon to pilot the ship of state through a revolution. On July 5, the people of Zaragoza followed the example set by Madrid a year before. They shouted for liberty and Isabel II., and set fire to two monas- teries, murdering eleven of the inmates. The Franciscans at Reus were the next victims. On August 5, Barcelona was in insurrection. The monks had already felt the fury of the mob, which was now directed against Bassa, the governor. At first defiant, he yielded to the demands of the municipality. His surrender came too late. He was butchered without mercy, and his body was burnt in the public square. A gypsy tore off the corpse's hand, and bit it savagely. The flame of revolt spread along the east coast, blazed up in Andalucia, leaped up — at once to be ex- tinguished — in Madrid. But Spain would be content with nothing less than free institutions. Toreno, disgusted with the excesses of the insurgents, showed fight. He hurried to La Granja, and urged Cristina to hold out. Other ministers urged her to give in. Villiers, the English ambassador, was known to be on the side of the reformers. The Queen was not in the least afraid. She came back to Queen and Parliament i33 Madrid, which was seething with revolt, and pre- sided over a council at the palace on August 14. But, shrewd woman that she was, she perceived that the anger of the people was directed against the ministers, not against her. The revolutionary committees established in the provinces talked of freeing her from the tyranny of the cabinet. Her Majesty adroitly took advantage of this illusion. On September 14, she dismissed Toreno, declaring that he had misinterpreted his mandate, and an- nounced that she had summoned Juan Alvarez Mendizabal to assume the direction of affairs. This statesman was a native of Cadiz, of Jewish extraction. He had lived thirteen years in England, where he had, as he told George Borrow, formed some acquaintance with the phraseology of us good folks. He had also acquainted himself with the ideas of the Manchester School, which he admired more than our religious fervour. In the light of experience, it is strange to read that he wished to encourage speculation and competition, and pre- ferred the activity of the brokers of London and Amsterdam to the indolence of the agriculturists of his native land. He realized, in short, the ideal of a large class of our present-day newspaper politicians — the business man become statesman. Cristina and Munoz also believed in speculation, and followed the movements of the Stock Exchange with the zest of a country parson. From the new minister, they hoped, no doubt, for many valuable 134 A Queen at Bay tips. His usefulness in this respect led the Queen, perhaps, to tolerate his radical theories of govern- ment. He decreed the liberty of the Press, and enforced universal military service. He announced his intention of finishing with the Carlists, and in the meantime struck them a deadly blow in the persons of their allies, the friars. On October ii, he suppressed practically all the religious com- munities in Spain, selling up their property and devoting the proceeds to the partial extinction of the national debt. Cristina was not, as we know, specially devout, but, in spite of the friars' attach- ment to her rival, she felt a certain sympathy for them. In her opinion Mendizabal was going alto- gether too far. He proposed to extend the franchise, and to amend the Royal Statute. Worst of all, he troubled himself not at all about the Queen's relations with Munoz, and urged her to marry Pedro of Portugal. Perhaps he had no suspicion that a marriage had already taken place, or perhaps he had become imbued in England with the spirit of our Royal Marriage Act, and saw no harm in bigamy if committed by royal persons. As Cristina was about to present Munoz with a second pledge of her affections, this proposal was particularly ill-timed. She determined to get rid of Mendizabal. He had innumerable enemies, personal and political, and these, she thought, might be brought together so as to form the nucleus of a party personally devoted to her. There was Isturiz, Queen and Parliament 135 with whom Mendizabal had fought a duel, and Alcala Galiano. Martinez de la Rosa was not to be despised — as an auxiliary. The faithful manikin Ronchi was employed as go-between. He is called by a Spanish writer the godfather of the Moderate or Conservative party. Soon the prime minister heard strange reports of his parliamentary opponents driving back from El Pardo at early hours of the morning — that they had been closeted with her Majesty far into the night. Constitutional govern- ment became a farce, if the sovereign was to inspire and to direct the opposition to her own ministers. Mendizabal besought the Queen to give up these nocturnal interviews and their concomitant cabals. Cristina refused to understand him. He tendered his resignation. On May 16, the Chamber found a Moderate ministry in occupation of the government bench. There sat Isturiz, Alcala Galiano, and the Duke of Rivas. They were greeted with a storm of abuse. The Queen dissolved parliament, com- plaining that it had exceeded its authority and impeded the work of government. It was plain to all men that the Regent would support only those ministers who were prepared to further her own ends. CHAPTER VIII WAR AND MEN OF WAR CRISTINA had reasonable grounds of dissatis- faction with her ministers and generals. The former appeared unable to pacify the country (ex- cept, as she thought, by endangering her child's throne) ; the latter were unable to drive the Pretender out of Spain. Even the redoubtable Mina threw up the task as one beyond him. He resigned his command on April 8. He was suc- ceeded by Don Geromino Valdes, an honest man and a capable soldier, who had fought well in South America. Valdes combined the offices of minister of war and commander-in-chief Almost his first official act was to sign the convention proposed by Lord Eliot, special envoy from our government. Till now, all prisoners of war taken by both sides had been remorselessly shot. Under this convention, signed by the commanders-in-chief of the opposing armies, the ordinary usages of civilized warfare came into force, the lives of prisoners were spared, and exchanges were effected at regular intervals. The Cristinos benefited at first by this treaty 136 War and Men of War 137 more than their adversaries, for Valdes proved less fortunate than his predecessor. One of his lieu- tenants was signally defeated at Guernica by Zumalacarregui, who took possession of Trevino and other important places. Don Carlos made his triumphal entry into the beautiful old town of Estella, where he established his court. Espartero, with the garrison of Bilbao, hurried up to relieve Villafranca de Guipuzcoa, but was intercepted by the Carlists on the heights of Descarga, and forced to retreat with a loss of nearly 2,000 men. Vergara and Tolosa fell into the hands of the victors. The Cristinos took refuge under the guns of the principal fortresses, and on June 7 Valdes, like Mina and Rodil, surrendered his command. Madrid took fright. It seemed that no general in Spain could resist the invincible Zumalacarregui. Martinez de la Rosa bethought him of the Quadruple Alliance nominally uniting Spain, England, France, and Portugal against the Pretender. If the Queen did not invoke the aid of a foreign power, she might have to rely upon that of her own people, an ally more formidable than her foe. General Alava was, therefore, sent to London to sound his old brother-in-arms WelUngton, while the armed intervention of France was formally invited on May 17, 1835. It was refused ; and the grounds on which it was refused are a proof of the wisdom of the Citizen King. " Help the Spaniards from outside, if you 138 A Queen at Bay will," said Louis Philippe, '' but don't let us embark in their ship. Once therein, we must take the helm, and God knows what will happen. Napoleon failed to subdue them, and Louis XVIII. to extricate them from their troubles. I know them — uncon- querable and unmanageable by foreigners. They call on us to-day ; we shall hardly have set foot in their country when they will hate us and put every obstacle in our way. Let us not employ our army in this interminable task ; we shall be dragging a cannon-ball at our heels through Europe. If the Spaniards can be saved, they themselves are the only people that can do it. If we undertake to bear the burden, they will hoist it on our shoulders, and will then make it impossible for us to carry it." Palmerston shared the French King's views, and indeed told his ambassador that France must not reckon on the co-operation of England if she acceded to Spain's request. The refusal was a bitter dis- appointment to Cristina. She had hoped to dispose of Don Carlos, and so to render herself independent of the Liberal party. Her ambassadors were in- structed to remind the signatories of the treaty that they owed Spain some assistance in men, at least. This was not very liberally given. France sent a contingent of 4,100 belonging to her Foreign Legion, and placed an army of observation along the frontier, so as to blockade the Carlist provinces on that side ; Portugal furnished a brigade of 6,000 men, com- War and Men of War 139 manded by Baron d' Antas ; England, finally, stationed some cruisers off the Biscay coast, and allowed a foreign legion of 10,000 to be recruited in her territory and to be despatched to the seat of war under the command of Sir George de Lacy Evans. There were numerous Englishmen, it should be mentioned, serving on the Carlist side — among them Lord Ranelagh, afterwards notorious as a viveur, and young Charles Henningsen, then enter- ing upon his stirring career as a soldier of fortune. To this officer, then only in his twentieth year, we are indebted for an eye-witness's account of the first siege of Bilbao, which was a turning-point in the history of the war. After his victories at Guernica and Descarga, Zumalacarregui was for marching straight upon Madrid. Carlos would not have it so. He longed for recognition by Russia and Austria, and this he thought could most easily be obtained by the reduction of a fortress. Such a success would facilitate the negotiation of a loan with the bankers of London and Frankfort. It was the oft-repeated mistake of allowing the actual conduct of a war to be regulated by political con- siderations. '' Can you take Bilbao .? " the Prince asked his lieutenant. " Doubtless," was the reply, *'but at an immense sacrifice of men, and what is more precious to us, of time." Carlos insisted that the town must be taken all the same. Zumalacarregui reflected. Bilbao was very strong, and was held by a garrison of 4,000 regulars, supported by a 140 A Queen at Bay numerous and sympathetic population ; such a place, it seemed, could only be reduced after a long siege. But it stands upon a river only six miles from the sea, and could therefore be constantly reinforced, thanks to the English, French, and Cristino cruisers lying in the stream ; Portugalete, which commanded the estuary, was held by a strong force of the Queen's troops. To besiege Bilbao was, therefore, merely to waste time. Zumalacarregui resolved on storming it. On the morning of the loth June he carried the Begona church by assault ; from this point he battered the defences in breach, and ordered forward the storming parties. But at that moment rang out that cry so terrible to the ear of the soldier in action : " The ammunition has run out.'' The companies fell back, and the defenders repaired the breach. The Carlist general necessarily postponed the attack till next night. In the meantime, he reconnoitred the position from the balcony of a house at Begona. He saw the tall white houses bordering the quays, the foreign warships in the river, the sea beating against the bar at Portugalete. Suddenly he was struck in the leg by a spent bullet. He limped out of the balcony, and called for the surgeon. To his surprise and dismay, the wound was serious, and he found himself obliged to re- linquish the command and to submit to medical treatment. He was conveyed in a litter to Durango, where he was visited by Carlos. The Pretender was not ignorant of Zumalacarregui's worth as a War and Men of War 141 general, but the two were unsympathetic, and had very little to say. ** It was hardly worth waiting here to listen to that twaddle ! " exclaimed the wounded man, as his master withdrew ; and he was carried on to the village of Cegama, to be treated by a local quack called Petriquillo, in whom he placed great confidence. To kill a man with the aid of a spent bullet in the fleshy part of the leg seems no easy task ; but the country doctor did it. *' He died,'* says Henningsen, '' the eleventh day after he received his wound. He was then delirious, and . . . seemed to fancy himself leading on his followers in some desperate action ; and breathed his last, calling his officers by name, and giving orders to his battalions to charge or retire, as if he had been fighting that last battle which must have decided the fate of Spain, and where we should have seen him fall with less regret." Carlos heard the news of his death with his habitual resignation to the will of Providence. The Carlist chief's supreme importance to his own side was understood better by his opponents than his superiors. His disappearance heartened the de- fenders of Bilbao, who were emulous of the glories of Zaragoza and Gerona. Eraso, who now com- manded the investing force, summoned the town to surrender. The governor laid his proposals before the city council. The burgesses replied that they would rather be buried beneath the ashes of the city than yield. The exasperated Carlists threw 142 A Queen at Bay themselves against the entrenchments, to be repulsed with great slaughter. Meanwhile, the Queen's generals looked on from behind the Ebro, awaiting a new commander-in-chief from Madrid, and pre- pared apparently to let Bilbao fall, sooner than relieve it on their own responsibility. But the siege that deprived Carlos of his only great captain brought forward the ablest soldier on the opposing side. Baldomero Espartero, commanding at Portugalete, refused to sit down and let the heroic city fall. He was strenuously seconded by General Latre, who declared he would go to the relief of the town with four men only behind him, if needs were. On July i, besiegers and defenders saw the head of the Queen's army approaching Bilbao. The disheartened Carlists fired a few shots, and retired into the fastnesses of Biscay. When Cordova, the new commander-in- chief of Isabel's forces, reached the scene of action, he found the tide had already turned in his favour. He did not let the opportunity slip, but pushed on into Navarra, and the hard-fought battle of Mendigorria, on July i6, inflicted a loss of 2,000 men on the defeated Carlists. The Pretender already began to feel the loss of the gloomy, taciturn general, whom he had latterly regarded with suspicion and dislike. He had en- trusted the command of his troops to Vicente Moreno, who had earned for himself in the late reign the sobriquet of the butcher of Malaga, and who was incapable of earning the regard or confi- War and Men of War 143 dence of his men, or, indeed, of anybody but his Prince. Don Carlos, like Fortune, had queer favourites. The death of his wife at Gosport, opposite Portsmouth, the year before, had robbed him of his most stimulating influence. He seemed now content with the mere ceremonial and trappings of royalty, and the surest passport to his favour was to speak of him as the elect of the Lord, sent to restore the faith and to extirpate heresy. In his heart of hearts he believed that, come what might, the Divine power would place him on the throne of his ancestors, and for this reason he was strangely indifferent as to the capacity and quaHties of his officers. He fell entirely under the influence of the Bishop of Leon, who was never tired of com- mending his piety. Wherever the Prince went, he was followed by a gentleman-in-waiting, laden with images and hymn-books ; the Lives of the Saints were his favourite reading, the rosary his favourite exercise. He would do nothing, Fernandez de los Rios tells us, to relieve the distress of the widow of General Fulgosio, whose five sons had joined the Carlist ranks, two of them having been killed ; but he presented one of his courtiers with 10,000 reales {£100) to spend on his wedding festivities. While his troops wanted bread and raiment, we find him endowing Jesuit colleges and nunneries to the extent of three or four hundred pounds. Once, when the whim seized him to assist at Mass, he ordered the army to halt in a position where they 144 A Queen at Bay were exposed to the enemy's fire. Two officers and a number of men were killed. " They have done no more than their duty," said the devout Prince, fortified by his spiritual exercises. We do not know which to wonder at most — the heartless imbecility of the man, or the besotted devotion of his followers. Men make greater fools of themselves under the influence of political rancour than when excited by more natural and primitive passions. For it is impossible to believe that it was pure zeal for humanity that animated the followers of Don Carlos. Such a suspicion is cer- tainly absurd in the case of the monster Cabrera, whom the Pretender recognized as a kindred soul. This man was born at Tortosa in Cataluna in 1806, and was trained for the priesthood. He was the despair of his superiors. " We shall never make a priest of you," said his bishop ; *' you are made to be a soldier." Cabrera did not attempt, like the Parson Merino, to combine the two callings. Upon the outbreak of the civil war, he eagerly espoused the cause of Don Carlos and joined one of the bands infesting the confines of Cataluna, Aragon, and Valencia. But the Queen's troops carried all before them, and the insurgents could barely maintain themselves in scattered groups in the recesses of the mountains. Cabrera determined to join the main army of the Pretender. He disguised himself as an itinerant seller of soap, and started to make his way across country through the Cristino lines. With the War and Men of War 145 help of a devoted woman, called Maria la Albeitaresa, he got through in safety. To the Carlist minister of war — the Comte d'Espagne's old lieutenant, Villemur — he represented the desperate state of affairs in Eastern Spain, and insisted on the necessity of terrorizing the inhabitants into submission. Any system involving executions was likely to be ap- proved by the pious Don Carlos. He saw in Cabrera a man after his own heart, and directed him to return whence he came, furnished with a letter ad- dressed to Carnicer, the nominal commander-in-chief in those parts. The ex-student of Tortosa set forth once more on his perilous journey. At an inn he was recognized by a muleteer. He raised a warning finger : " Speak, and you are a dead man I " he said. The muleteer, terrified by the tigerish ferocity of his manner, slunk away. On opening his King's letter, Carnicer found that he was ordered to hand over the command of all the bands to the messenger, and to present himself at the royal headquarters without delay, Carnicer, as a loyal officer, obeyed these commands without hesitation. He left the camp, disguised as a muleteer. Of the route he proposed to follow, of his stopping-places and his disguise, Cabrera, deliberately or heedlessly, spoke to every one. As a result, Carnicer was seized while crossing the Cristino lines at Miranda del Ebro, and paid the penalty of treason. His death was generally laid at the door of Cabrera ; but one murder, more 10 146 A Queen at Bay or less, will make little difference to that chief's score. His policy was to strike terror into the population, that out of mere fear they should join his colours. Between his assumption of the com- mand and the end of October 1838, he murdered no fewer than 1,283 prisoners of war, and this estimate does not appear to include the civilians who fell into his hands. When he had slaughtered upwards of two hundred persons in cold blood, his adversaries hoped to check his ferocity by a severe act of retaliation. General Nogueras seized his mother, and notified him that he should hold her as a hostage for the alcaldes of Valdealgorza and Torrecilla, whom he had captured. Cabrera preferred the gratification of his blood-lust to his mother's safety. He shot the luckless functionaries, and the exasperated Cristino general shot their assassin's mother. Cabrera used this inhuman reprisal as an excuse for further and worse atrocities. He at once shot thirty prisoners, including the wives of four Cristino officers. At Rubielos he stripped his captives naked, ordered them to run for their lives, and then, letting loose his cavalry upon them, saw them cut down to a man. At Burjasot on the banks of the Guadalaviar, he celebrated his King's birthday by a banquet, and shot his prisoners in batches between the courses. His barbarity raised him every day higher in the estimation of Don Carlos ; whereas Nogueras, for having imitated his methods on a single occasion, was War and Men of War i47 censured by his government and dismissed from the command. Cabrera was well served by his friends. On one occasion, defeated and sorely wounded, he crept into a wood, where he was presently found by one of his officers. He was conveyed in secret to the house of the parson of Almazan, and hidden in a closet concealed by a huge bureau. In some way or another, it leaked out that the terrible " tiger of Morella " was in the village. The alcalde told the parson that he proposed to institute a thorough search next day. That night four of the wounded leader's friends accosted a peasant working in the fields, and ordered him, under pain of death, to deliver a message to the alcalde of Almazan. The functionary turned pale when he perceived that the letter was signed by Cabrera himself, and was dated from a village a few leagues away. He was summoned to furnish 5,000 rations, failing which he and the inhabitants of the village would be put to the sword. His worship preferred another alternative. He took to flight, escorted by all the militia and regular troops in Almazan. Having nothing to fear from the panic-stricken villagers, Cabrera was that night quietly removed by his friends to a place of safety. The trick was afterwards discovered ; so too was the part the parson had played in it. The worthy priest was sentenced to death, but was set free on the intervention of Cabrera, who offered two 148 A Queen at Bay prisoners of consequence in exchange for him. He had not thought it worth while to do as much for his mother. His ruthless measures had at least the merit of success. He soon retrieved his disasters, and found himself at the head of a formidable force. His mountain stronghold of Morella became the focus of the Carlist insurrection in the east. He levied toll on all the towns along the coast from the Ebro to the Guadalaviar, and ravaged, pillaged, and terrorized the whole countryside. Men found it safer to be with him than against him. He was defeated again and again, but his bands broke and dispersed, only to rally stronger than ever next day in another part of the country. To the last, he adhered to his system, no quarter. He made war on the Cristinos to the third and fourth generation, till the war in the eastern provinces assumed the character of a struggle between fiends rather than men. To deal with chiefs such as Zumalacarregui and Cabrera, Spain had need of a strong man. She found one in Baldomero Espartero, the saviour of Bilbao. His is a name that looms larger than any in Spain in the first half of the nineteenth century. In 1835 ^^ ^^^ forty-two years old, and held the rank of lieutenant-general in the Queen's army. Born in the province of Ciudad Real (Don Quixote's country), he had, like two of his most strenuous opponents, been destined for the Church. The ■«^; From a lithograph by Alemana ESPARTERO War and Men of War 149 French invasion called him to the defence of his country, and having once drawn the sword, he wielded it all the rest of his life. Overseas in South America, Spain was fighting her own rebellious children, and there, during eight years, Espartero fought his way up to the rank of brigadier. He shared in the bloody defeat at Ayacucho, but was able to carry back to Spain the colours taken from the enemy on more fortunate fields. Nor was the guerdon of his valour inconsiderable. He brought back enough treasure from the land of the Yncas to enable him to contract a very advantageous marriage. From the moment Fernando VII. revoked the edict of Felipe V., the veteran officer never wavered in his loyalty to the direct succession. *' It was something," says Major Martin Hume, " at this time of distraction and confusion, that there was, at all events, one Spaniard who knew his own mind, and was bold enough to stand by his opinion. Espartero was a man of no great ability or education, but he was as honest as was compatible with his vast ambition, and as firm as a rock. In this blackest hour of the Queen's cause he emerged from out of the welter of sloth, ineptitude, and base corruption, and by sheer force of character saved the throne of Isabel II." CHAPTER IX THE QUEEN AND THE SERGEANTS PRESSED hard by the Carlists, it was only natural that Cristina should have endeavoured to sur- round herself with sympathetic ministers. Perhaps not the least recommendation of Isturiz, Mendizabal's successor, was his tactful and tacit recognition of her attachment to Mufioz. He did not ask in- convenient questions, he expressed no suspicions, in fact he took the sensible view that the relations of individual men and women were not the concerns of any third parties. Cristina, who had a genius for maternity, was now the mother of a boy, named Agustin Maria. She would have liked to have kept him near her, poor mother ; but there was talk enough already about his little sister. In January 1836, both the children were sent to Paris ; and the Queen and her spouse talked about them to each other in the pavilion at El Pardo that some wag nicknamed Munoz's cage {la j aula de Mufioz), Cristina was a warm-hearted, affectionate mother, and must have passed many a sleepless night torn by her affection for her babies in Paris and her little girls in Madrid. 150 The Queen and the Sergeants 151 But the country would have none of Isturlz or his Moderate colleagues. In vain did he point to the elections, and claim a popular majority. The elections everybody knew had been engineered. What they also knew was that Isturiz wished to open the door a third time within three decades to the armies of France. On July 25, 1836, Malaga rose in insurrection. The Military and Civil Governors endeavoured to quell the tumult, but were promptly murdered by the urban militia, a body called into existence by the Queen's govern- ment. The constitution of 18 12, and nothing but the constitution of 18 12, was the cry. It was re- echoed, three days later, at Cadiz and Zaragoza. Seville, Cordova, and Granada followed suit. Madrid pronounced— in the Spanish way — -for the old constitution on August 3. But the insurgents had to deal with a resolute man in General Quesada, whose daring and horsemanship on a memorable occasion enraptured George Borrow. The regular troops dispersed the urban militia, and completely disarmed them. Quesada went even further, and forbade the citizens to carry bludgeons or any weapons of offence. Order reigned in Madrid. In her palace of San Ildefonso at La Granja, Cristina with her husband and her royal children tranquilly watched events. She relied on the pro- tection of the garrison, commanded by the Conde de San Roman, and composed of eight companies of the royal and provincial guards, two squadrons 152 A Queen at Bay of the bodyguard and two of mounted grenadiers. But times had changed since Don Carlos was saluted with royal honours by his brother*s guards, and the corps was animated now by a nobler sentiment than mere devotion to the crown. The officers were true, indeed, to the old tradition ; the sergeants, who enjoy a higher rank in the Spanish army than any other, met nightly in their casino, to read the papers and to discuss politics. The determination of the ministry to withstand the will of the people disgusted them profoundly. They were Spaniards first, soldiers afterwards. It seemed to them that the safety of the nation was being jeopardized to keep a camarilla of the Queen's friends in office. In the afternoon of August I2, a militiaman rode in from Madrid, and complained that his corps had been disarmed by Quesada while Carlist bands were at the gates of the capital. Stirred with indignation, the sergeants, at the evening parade, called on the bandmaster to play the hymn of Riego, the Spanish Marseillaise. The band struck up the tune, with- out the orders of their chief. San Roman at once placed the musicians under arrest, and ordered the whole regiment to be confined to barracks. In spite of the presence of their officers, the sergeants found means to concert their plans. At ten o'clock at night the cry " To arms ! " re-echoed through the quarters of the grenadiers. The men at once fell in on the parade-ground, the sergeants taking the officers' places. To the shouts of *' Hurrah for the The Queen and the Sergeants i53 constitution ! Long live the constitutional Queen ! " the squadron marched upon the palace. Passing the theatre they were confronted by San Roman, who exhorted them to return to barracks. While they hesitated, they were joined by the Fourth Footguards. The men's attitude became menacing, and the colonel, mindful of the fate of Canterac, hurried oiF to the palace. Arriving at the massive iron gates at the end of the avenue, the troops found them closed by his order. When they threatened to fire, the sentries at once made common cause with them, and opened the gates. The battalion, thus rein- forced, filed up the avenue. Their shouts reached the ears of Cristina. She, so calm and courageous in the face of pestilence, turned livid at the approach of armed men. The fate of so many of her own officers, perhaps of Marie Antoinette, recurred to her. In the panic that ensued within the palace, no one thought of using the means of defence ready to their grasp, for the bodyguard refused to join their comrades and stood at the windows of their quarters, waiting perhaps for the word to fall in or to stand to their arms. But, unmolested, a force of sergeants and privates penetrated into the palace, and made their way upstairs. Cristina's first impulse was to hide herself. San Roman succeeded in calming her, and assuring her that her life would not be endangered. Meanwhile, the Duke of Alagon hurried to the top of the stairs, and meeting the sergeants, demanded what they 154 A Queen at Bay wanted. Thinking he proposed to resist their passage, they drew their swords. The Duke, how- ever, met them with fair words. If, he said, they desired an audience with the Queen, they must depute their spokesmen, who must behave with a gravity befitting their mission. A consultation took place ; finally Alejandro Gomez, another non-com- missioned officer, and a private were named as the men's representatives. Her Majesty had by this time recovered her composure, and met the soldiers with a serene countenance and a pleasant smile. She was attended by Barrio Ayuso, the minister of justice, by San Roman and Alagon, the officers of the garrison, and several ladies- and gen tlemen-in- waiting. Munoz, who would probably have been the object of un- flattering remarks, kept out of the way. In presence of this distinguished gathering, the soldiers remained awed and silent, fumbling at their hats and swords. At last, in her gracious way, the Regent invited them to speak. Gomez stepped forward, knelt, and kissed her hand. He then said that he and his comrades had been fighting with the army of the north for liberty, but that there was still no Hberty in Spain, the urban militia had been disarmed, and good Liberals were languishing in dungeons. The Queen interrupted him : " Do you know what liberty is, my son ? " The sergeant replied that, whatever it might be, it did not obtain in Spain. The Queen and the Sergeants i55 " Liberty," said her Majesty, " is the rule of law and obedience to authority." The soldier demurred to this definition, and insisted that that there could be no liberty while the government continued to resist the unanimous demands of the nation. Cristina, upon this, turned impatiently to the other sergeant. He had less to say, but he was more personal. He told the Queen that she was pursuing a mistaken policy, that she would never get at the truth while the Moderates were in power, and that if she did not proclaim the constitution of 1812, God alone knew what would happen to her and to her family. This was worse than Gomez. Luckily, it was now the private's turn to speak. He stated they had come there to ask the Queen to swear to the constitution of 1 8 12. Izaga, the Master of the Household, asked him if he had read that document. " No," said the honest soldier, '' I can't read, but my father at La Corufia told me it was a capital thing." The Marques de Cerralbo, hoping to hold the man up to derision, asked him to be more precise, and to explain the advantages to which his father had referred. The guardsman, who seems to have been of the Sancho Panza type, made answer that, for one thing, salt and tobacco were cheaper under that constitution, and that his mother had turned many an honest penny as a dealer in the former commodity. The Queen and her courtiers burst into laughter, whereupon the good-natured fellow laughed also, 156 A Queen at Bay and turning to his comrades, exclaimed, ''I see we shall get about as much good out of this as the nigger did out of the sermon ! " The hilarity which this sally excited was speedily quelled by the sergeants bluntly informing the Queen that she must sign the constitution there and then. Barrio Ayuso alleged that Article 192 would confer the regency upon Don Carlos. The soldiers thought they could be left to deal with the Prince. Finally, they accepted the Queen's promise to convoke the Cortes at once, and to lay before it a proposal to restore the constitution demanded. San Roman and the delegates went out to com- municate this assurance to the troops outside the palace. Cristina breathed more freely. She had emerged safely from the most dangerous situation in which she had ever been placed. But the next moment groans and angry shouts, mingled with the reports of firearms, warned her that the peril was not yet over. The men were furious with their delegates, whom they accused of having been won over with fair words and flattery. Again the tread of soldiers was heard on the stairs. The Queen and courtiers, terrified, beheld the door flung open and a fresh body of sergeants enter. Their spokes- man was Higinio Garcia, a brisk, handsome soldier, whom no display of dignity or culture could abash. Addressing himself directly to her Majesty, he insisted that she must proclaim and subscribe to the old constitution in his presence. She argued The Queen and] the Sergeants i57 and threatened ; the sergeant's manner became more menacing. Finally, she ordered Izaga to draw up the decree. It was conceived in these terms : " As Queen-Governess of Spain, I ordain and command that the political constitution of the year 1812 be promulgated, pending the manifestation of the will of the people by the Cortes in favour of this or another constitution suited to its wishes." Even now Cristina hesitated. Garcia seized a pen, dipped it in the ink, and handed it to her, saying sternly, " Sign, your Majesty, if you don't wish things to go further." The Regent obeyed. The court officials witnessed her signature. Speechless with rage and outraged dignity, they saw the triumphant soldiers stride from the room, and listened to their swords and spurs ringing on the stairs. We can imagine the torrent of imprecations and invectives that burst forth when the sound of those martial footsteps had died away. This bold stroke of the sergeants of the guard was no isolated and independent mutiny, but an- other expression of the nation's loudly voiced will. The guardsmen accomplished what would have been done by the peoples of Madrid, Cataluna, Aragon, Andalucia, and Valencia, had they been able to unite their forces at the capital. The ser- geants knew that the nation wanted this thing done, and the power to do it seemed to them sufficient authority. They sought and obtained no honours or rewards. They seemed not to realize the dignity 158 A Queen at Bay or the full importance of their part. They were plain men and soldiers, who did this service to their country as a matter of duty, just as they went to fight the Carlists or would have stormed an impregnable redoubt. On the morning of August 13, the Prime Minister at Madrid received this startling message from Barrio Ayuso, " Help, quickly, quickly, or I know not what may befall their Majesties." Isturiz at once handed this note to Quesada, but before any steps could be taken, an officer arrived hot-foot from La Granja with a full report of the events of the preceding night. The Captain-General proposed to march at once to the palace, and to crush the guardsmen with his battalions. But the council of ministers, to his disgust, was in favour of milder measures. If a large body of troops was withdrawn from the garrison, Madrid would surely rise. Mendez Vigo, the minister for war, was despatched to La Granja, his right hand filled with gifts, to conciliate the audacious sergeants and to undo by cajolery all that had been done by force. He reached the royal residence about six in the afternoon, and found the troops, refreshed after a long siesta, parading the town with a tablet com- memorating the restoration of the constitution. At their head, with exceeding ill grace, rode San Roman. The procession next proceeded to the palace, and cheers were given for the Queen-Regent. No response came from the shuttered windows. The The Queen and the Sergeants i59 minister perceived that things had gone further than his colleagues supposed, but he did not despair. He presented himself at the barracks of the 4th Footguards, and talked over Gomez and Lucas, and a drum-sergeant-major whom he knew to have been once an ardent royalist. This man accepted a bribe, a fact which became known to his comrades by his changing a big gold piece at the canteen. As soon as this came to the ears of the masterful Garcia, he went straight to the minister for war and ordered him to leave the place as quickly as he could. Mendez Vigo had no choice but to obey, but he persuaded the soldiers to allow the Regent to proceed to Madrid to swear to the constitution. On second thoughts, however, the men realized that this was an attempt to trick them. They stopped two waggons leaving the palace, and shut the gates. A petition was then sent in to the Queen, requesting the dismissal of San Roman and Quesada, the appointment of a new ministry, the proclamation of the new con- stitution in the country, and the re-arming of the mihtia of Madrid. Her Majesty was respectfully requested to issue these decrees before midnight, and when this was done the garrison hoped to have the honour of escorting her to Madrid. This was rough handling. Cristina sought the advice of the English and French ambassadors. Both advised her to submit. Villiers, our repre- sentative, had been suspected by the Moderate i6o A Queen at Bay ministry of instigating the demonstration ; but no one condemned more loudly or severely than he the insolence and disloyalty of the soldiery. Seeing that the Queen intended to stand by her promise to the troops, the minister for war resigned, as also did the Conde San Roman, perhaps to avoid being dismissed. " You abandon me !" exclaimed Cristina tragically, and at once she made out a list of new ministers. Mendez Vigo started ofF for Madrid, and announced to the soldiers gathered in the park that her Majesty had decided to comply with their requests. The men were glad to hear this, but intimated to the minister that he had better stay till the decrees were actually signed. Mastering his anger, the statesman returned to the palace, to find that he had been preceded by a crowd of sergeants, Garcia at their head. Cristina had her temper perfectly under control ; indeed, I suspect that she did not find the handsome sergeants the brutal wretches she had represented them to be to the ambassadors. Seeing they were in such a hurry to see the decrees executed, she told them to use the room next to her own as an office, and had her own tables and escritoire wheeled in for their convenience. The military scribes then set to work, finding serious difficulties, no doubt, in the preparation of documents so much outside their experience. Once or twice Garcia thought fit to consult the Queen. His comrades grew suspicious. " If you come to an understanding The Queen and the Sergeants i6i with the pasteleros " — the nickname applied to the court — "you will be the first to have your throat cut," they informed him. This decided him to hasten matters. The decrees were drawn up and sent in to the Queen to be signed. They were returned with the signature in good and proper form. It now only remained for her Majesty's un- invited guests to depart ; but at this moment a despatch arrived from Madrid, which they asked the Queen to open in their presence. She handed it, instead, to Mendez Vigo. This irritated a bandsman, who snatched it from the minister's hand, exclaiming " Less ceremony ! " However, the letter contained nothing more than a request for immediate information as to what was going on. Even now the sergeants would not let the war minister return to Madrid, or entrust him with the publication of the decrees. A lively dis- pute ensued. " Let Mendez Vigo go to Madrid accompanied by your representatives," urged the Queen. " Let Garcia go with him." But Garcia shook his head. " That won't do," he said. " Since I worked the revolution, as one may call it, they don't believe in me, and say that I'm plotting with your Majesty to deceive them." Then in an attitude of disgusted dejection, the sergeant threw himself down on a sofa. The Queen, standing, looked from him to the others in amazement. Then she in- dignantly repudiated the charge of attempting to II i62 A Queen at Bay deceive the troops, with Garcia or anybody else. She was cut short by another sergeant : " If he had not arranged with your Majesty to undo all that is being done, I should already have had the cross of Mendigorria, to which I have a right, and which he promised me." *' I never said that ! " shouted Garcia. The disputants might have pro- ceeded from words to blows, had not Mendez Vigo parted them, reminding them that it was two o'clock in the morning and time for every one to retire. The Queen's suggestion that the war minister should return to Madrid, accompanied by Garcia, was finally adopted, and this most amazing of coups d'etat was at an end. But before the representatives of the Queen and the revolution set out, the news had spread through the capital. The militia reassembled and crowds gathered threateningly in the Puerta del Sol. From a window the scene was witnessed by George Borrow, with huge delight in the display of force and audacity. '' As the sounds became louder and louder," says this evangelist of the Spains, *' the cries of the crowd below diminished, and a species of panic seemed to have fallen upon all ; once or twice, however, I could distinguish the words, Quesada ! Quesada ! The foot-soldiers stood calm and motionless, but I ob- served that the cavalry, with the young officer who commanded them, displayed both confusion and fear, exchanging with each other some hurried words ; all of a sudden that part of the crowd which stood The Queen and the Sergeants 163 near the mouth of the Calle de Carretas fell back in great disorder, leaving a considerable space un- occupied, and the next moment Quesada, in complete general's uniform, and mounted on a bright bay- thoroughbred English horse, with a drawn sword in his hand, dashed at full gallop into the arena, in much the same manner that I have seen a Manchegan bull rush into the amphitheatre when the gates of his pen are suddenly flung open. "He was closely followed by two mounted officers, and at a short distance by as many dragoons. In almost less time than is sufficient to relate it, several individuals in the crowd were knocked down and lay sprawling upon the ground beneath the horses of Quesada and his two friends, for as to the dragoons, they halted as soon as they entered the Puerta del Sol. It was a fine sight to see three men, by dint of valour and good horsemanship, strike terror into at least as many thousands ; I saw Quesada spur his horse repeatedly into the dense masses of the crowd, and then extricate himself in the most masterly manner. The rabble were completely awed and gave way. . . . All at once Quesada singled out two nationals [militiamen], who were attempting to escape, and setting spurs to his horse, turned them in a moment, and drove them in another direction, striking them in a contemptuous manner with the flat of his sabre. He was crying out, * Long live the absolute Queen ! ' [.^] when, just beneath me, amidst a portion of the crowd i64 A Queen at Bay which had still maintained its ground, I saw a small gun glitter for a moment, then there was a sharp report, and a bullet had nearly sent Quesada to his long account, passing so near to the countenance of the General as to graze his hat. I had an indis- tinct view for a moment of a well-known foraging cap just about the spot whence the gun had been discharged, then there was a rush of the crowd, and the shooter, whoever he was, escaped discovery amidst the confusion which arose. *' As for Quesada, he seemed to treat the danger from which he had escaped with the utmost con- tempt. He glared about him fiercely for a moment, then leaving the two nationals, who sneaked away like whipped hounds, he went up to the young officer who commanded the cavalry, and who had been active in raising the cry of the constitution, and to him he addressed a few words with an air of stern menace ; the youth evidently quailed before him, and probably in obedience to his orders, resigned the command of the party, and rode slowly away with a discomfited air ; whereupon Quesada dis- mounted, and walked slowly backwards and forwards before the Casa de Postas [Correos .?] with a mien which seemed to bid defiance to mankind. "This was the glorious day of Quesada's existence, his glorious and last day. I call it the day of his glory, for he certainly never appeared before under such brilliant circumstances, and he never lived to see another sunset. No action of any hero or / The Queen and the Sergeants 165 conqueror on record is to be compared with this closing scene of the life of Quesada, for who by his single desperate courage and impetuosity ever before stopped a revolution in full course ? Quesada did ; he stopped the revolution at Madrid for an entire day, and brought back the uproarious and hostile mob of a huge city to perfect order and quiet. His burst into the Puerta del Sol was the most tremendous and successful piece of daring ever witnessed." The arrival of Mendez Vigo and Sergeant Garcia entirely changed the aspect of aiFairs. The ministers found themselves no longer in office, and prepared for instant flight. Quesada, superseded by General Seoane, knew that he stood alone in a city ruled by his enemies. He embraced his wife, and ob- taining a horse, rode out of the city in the direction of Hortaleza. He was recognized by a peasant, followed, and arrested by a party of militia. He was locked up in a house in the village, while a messenger was sent to Madrid to ask for instruc- tions concerning him. While talking with his guards the General heard the shouts of a crowd approaching his prison. He felt for his sword — it was gone. Then seating himself on the bench, he folded his arms and told the guard to let his assassins enter. A minute later, and a mob of peasants threw themselves upon the defenceless man, and tore him limb from limb. Seated that night in a cafe in the Calle Alcala, i66 A Queen at Bay Borrow saw a party of the murderers returning triumphantly from their expedition. They marched in, two by two, beating time with their feet to some hastily improvised air. When they were seated round a bowl of coffee, a blue kerchief was solemnly produced. It was untied, and a gory hand and three or four dissevered fingers were proudly ex- hibited. With these the coffee was stirred up. " Cups ! cups ! " cried the nationals. In the history of modern Spain, there is no fouler assassination than this. Quesada was a severe dis- ciplinarian, but he was guilty of no such acts of cold-blooded ferocity as may be imputed to half the officers of his time and nation. Though a Conservative by instinct, he was not a blind re- actionary, and, as we have seen, was the first to urge the Queen-Regent on the path of constitutional reform. But whatever may have been his political opinions, he deserves to be remembered by Spaniards of all parties as an honourable man who died with a dignity and courage worthy of Plutarch's heroes. The proclamation of the constitution of Cadiz gave general satisfaction throughout Cristino Spain. Calatrava, the new prime minister, and Rodil, who succeeded San Roman in command of the guards, hastened to San Ildefonso to extricate the Regent from her uncomfortable situation. They were met by Garcia, who walked up the avenue with them. " I suppose your Excellencies have realized the value of my services," he remarked. " That will be all The Queen and the Sergeants 167 right,'* answered Rodil evasively, and quickened his pace. " I should like you to know that yesterday the boys saluted me as captain," persisted the sergeant. The general repeated that something would no doubt be done, and with this assurance the simple soldier was content, that evening counsel- ling his comrades to place their trust in their new commander. On the i8th, the guards made their triumphal entry into Madrid, Garcia riding beside Rodil. The people greeted them as saviours of the nation. A cordial welcome was extended, also, to the Queen, who had returned on the previous evening to Madrid, accompanied by several members of the new cabinet and the French and English ambassadors. Again the country was flooded with decrees, some announcing the dissolution of the lately elected Cortes and the convocation of another, others changes in the ministry, one of which happily resulted in the return of Mendizabal to the de- partment of finance. Upon the proclamation of the old constitution, Cordova threw up the command of the army of the North, and retired to France. He was succeeded, luckily for Spain, by Espartero. What became of the prime mover in it all ? Calatrava and several of his colleagues thought that something should be done for Garcia. His example was bad, of course ; still, but for him and his comrades they would not be sitting there. Cristina approved a proposal for his promotion. I suspect she rather liked his dashing ways, and that his familiarity. i68 A Queen at Bay tinged with admiration, had not been altogether disagreeable to her. Besides, he had certainly- moderated the violence of his companions. The scheme was thwarted by Mendizabal. "No,'* he said, " we must not encourage insubordination and mutiny." But he was encouraging it, by forming part of a ministry which owed its existence to it. Garcia, hearing of his opposition, went to his office and abused him roundly. The minister gave the sergeant in charge, and had him sent to Almaden. Thence he escaped, only to fall into the hands of a Carlist band, who stripped him to the waist, and flourished his shirt at the end of a pole as a glorious trophy. Eighteen months after the events in which he had played so prominent a part, one of the royal bodyguard sat in the moonlight with a Polish traveller. Baron Dembowski, beneath the windows of the palace of La Granja, and told of his pitiable fate. " I thought never again to see Garcia in the flesh,** said the soldier, " when one day, while on leave at Valladolid, I was touched on the shoulder by a ragged wretch with a beard like a savage's. ' You don't then recognize me ? ' said he. It was the voice of Garcia. Flying from Almaden, he had taken refuge with a relation near Valladolid, and had come into the town in the hope of finding a friend. Recognized during the day by several of his old comrades, he became an object of suspicion to the governor, who, fearing that some new revolutionary project was afoot, had him arrested. The Queen and the Sergeants 169 " Hardly a fortnight later, I was sent to Benavente to act as adjutant. 1 arrived ; and the next day was informed that a prisoner had been sent down from Valladolid. I told them to bring him in. Imagine my surprise when I found myself once more face to face with Garcia. The next day, in accordance with positive instructions from the Captain-General at Valladolid, he was sent under a strong escort to Santander. What has become of him since ? Has he been sent to America, as they say ^ Has he been killed, like his own revolution, by the Moderates ? These are questions that no one so far has answered." Garcia, the champion of the new order, did not fare much better than Quesada, the defender of the old. CHAPTER X EXIT CARLOS THE news from La Granja gladdened the heart of Don Carlos. Things had not gone very well with him of late : his second attempt upon Bilbao, in the preceding October (1835), ^^^ heen frus- trated by the English bluejackets, and these trouble- some foreigners, together with the English legion under Sir George de Lacy Evans, had beaten off his men from San Sebastian in the following spring. But now it seemed to the Pretender, the Virgin of the Seven Dolors, lately gazetted generalissima of his force, had intervened on his behalf. The restoration of the constitution of Cadiz should frighten all the Conservatives in Spain into the true fold. Clearly there was no choice but be- tween him and the revolution. Accordingly it was without surprise that Carlos saw Don Joaquin Roncali come into his camp at Durango, bringing letters from the Marques de Zambrano and other grandees of Spain ; but it was with the utmost indignation that he rejected the offer of their armed support, when he heard that in return he was ex- 170 Exit Carlos 171 pected to make some concessions, however slight, to the spirit of the age. The impudent envoy was at once conducted under escort to the French frontier. Similar proposals made by the foreign courts in touch with his agents were equally scorned. Rebellious Spain must at once acknowledge her master and King, the Lord's anointed. It would be time then, perhaps, to talk of mercy and concessions. But even in presence of the red spectre, there was no disposition on the part of Spaniards generally to shelter themselves under the sceptre of the absolute King. They stood aloof while his colours were flaunted from one end of the country to the other and back again by the intrepid Miguel Gomez and his band of four thousand and odd men. Cities, such as Palencia and Cordova, were surprised and laid under contribution by the expeditionary force ; the rich quicksilver deposits of Almaden — and the shirt of Sergeant Garcia — were seized ; small bodies of the Queen's troops, defeated and captured ; her best generals, outwitted and eluded. Hemmed in by three divisions at Ronda, Gomez cut his way through, and found his way back to the left bank of the Ebro, laden with booty and without serious loss. But as a recruiting oflBcer, he had failed in his mission. His master saw that he must prove himself to be something more than a chief of guer- rilleros^ to be recognized as King of Spain by foreign powers and by Spaniards themselves. He resolved, accordingly, on another attack upon 172 A Queen at Bay Bilbao. This time, the city must be taken at all costs. The Carlists were now equipped with an efficient siege train and a powerful force of artillery. On October 25, for the third time, the townsfolk were deafened by the roar of the Pretender's guns. The shells were heavier, the practice better than had been the case before. To resist what was obviously a supreme effort, the commandant could dispose of a force of only 4,300 men — not enough to hold the whole line of defence. But Bilbao was used to this business, and kept a stout heart. With their shells hurtling overhead, the Carlists rushed to the attack, to be repulsed after a hand- to-hand fight upon the parapets. All through November, the siege was hotly pressed. It looked as if this time the valiant city must fall. *' Hold out ! " was the message of Espartero, the new commander-in-chief. He advanced with 14,000 men through the snow-covered passes to the relief of the beleaguered city. Villareal, the Carlist leader, awaited him in a strong position. Espartero executed a flank march, reached the sea at Castro, and transported his men on the English ships to Portugalete. Bilbao was only six miles away, but the Carlists contested the ground inch by inch. The Nervion was bridged by the English bluejackets, but on the farther bank the enemy occupied a strong position along a tributary stream called the Luchana. Snow was falling heavily ; Espartero was down with fever and could give orders only from his Exit Carlos 173 sick-bed. On Christmas Eve, he knew the decisive moment for the attack had come. He mounted his horse, placed himself at the head of two battalions, and told his men that they must clear the road to Bilbao at the point of the bayonet. Here was the leader the Liberals had so long wanted. With ringing cheers, the Queen's troops struggled up the hillside through the blinding snow and the murderous hail of bullets. Before the thrust of their bayonets, the Carlists fled. Panting, bloodstained, victorious, the Cristinos stood on the heights of Banderas, while all down the slope behind them the price of their victory could be reckoned in strangely shaped snow-clad piles. On Christmas Day, Bilbao greeted her deliverers. The generous commander demanded that the colonels of all the regiments of the garrison should be pre- sented to him, and he embraced them warmly in turn. In his order of the day, he extolled the valour and devotion of his English allies, claiming for them a large share in the victory. At Madrid the victors were compared to the Titans ; the name of Bilbao was inscribed on a gold tablet in the ParHament House ; and the Queen-Regent con- ferred upon the city, already styled *' unconquered " and " unconquerable," the titles " most noble " and '* most loyal." A victory had indeed been gained over the Carlists, but by whom ? and were there, Cristina asked herself, only two parties in Spain ? Since 174 A Queen at Bay the mutiny at La Granja, she had been placed between two fires — Carlos and the revolution. The Cortes called together in pursuance of her promise to the sergeants had not re-enforced the con- stitution of Cadiz, and had drawn up another charter, very much less democratic ; but Cristina knew by this time the worth of Spanish con- stitutions, and placed little reliance on the prerogatives they secured to the sovereign. It seemed to her and to her most intimate advisers that she had started on a downward slope, at the bottom of which blazed the fires of anarchy. In January 1837 her fears were quickened by a formidable outbreak at Barcelona, when the very institution of monarchy was denounced. The word Republic was heard in many mouths. The Queen's heart misgave her. When her army had crushed the Pretender, might it not turn against her, as her own guard had done ? The essential weakness of hereditary monarchy is that the sovereign has definite interests distinct from those of the nation at large. Unlike a president, he does not represent the policy of the majority for the time being or the will of the people, but he conceives himself bound to maintain his own office and his dynasty at all costs. History affords few instances of sovereigns' stepping down from their throne when they could no longer interpret the desires of their subjects. Amadeo was to do that in Spain within Cristina's lifetime ; she, in 1837, believed it to be Exit Carlos i75 her duty to transmit the sceptre to her daughter, intact and undiminished in weight. And she was not only Regent, but a mother. Few could blame her for fulfilling the trust reposed in her by her child's father, and for preferring her child's interests to the will of a nation among which she was a foreigner. In 1837, those born in the purple honestly looked upon the people as their inalienable vassals. The idea finds distinct and repeated ex- pression in the earlier writings of our own Queen Victoria. Cristina, concerned for her daughter, her husband, and herself, fell to considering the posture of affairs from a personal standpoint. She was probably aware of the overtures made to Don Carlos by the nobles ; but if he rejected their proposals, he might still be willing to drive a bargain with her. Her easy-going, pleasure- loving nature revolted against the continual strain of the regency. She would not be sorry to be rid of it, if she could secure her daughter's throne. She gave utterance to this thought more than once in the hearing of persons affected towards the Pretender. Among these was her countryman, the Marchese della Grua, who had formerly represented Naples at the Spanish court. Since Cristina's brother had refused to recognize Isabel II., his ambassador remained at Madrid nominally in the character of keeper of the legation archives. Cala- trava, the new radical premier, grew suspicious of him, and gave him his passports. Cristina wrote to 176 A Queen at Bay him, assuring him of her esteem for him personally. Having thus conciliated him, she secretly trans- mitted him an autograph letter, in which she declared that she would fall into the arms of Don Carlos, on the condition only that his eldest son should espouse her daughter, and that he would pardon the persons who had compromised themselves on her behalf, and of whom she would give him a list. Delia Grua betook himself with this letter to Naples, and laid it before his sovereign. King Bomba, who spent his life conspiring against the liberties of his own subjects, highly approved the plan, and saw in it a means of healing the dis- sensions in his family and of rescuing his sister from the detested Liberals. At his command or at Cristina's, Meyer, the Neapolitan consul at Bordeaux, soon after appeared at Madrid, and had an interview with the Regent. Upon his return to Bordeaux, he made use of the Baron de Milanges, an ardent Legitimist and a follower of the Comte de Chambord. Furnished with letters from the consul, the Baron, who assumed the name of Neuillet, made his way across the Pyrenees, and obtained an audience of the Pretender. Then he proceeded to Marseille, where Meyer awaited him. The two took ship for Valencia, with letters of introduction from the Conde de Rotova to the Baronesa de Andia. They then made their way to Madrid, where the Marques de Casa Gaviria P- 176] MARIA CRISTINA QUEEN OF SPAIN Fyom a lithograph Exit Carlos tn was able to Introduce them into the presence of the Regent. According to the Conde de la Alcudia, the Carlist agent at Vienna, the Pretender's reply to the Queen's proposals was to the following effect : Considering the bondage in which her Majesty was held, and the desire she had expressed to take refuge with her daughters in the bosom of his family, his Catholic Majesty was of the same opinion as the King of the Two Sicilies, that the best way of escaping from the dangers that surrounded her and of putting an end to the civil war, would be for her and her daughters to join him at once ; to facilitate this project, orders would be given to the generals operating on Madrid to render all possible assistance to the august fugitives ; that when her Majesty had formally and publicly recognized Carlos as King of Spain in the presence of his staff, he would be willing to acknowledge her rights as Queen-Dowager and her daughters as Infantas ; the Queen would enjoy the same advantages in Spain as in Naples. This was not the answer Cristina wanted. She was ready to betray her partisans and her adopted country, but she would not surrender her daughter's right to sit on the throne of Spain. We do not know what was her reply to the envoys. It was probably evasive. The Baron de Milanges passed over to Naples, where he was rewarded for his services with the Order of San Gennaro ; Meyer 12 178 A Queen at Bay returned to his post at Bordeaux, where the good- will he testified towards the Carlists earned him nothing more substantial than their gratitude. Cristina hardened her heart, and on June 17, 1837, in presence of and in the name of her daughter, solemnly and publicly swore to observe the new constitution. "If 1 break my oath, I deserve not to be obeyed," so ran the declaration ; " and may God call me to account if I fail." In her speech from the throne, the Regent proclaimed afresh before the Cortes, and " in the face of heaven and earth," her spontaneous adhesion to and free and entire acceptation of the political institutions to which she had subscribed, in presence of her august daughter, whose sentiments she hoped would never diiferi from her own. To celebrate the promulga- tion of the constitution, her Majesty decreed an amnesty to which there were so many exceptions that, as was remarked at the time, smugglers ap- peared to be the only offenders who could possibly benefit by it. While with some show of sincerity Cristina thus publicly threw in her lot with the Liberals, Carlos was on his way to Madrid. Determining to take advantage of the Queen's dissatisfaction with the constitutional party and her disposition towards a reconciliation, he did not wait for the conclusion of the secret negotiations between them, but on the 1 6th May started with his whole court and an army of 14,000 men on his march to the capital. Two Exit Carlos 179 months before his troops had inflicted a severe defeat upon the English legion at Hernani, and since then the Cristinos had attempted no move- ments of importance. From every point of view the march was well timed. Near Huesca, the Cristino general Irribarren threw himself across the Pretender's path. He was defeated and slain, and the victors pushed on to Barbastro, where they routed Oraa, the Captain-General of Aragon, with a loss of 600 men. The Carlists now crossed the Cinca and penetrated into Cataluna, hotly pursued by the Queen's troops under the Baron de Meer ; overtaken by him at Gra, they suffered a severe check, but rallied at Solsona and pushed south towards Tortosa. Cabrera, hastening to the aid of his chief, stationed himself on the Ebro at Cherta, and held the enemy in check while Carlos crossed the river. The Pretender greeted his ablest lieu- tenant with as much cordiality as his cold nature permitted, and named him commander-in-chief of the kingdoms of Aragon, Valencia, and Murcia. The united force now advanced into the province of Castellon de la Plana, and wasted precious time besieging the town of that name. This delay enabled Oraa to overtake them, and on July 15, at Chiva, west of Valencia, he exacted ample satis- faction for his reverse at Barbastro. Carlos found it necessary to take refuge in the mountain strong- hold of Cantavieja, which Cabrera had taken great pains to fortify, while his army was broken up i8o A Queen at Bay into small detachments which ravaged the huerta of Valencia. While the Cristinos were planning a general enveloping movement, news came that another Carlist column commanded by Zariategui, an old friend and officer of Zumalacarregui, had crossed the Ebro and was threatening Madrid from the north. This drew off part of the Queen's forces, and Carlos, resuming the offensive, defeated one of Oraa's lieutenants at Herrera and again at Villar with a loss of 2,600 men. He then pressed straight on to Madrid, although Espartero was hurrying down from the north and threatened his flank and rear. But the Pretender cared little for the military prospects of the expedition, believing that the Regent awaited him at Madrid only to throw herself into his arms. On September lo, he slept in the house of Munoz's father at Tarancon. On the 12th, he established his headquarters at Vallecas, within sight of the capital of Spain. He was too late. The radical ministry of Cala- trava had fallen, and with a Moderate cabinet in office, Cristina felt her taste for queenship revive. She felt herself able to bridle the revolution. Per- haps with the intention of luring on her rival to Madrid and exposing him to capture, she had kept his agents in ignorance, it would seem, of this change in her dispositions. A proclamation circulated among the Castillians assured them that a settlement between the contending parties was to be effected by the union of Fernando VII.'s daughter with the Exit Carlos i8i eldest son of Carlos V. Agents passed between the royal palace and the camp at Vallecas, but they could extract no definite promises or answers from the Queen. Sick at heart, the Pretender waited for the summons to take his place on the throne of his ancestors. But Cristina made no sign. Carlos had been tricked. To attack the city, he could not dare. Every citizen had flown to arms ; the garrison, enthusiastic and warlike, far outnumbered his own force. Not a single cry was raised for the absolute King. Cristina, as she rode along the ranks, was lustily cheered. Fearing that those in the secret of her negotiations with the enemy might still endeavour to realize their hopes, she anxiously inquired where a certain general was posted. The minister of war told her, and then asked if she distrusted the officer. " No," replied her Majesty, *' but I am fond of him, and do not wish him to be at the post of danger." Probably she feared he might open the gates to the enemy. Afterwards the general threw in his lot with the Carlists. It was useless to tarry longer before Madrid. Cristina had clearly made up her mind to keep her daughter on the throne, with or without a constitu- tion. The Pretender's disappointment must have been poignant. In bitterness of heart, he turned his slender column in the direction of Guadalajara. At Brihuega he narrowly escaped being captured by Espartero. Hurrying through the mountains, he i82 A Queen at Bay effected a junction with Zariategui at Aranda de Duero, and for a moment thought of marching into Aragon. But the Navarrese and the Basques announced their determination to return to their own provinces, whether he would or not. On October 24, the expeditionary force recrossed the Ebro into Navarra, when Carlos endeavoured to throw the blame of his failure on his officers, whom he loudly accused of incapacity, cowardice, and treachery. Neither he nor his followers need have reproached themselves. It is impossible to believe that he had ever dreamt of taking Madrid by force of arms. He had relied on Cristina's dread of the revolution, and could not have foreseen that the moderation of the enfranchised people would so soon allay her fears and revive her tenacity of power. With the retreat from Madrid, the tide turned. The CarlistSj beyond making an occasional raid into the interior of the kingdom, were content to hold their own in Navarra and Guipuzcoa, and in the remote districts infested by the Tiger of Morella. Espartero having with great severity quelled a serious mutiny among his troops, regained their favour and confidence by using his ever-growing influence with the government to better their condition. In con- sequence of his exertions, he was able to oppose a force of over 90,000 men to a Carlist army just one-third of that number. Yet still the stubborn Basques and Navarrese fought on, while the un- worthy object of their devotion lorded it at Estella, Exit Carlos 183 dismissed his toy ministers, and disgusted his ablest leaders. His unpopularity was increased by his marriage with his dead wife's sister, the truculent Princess of Beira, whose capacity for making mischief remained unabated. She narrowly escaped detention at Toulouse by her anxiety to be recognized as the affianced bride of Carlos V.^ and the regal pomp she assumed contrasted painfully with the wretchedness of her husband's troops. It is said that many of the raids were undertaken only to make good her extravagance. She quarrelled incessantly with the generals, and forbade her husband's eldest son, Carlos Luis, to appear before the troops. Her distrust of the young Prince, to whom as a child she had been much attached, was due to the scheme, so often talked of, of inducing Don Carlos to resign his claims in his favour. This project was particularly welcome to the moderate Carlists, of whom the foremost was Don Rafael Maroto, now commander- in-chief of the army round Estella. Though unable to dispense with this chief's services, the Pretender never ceased to slight him and to put every obstacle in his way. "The only generals your Majesty should place confidence in are those that cannot read or write," said his lordship of Leon. Maroto threw up his command and retired to France. Carlos told him to return immediately. He did so, travelling day and night, and presented himself before his sovereign, wayworn and travel-stained. " How dare you appear before me thus ! " cried 184 A Queen at Bay the Prince, and refused to admit him to his presence till three or four days had passed. He then re- stored him to the command of the army, and promptly instigated four battalions to mutiny. Maroto shot the ringleaders, including several officers of high rank, and Carlos proclaimed him an assassin and a traitor. Three days later the proclamation was withdrawn, and Maroto was confirmed in all his functions. These miserable dissensions con- tinued, while the Carlist forces dwindled away, and the ground they held was narrowed daily by Espartero. By the middle of 1839, Maroto was weary of the whole business, and saw that the cause of Don Carlos was irretrievably lost. As an honour- able man, he should have contented himself with leaving the service, instead of which he opened up negotiations through Lord John Hay, the English admiral, with the commander of the Queen's troops. Espartero contemptuously rejected any pro- posals implying the abandonment of the regency by Cristina or the union of her daughter with the Pretender's son. He would not consent to an armistice, but at last the two generals met at a farmhouse between Durango and Elorrio, where the basis of a capitulation was agreed upon. Carlos knew that negotiations were going on, but to what settlement they tended he was not exactly informed. He hated and distrusted Maroto, but he dared not come into open collision with him. Unable to use force, he resolved to make a last appeal to the Exit Carlos 185 sentiment of his troops. He appeared before them, dressed in full uniform with all the insignia of royalty. With him were his eldest son, the Infante Sebastian, and a brilliant staff. Maroto and his officers followed at a little distance, suspicious of the intentions of the Prince's escort. The harangue that Carlos had carefully prepared fell flat. He was no orator, and, obsessed by a sense of his own supreme importance and dignity, he could talk only of his prerogatives, and appeal to his men to shed their last drop of blood for him. A few Castillian battalions responded indeed with shouts of Viva el Rey ! but the other regiments cheered for their general. ** Men," said the Prince, with a certain dignity, "when your King is present, he is your general." Again he exhorted them to fight for him to the death. The ranks were silent. " How is this ? " asked Carlos. One of Maroto's staff drew near. " They don't understand Castillian, Sire," he explained. '' Then ask them in Basque," impru- dently commanded the Pretender. The officer smiled, and instead of translating the Prince's appeal, shouted in the Basque tongue, *' Paquia naidenzete^ muct iliac ? " (Do you w^ish for peace, lads ?) The soldiers answered as with one voice, " Bay^ Jauna I " (Yes, sir !) A loyal officer hurriedly explained the purport of question and answer to Carlos. '' We are sold," cried the Prince with infinite bitterness, and without deigning to reproach the troops who deserted him, he galloped away. Maroto watched i86 A Queen at Bay him go. " We could take him, now," whispered an officer. '' Bah ! that would be a crime ! " replied the general whom Carlists to this day compare to Judas Iscariot. Carlos having abandoned the army, and retreated with a handful of followers to the recesses of the Pyrenees, there was no hindrance to the progress of negotiations. On the 29th August, 1B39, the famous treaty of Vergara was signed by both com- manders. Espartero pledged his word to recommend the Cortes to maintain the fueros of the Basque Provinces ; the rank of the officers of Maroto's army was to be confirmed, their arrears of pay to be discharged ; the men were free to return unmolested to their homes, or to re-engage, should room be found for them, in the Queen's service. The two armies were brought face to face on the 31st August. The two generals rode out and embraced each other between the ranks. Maroto turned towards his men : *' Do you wish,'* he cried, *' to live like true Spaniards, all under one flag } If so, run and embrace your brothers, as I do your general." With hearty cheers, Cristinos and Carlists rushed towards each other and clasped hands. The bloody six years' campaign was at an end. For Carlos, neither Navarra nor the Basque Provinces offered a single place of safety. A few days after the convention had been signed, he crossed into French territory. In Cataluna and the other eastern provinces, the Carlists still fought on. The old Comte d'Espagne Exit Carlos 187 returned to the province which he had once ruled with an iron hand, to strike a last blow for despotism. For some time he held his own against the Queen's forces in the extreme north. But his cruelty dis- gusted and exasperated even his own brutal followers. Carlos was prevailed upon to dismiss him from the command. The Carlist Junta gave him no chance of resisting the decree. He was seized, gagged, and disarmed as he sat at the council table, and then informed of his supersession. When permitted to speak, the Count professed his profound respect for his King's orders, and his readiness to obey them. "You must ride, then, with us to the republic of Andorra," announced his captors. The old general asked for a moment's grace, to say a prayer in the village church. When he rose from his knees, his look was that of a man doomed to die. Mounted on a mule and escorted by several members of the Junta, he was taken that night to the parsonage of Sisgque. Next morning, he was ordered to divest himself of his uniform and to don the clothes of a peasant. Upon his refusal, a ludicrous scene was witnessed, his gaolers attempting the almost im- possible feat of clothing a man by main force. Threatened with a musket, the Count at last sub- mitted, and, thus disguised, was forced to resume his journey. They rode by devious and unfrequented paths, to avoid the Cristinos, to a house near Organya, on the Segre, where the once-formidable Captain-General was confined for four days. The i88 A Queen at Bay unhappy man was indeed, in a familiar phrase, between the devil and the deep sea. To be delivered from his Carlist foes, he could only look to the Cristinos ; and with them, he knew, short shrift awaited him. His captors had determined that he should die. Again he was mounted on a mule, and told to set forward. He lit a cigar. '* A dark night ! " he murmured. No one replied. They knew that he would want no light on the journey he was about to undertake. The party rode on in silence. On reaching the high-road, a man stepped out of the darkness and laid his hand on the Count's bridle. "It is the guide that will lead you to Andorra,'* said the leader of the party. D'Espagne felt his mule drawn forward rapidly. Looking back, he saw that his escort had disappeared. For a moment, perhaps, he believed himself to be on the road to safety. He heard the waters of the Segre, and a moment later neared the bridge. Two men rushed forward, crying to him to halt. Thinking, no doubt, these were picquets from the Queen's army, he dismounted. The next instant, he was felled to the ground, and bound with cords. " I'm a French trader," gasped the wretched man. ** Take me to the Governor. He knows me well." " Ay, we will take you to him," replied his unknown captors, the agents of the Carlist Junta. He was lifted, bound, on to his mule, and carried to the water's edge. One of the men flung him to the ground, Exit Carlos 189 and deliberately passed a noose round his neck. Pressing his foot against the back of the struggling man, he drew the knot with all his strength^ The Comte d'Espagne was slowly strangled. His assas- sins stripped his body naked, and flung it into the river. Next day the current deposited its gruesome burden against the piers of a village bridge, and then the Catalans knew that the monster who had oppressed them was really dead. How could he by this one deith, however ignominious, atone for the thousands of murders that lie at his door ? Undismayed by treachery, defection, and mutiny, the ruthless, dauntless Cabrera still held out, resolved to die in the last ditch. Driven by Espartero from his stronghold of Morella, he made a last stand on the slopes of the Pyrenees. At Berga, on the 4th July, 1 840, he was compelled at last to admit defeat. He and his men crossed the frontier, and were made prisoners by the French authorities. The terrible guerilla chief was at first interned in the fortress of Ham, and then allowed to reside in the South of France. Ultimately, he passed over into England. He became a favourite in the most respectable circles, and died the husband of an opulent English lady of pronounced Evangelical views. He that was the cause of it all surrendered to the representatives of the French government at Bayonne. He was told that he would be detained in a kind of honourable captivity at Bourges, not iQo A Queen at Bay far from the place where he had spent six years as the prisoner of Napoleon. The Infante Sebastian accompanied him ; but so fiercely did they quarrel that they would not eat at the same table during their journey or at its end. The young Prince soon after sought and obtained leave to join his young wife, Cristina's sister, at the court of Naples. His defection embittered his mother and her husband all the more against him. They maintained a mimic court, with every attention to punctilio and ceremony ; their followers swaggered about Bourges, a source of danger to the inhabitants and trouble to the police, who had orders not to follow them over the Prince's threshold. The Pretender's court became the centre of innumerable intrigues not only against the throne of Isabel II., but against the government of Louis Philippe. The Marques de Miraflores de- tected a conspiracy to take the Spanish Queens oft by poison ; and though all knowledge of the plot was denied, and probably truly, by the Pretender, it was certainly within the moral compass of his leading partisans. Then came revivals of the scheme to marry Carlos Luis to the young Isabel ; haughty appeals to Metternich ; remonstrances with the French government. Even Carlos wearied of it all, at last. In 1844 he resigned his pretensions to his first-born son, and assumed the title of Conde de Molina — one of the many titles of the Spanish sovereign. Three years later, Isabel II. having been married, he was suffered to retire to Austria. Exit Carlos 191 He died at Trieste, on March 10, 1855, at the age of sixty-seven years. Men squander their lives, as if they had not one but nine. To this unlucky Prince was given at his birth a prize that men with a far greater capacity than his might have envied. Infante of Spain, brother and son of a King, he might have lived nobly, grandly, and contentedly, with profit to himself and millions of 'As countrymen. But his ambition — all that was big about him — would be satisfied with nothing less than a crown. To win that prize, he threw away his own life, embittered his brother's declining years, shed the blood of countless Spaniards, and brought his country to the verge of ruin. Unhappily, all the mischief that he sowed died not with him. It may be that, inspiring this greed of authority, there was some perverted sense of duty, some deeply rooted belief in himself and his mission. It is, at least, to be hoped there was ; and that therein Carlos of Bourbon found consolation for his twenty-two years of exile and for the untold miseries he brought on his native land. CHAPTER XI THE DOWNFALL OF CRISTINA THE convention of Vergara left Baldomero Espartero the most powerful man in Spain. He had succeeded where every other general in the kingdom had failed. The rise of a strong man interests no one in the state more deeply than it does the sovereign. Cristina, partly out of gratitude, partly from policy, lavished favours and rewards on the victorious general. She made him marshal, Count of Luchana, and Duke of Victory ; she summoned his wife to court, and gave her an appointment about her person. Every eye in Spain was fixed on Espartero. To which party would he attach himself? What use would he make of his popularity ? Politically he was an unknown quantity till, after his victory at Luchana, he was recalled with his army to the capital to protect it against the columns of Gomez and Zariategui. During his stay in Madrid, he was courted not only by the Queen-Regent, but by the leaders of every faction. Despairing at last of securing his support, the Moderates, more impatient than their 192 The Downfall of Cristina 193 rivals, began to tamper with the troops directly ; and so far succeeded that one morning the general was awakened by a deputation of officers, who in- formed him that they would resign their commands unless the Calatrava ministry vacated office. It was the counter stroke to the revolt of La Granja. Espartero contented himself with exhortations to obedience ; his lieutenant, Rivero, took the officers at their word, dismissed them, and mustered the troops under the sergeants. But this was not the upshot designed by the wire-pullers of the move- ment, among whom there can be little doubt was Cristina herself Her Majesty, in deference to the mutineers, dismissed Calatrava and his colleagues, giving their portfolios to an interim ministry at the head of which was an old statesman named Bardaji. The portfolio of war she gave to Espartero, who accepted it, only to resign it immediately into the hands of a supporter. Then with his army he returned to the seat of war, in pursuit of Don Carlos, and satisfied that he would shortly be in a position to determine the destinies of Spain. Cristina was now approaching the prime of life and the sixth year of her regency. She was innately shrewd, and experience had. left her little to learn of men's minds and motives. She knew very well that Espartero's patriotism was strangely confounded with a belief in his own personaHty, just as in acting for herself she was sure that she was acting for the good of Spain. Don Carlos would soon be disposed of f 13 194 A Queen at Bay and then Espartero would have to be reckoned with. Cristina appears to have reposed a certain confidence in the general ; of deliberate treason she believed him, and rightly, to be incapable. But if she was to be mistress in Spain, he must be attached to her side, or else a balance must be found for his ever-increasing power. The sagacious Queen resolved to adopt both measures at the same time. Her confidence in the Duke of Victory showed no signs of waning ; but the disturbed state of La Mancha and Andalucia was made the excuse for creating an imposing army of reserve, the command of which was given to General Ramon Narvaez, an officer distinguished by his valour and also by his enmity to Espartero. The Duke of Victory knew perfectly well with what object this army had been formed. From his headquarters at Logrofto on the 31st October, 1838, he penned a passionate protest to the Queen, pointing out that if 40,000 men could be raised they could be nowhere better employed than at the front, and that Narvaez was an insubordinate officer, whose promotion was a bad example to the whole army. The general thus attacked replied in a counter-manifesto, defending himself lustily against his superior's allegations. He declared himself a citizen soldier, and a man of advanced ideas. Cristina and her Moderate ministers knew better. But when he said that the reactionary party would never find in him a mere instrument, he spoke more p. 194] From a lithograph by J. D. Victoria GENERAL NARVAEZ The Downfall of Cristina 195 truly than they knew. Cristina, Espartero, and Narvaez were fighting for their own hands first, and the instrument of all was Spain. The Liberals were unable to place any confidence in Narvaez, who, rightly or wrongly, they believed to be essentially a Queen's man ; and when their attitude had become sufficiently clear, Espartero promptly threw the weight of his sword and his influence on the popular side. The Moderates arranged by means of agents provocateurs a feeble tumult at Madrid, whereupon Narvaez occupied and surrounded the city with his troops, to the indignation of the Captain-General of New Castille, who threw up his command. The Moderate ministers, having gone thus far, lost heart. To conciliate Espartero, they appointed General Alaix, one of his warmest friends, to the ministry of war. Cristina had made up her mind to use the two powerful soldiers as checks on each other. It was a wise selection, for their personal animosity made any sort of understanding between them impossible. Narvaez, realizing that he was merely a tool in the Queen's hands, retired to his native place, Loja, a poverty-stricken town on the road from Bobadilla to Granada. It was obvious to every one by this time that the Regent's heart was with the Moderates. A certain wing of the Liberal party began to think seriously of the pretensions of the amiable Infante Francisco de Paula, who had always affected sym- 196 A Queen at Bay pathy with their views. He was not devoid of ambition. In the twenties, there had been some talk of making him Emperor of Mexico ; and though his Royal Highness did not venture to sail for that troubled region, he is said to have pocketed the funds subscribed for the project by his sup- porters there and elsewhere. By his devotion to the turf and interest in horse-breeding, he might have satisfied some people's ideals of kingship, but the Liberals who thought of placing him on the throne of Spain in 1838, were prepared to use him only as a cat's-paw. Espartero got wind of the conspiracy, and intercepted some treasonable correspondence at Miranda. A revolt had broken out at Seville, and it is asserted that its object was to further the Infante's designs on the crown of Spain, or if these should fail, to make him King of an independent Andalucia. This latter idea was the revival of a scheme which had tempted the Duke of Medinaceli in Felipe IV.'s time. Francisco, of course, publicly dissociated himself from these schemes, and stayed in Paris, where, however, he and his wife fomented discontent against his sister- in-law by means of a paper called El Graduador. The revolt at Seville was ostensibly, and in the case of many of its abettors was actually, a mutiny against the Captain-General at Cadiz. General Cordova, a staunch Moderate, was asked by one faction to intervene, and in an evil hour consented. He induced Narvaez to accompany him, and the The Downfall of Cristina 197 two generals succeeded in pacifying the city. But their intervention was looked upon by Alaix as rebellion. The chance of shooting Espartero's enemy was too good *to be missed. Narvaez and Cordova, warned in time, took to flight, and after undergoing shipwreck and various vicissitudes, found refuge in England and at Gibraltar. Alaix promptly incorporated the army of reserve with Espartero's command. To this slight the Queen-Regent had to bow ; but she was true to her friends the Moderates, and formed a new ministry under the presidency of Don Lorenzo Arrazola. Cristina had long felt the ground shaking beneath her feet. Anticipating the day she should be sent on her travels, she hoarded up money and clutched at every dollar. Her name became a bye-word for avarice. This is the besetting sin of the Neapolitan ; and, to do the Regent justice, it must be said that it was not for herself alone that she was scheming. She had no repugnance, as we know, to liberal ideas, but she wanted to assure her position. She was an inverted Vicar of Bray. Whatsoever party ruled in Spain, she wanted to be Regent. To further this design, Arrazola exerted himself to secure the adoption of certain laws that should put the crown beyond the reach of popular effervescence and parliamentary censure. Cristina watched his efforts with anxiety. The new minister did not want for firmness. He dissolved the Cortes as soon as he saw they contained a Liberal majority, and did not 198 A Queen at Bay scruple to interfere in the elections in order to secure a large measure of support in the next Parliament. But the convention of Vergara had now set Espartero free to take a part in domestic politics. In the Eco del Comercio of December 2, 1839, there appeared a letter, signed by his secretary, Don Francisco Linage, declaring that the Duke of Victory regarded the government's policy with profound disapproval. This was a definite pro- nouncement. Espartero, then, was on the Liberal side. The ministry were angry. Linage was ordered to appear before a court-martial at La Coruna. Cristina, anxious to conciliate the general, wrote to him, urging him to dismiss the peccant secretary. His Grace refused to do so, and told her Majesty that he would regard the disgrace of Linage as a personal affront. There is no reasoning with the master of many legions. The prosecution was abandoned, but Espartero, in a manifesto dated from the camp at Mas de Matas, reflected on the unwisdom of the government, and regretted that the Regent should have allowed herself to be misled by ill-disposed counsellors. Cristina tried what could be done by kindness. She sent the general a magnificent golden casket set with brilliants, worth six thousand dollars ; she presented him with the best horses in the royal stables, and loaded his Duchess with gems. While she undertook to con- ciliate the most formidable man in her dominions, The Downfall of Cristina 199 her ministers resolutely pursued their work of amending the constitution. The success of their efforts depended on the passing of a bill to place the appointment of fhe mayors of corporations in the hands of the crown. The object of this ordinance was to enable the Government at all times to bring direct pressure to bear on the electorate. Cristina knew very well that the country was against her, and that the Moderate majority in the newly assembled Cortes had been obtained only through bribery and intimidation. Her popularity was waning rapidly. Her personal reputation was incessantly attacked in the columns of El Graduador\ her connection with Munoz was revealed by her sister to a journalist called Lopez Martinez, who immediately published the story in pamphlet form at Paris. The most violent attacks were made upon her in a scurrilous sheet called El Guirigay, edited by one Gonzalez Bravo. The journal was pro- secuted, but the judges would not convict, and the obnoxious issue had to be suppressed by the direct intervention of the police. In the summer of 1840, the Queen-Mother determined on a bold bid for popularity. It was announced that she and the ten-year-old Queen would proceed to Cataluna, one of the most disaffected provinces in the kingdom, in order to take the waters at Las Caldas and sea- bathing at Barcelona. In the course of the progress, their Majesties would meet Espartero, who had 200 A Queen at Bay driven Cabrera to the foot of the Pyrenees, and was preparing to give him the coup -de -grace. The journey was not unattended with risk. Formidable Carhst bands still infested the country between Madrid and Zaragoza, and the two Queens were a prize that might well tempt their boldest leaders. One of them, Balmaseda, made ready to spring. He was badly defeated by General Concha, who commanded the royal escort, and in this supreme effort the Pretender's forces in central Spain were hopelessly broken up. Elated with this triumph, their Majesties made their entry into Zaragoza, accompanied by Espartero's Duchess. A rude shock awaited Cristina. The crowd cheered for her Grace and her victorious husband, but hardly noticed the Regent. The Queen kept her temper, and only talked the more sweetly to the Duchess of Victory. From the capital of Aragon, the royal party continued their journey towards the coast. Between Cervera and Tarrega, Espartero at the head of his army was waiting to receive them. The meeting was most cordial, the Queen's manner towards her most brilliant officer almost affectionate. His address breathed a spirit of fervent loyalty. He invited her Majesty to put herself at the head of the troops, and to assist in person at the final overthrow of her daughter's enemies. Cristina, now confident of the general's loyalty, was moved to tears. Turning to one of her ministers, she said reproachfully, " Did I not tell you so ? " The statesman was The Downfall of Cristina 201 silent. He had heard and read of such protestations by ambitious soldiers. Their Majesties reviewed the troops, who marched past cheering for Isabel II. and the constitution of 1837. Espartero rode beside the Regent's carriage on the way to Barcelona. He seized the opportunity to discuss the municipalities bill, and urged the Queen to refuse her assent to it. She waived the subject, but asked him to accept the presidency of the ministry himself. Espartero considered. This might be an attempt to remove him from the command of the army, or to identify him with the unpopular measure in contemplation. He thanked her Majesty, and said he would accept the presidency as soon as he had finally disposed of Cabrera. At Esparraguera Queen and general parted seemingly the best of friends. At Barcelona the sovereigns received a right royal welcome. ''What think you of our entry now?" Cristina exultingly asked a pessimistic officer. He sagely replied that he would wait to see what her exit was like before pronouncing an opinion. There were ominous discordant notes in the ovation. The corporation had the bad taste, says a Conservative writer, to introduce into the decorations the texts of the clauses in the constitution guaranteeing the freedom of the municipalities. The Queen frowned and became more thoughtful. She soon found that she had walked into the lions' den. The municipality and the vast mass 202 A Queen at Bay of the population of the city were devoted to the constitution and strenuously hostile to the policy of the government. Van Halen, the Captain-General, was Espartero's man. The only elements in Barce- lona on which the Regent could rely were the aristocracy and professional classes, from which the urban militia, thanks to the precautions of the late governor, was exclusively drawn. It was impossible for the Queen to drive out without being reminded, often most emphatically, of the people's repugnance to her ministers' measures. It was not without relief that she heard of the approach of Espartero, fresh from the crowning mercy of Berga. On the 13th July, he entered the city, clad in the splendid uniform of a Captain-General, and attended by a brilliant staff. The people went mad with joy. The warmth of his reception eclipsed that of the Queens. Cristina looked on, and smiled wonder- ingly. The corporation, in an address presented to the hero, expressed the hope that he would not sheathe his sword while the constitution was in danger. Espartero replied that it should not be endangered while he lived, and called for cheers for the constitution pure and simple. That night Barcelona was delirious with joy. The ministers in attendance on the Queens swore that the only crown the general should wear would be one of thorns. Cristina received the popular hero in private audience. He exhorted her to take heed of the The Downfall of Cristina 203 unmistakable opposition of the vast mass of the people to the municipalities bill. It would mean a revolution. The Regent replied by asking him to form a ministry, as he had agreed to do upon his return from the campaign. The general was willing to fulfil his promise, providing the royal assent was withheld from the obnoxious act. Without having given a decisive answer, the Queen dismissed him. Her obstinacy in this matter is a little per- plexing. She was not ignorant of the forces behind Espartero, of the excited state of Spain. But she was unaccustomed, as most sovereigns were in 1 840, to being a constitutional monarch, and saw in the unrestricted freedom of the people to choose their own representatives a constant peril to the crown. The same dread cost Charles X. of France his throne. Yet Cristina hesitated, more out of respect for Espartero than of fear of the people. At that moment the bill arrived from Madrid ready for her signature. It was laid before her at a cabinet council. Her Majesty repeated the objections of the Duke of Victory. The ministers listened in scornful silence. Twice she took up the pen, to let it fall again. *' Who is sovereign here, madame ? *' asked Perez de Castro, " you or Espartero ? " The taunt roused all the proud, masterful Bourbon humour. Cristina signed, and the bill was law. Within a few hours, she received a letter from Espartero. He tendered the resignation of all his dignities and offices, and sought permission to retire 204 A Queen at Bay into private life. Cristina assumed a most royal attitude. She refused to accept the proffered re- signation, and coolly reminded her officer that he was commander of her guard and must attend to the safety of her person. This brought Espartero to the palace. He persisted in his resignation, since he could not approve the Queen's measures. *' But I may want you to preserve order," argued her Majesty. The general answered that it was absurd to ask him to repress a movement of dissent with which he was in sympathy ; moreover, he did not think the troops would fire on the people in case of a revolt. '' Very well," said Cristina hotly, " go when you like." And the Duke of Victory withdrew. His dismissal was the signal for the expected explosion. Barcelona is used to the business of insurrection, and in a few hours barricades were thrown up in the principal streets. Angry mobs traversed the city from end to end, yelling " Down with the ministers ! Hurrah for Espartero ! Hurrah for the constitution ! " The ministers, mindful of the fate of Bassa and Quesada, fled in disguise to a French vessel in the harbour. Cristina, thus deserted, implored Espartero to come to her. He exerted himself to calm the people, and pro- ceeded to the palace. He refused to accept the presidency of the council himself, but recommended her some new ministers in whom he was able to place confidence. The Queen at once nominated The Downfall of Cristina 205 them to the vacant offices. Their appointment did not at once allay the tumult. There were some Moderates in Barcelona, and they collected outside the palace and cheere^d for the Queen. She acknow- ledged their encouragement with smiles and bows. These demonstrations cost her sympathizers dear. Don Francisco Balmes, one of the leading Moderates of Barcelona, was met next day near his house by a band of workmen, who pointed him out as a political opponent. *' We will make you suffer for yesterday's demonstration ! " they threatened. By way of answer, the hot-headed Balmes shot one of the men dead, and then, pursued by the others, took refuge in his own house. Barricading the doors, he defended himself against an armed mob for several hours, his unerring marksmanship keeping them at a distance. At last the fire ceased. The boldest of the assailants broke down the door, and, rushing upstairs, found their intended victim dead. He had blown out his brains with his last cartridge. Not to be balked of their vengeance, the crowd repeated the scenes of horror that had followed the murders of Quesada and Bassa. They paraded the brave man's mutilated corpse round the town, till it was rescued from them by some indignant militia officers. Cristina meanwhile was closeted with her new ministers, a number of mediocrities, whose selection does not reflect much credit on Espartero's sagacity or insight into character. They could only repeat 2o6 A Queen at Bay the warning of their master that the promulgation of the municipalities bill would mean the overthrow of authority. The Queen must suspend the bill by royal decree, or else dissolve the Cortes and summon another. Her Majesty would do neither. The bill had been passed by both Houses of Parlia- ment and been signed by her : it was now part of the law of Spain. It was beyond her power to cancel it. Nor could she, according to law, dissolve the Cortes twice in the same year. " You clamoured for a constitution," she might have said, *' and I shall hold to it religiously." Legally, she was wholly in the right. Then the ministers resigned in despair, one or two of them consenting to retain their portfolios till successors were appointed. Again the Regent turned to Espartero, who refused to help her. She ordered him to dispose of the military forces of the kingdom as he deemed best for the safety of the state ; and then, fearing some palace revolution like that of La Granja, she sailed to Valencia. She was received with chilling silence. Leopold O'Donnell, the general in command of the garrison, was on her side, but was not sure of his troops. She was attacked in the local press, and when a few of the Moderates of the city tried to serenade her, they were driven away from the front of the palace by the Liberals. Cristina had at last succeeded in forming another cabinet. It was composed of men, Moderates indeed, but who The Downfall of Cristina 207 had given unmistakable proofs of their attachment to constitutional government. They accepted office on the understanding, cordially entered into by the Regent, that thfe Cortes should be asked to amend the bill which was the cause of all the mischief. But the new Ministry had a short lease of life. On September i, Madrid rose in insurrection. A Junta was formed, and the penalty of death was decreed against any one who should obey the orders of the government at Valencia. The municipality and the miHtia made common cause. Spain would not have the bill in any shape or form. Don Manuel Cortina, one of the ablest advocates in the capital, was sent to negotiate with Espartero. Cristina, hearing of the rebellion, ordered the general to march upon Madrid and to restore order. He replied in a long letter dated from Barcelona, September 7, 1840. The Junta of Madrid, he pointed out, had declared for Isabel II., the regency of Cristina, the constitution, and liberty. This formula embodied his own political creed, and he declined to draw the sword against his fellow-patriots. Nothing would tranquillize the country short of a declaration from the Regent that the constitution would be respected, the municipalities bill with- drawn, and a ministry formed composed of Liberal counsellors, "pure, just, and wise." The publication of this document led all the cities of Spain to make common cause with Madrid. The 2o8 A Queen at Bay authority of the Regent was limited to the city of Valencia, where O'Donnell secured respect for her name. In desperation Cristina again invited Espar- tero to assume the premiership. This time he accepted. But he proceeded first to Madrid, where he came to an understanding with the leaders of the Junta. He found that the regency of Cristina was not regarded as an essential part of their pro- gramme. It was time, the papers said, to finish with her ; no more faith could be placed in her or in ministers appointed by her. The Duke of Victory was already saluted as the saviour of his country. Having formed his ministry, his Grace travelled with them to Valencia, where they arrived on October 8. Cristina received them at eleven o'clock at night. She at once asked them for a draft of their programme. The new ministers looked at Espartero and each other. Their views, the Duke answered, were so well known to her Majesty that it had not been thought necessary to set them out on paper. " No," said the Queen, " I must have a draft of your proposals." She was well advised, and had evidently been warned that the new cabinet proposed to go beyond the formula endorsed by Espartero. The ministers were received next night, and Cortina read the programme. The proposal to submit the bill to a new Cortes came as no surprise to the Queen ; but the document went on to say that the ministers would propose that the Regent The Downfall of Cristina 209 should graciously accept the co-operation of some other person or persons in the onerous task of government. Cortina finished and glanced at the Queen. She betrayed no emotion, and handed them the crucifix on which they took the oaths of allegiance. Her answer, she said, would be com- municated to them at the same hour the following night. The ministers had no sooner withdrawn than Espartero was recalled to the presence. Cristina announced her resolution. She would abdicate the regency and leave Spain. The general appeared to be petrified with astonishment. The Queen observed that he could hardly be surprised at her decision, since he could have expected no other answer to the document he had had a share in drafting. It was insulting to her dignity, she com- plained. Espartero protested that nothing could have been further from his thoughts or from those of his colleagues to offer the least slight to her Majesty. " My determination, all the same, is irrevocable/' said Cristina. " I ask you only to be loyal to my daughter, and to give me your word of honour to be true to her." All the general's remonstrances were unavailing, and he hurried off to communicate this startling news to his colleagues. Capable of high courage at the critical moment, Cristina always broke down when the immediate stress of danger was removed. Left with her husband and intimate attendants, she wept bitterly. 14 210 A Queen at Bay She repeated over and over again the sentences in the ministerial programme which appeared to reflect on her capacity. That night, says Bermejo, a soldier offered his life and sword in her service. Probably it was Leopold O'Donnell. From Narvaez, too, came a letter, offering his devotion. Munoz tried to dissuade his wife from her resolution. All was in vain. Her presence in Spain jeopardized her daughter's throne, and she would go. She ordered Pacheco, one of the most bitter enemies of the Liberals, to draw up her parting manifesto. Next day, the ministers assembled. Cristina entered, smiled and bowed. She unlocked a drawer in her bureau, and having produced a paper, handed it to Cortina. The minister scanned it, and handed it back. " Madam.e," he said, " I recognize the authorship of this document. It is unworthy of your Majesty, and will give dire offence to the Spanish people." " Never mind," replied Cristina, " publish it." " Your Majesty has forgotten that your daughters must remain on Spanish soil." The Queen started. " True," she said ; " you are right." She thrust the paper into a drawer, and told Cortina himself to prepare her manifesto. The difficulty was to find a plausible excuse for the Queen's act. The minister saw her privately. He suggested that if her Majesty would confirm a certain rumour, that would be an admirable explanation. *' To what rumour do you refer ^ " asked Cristina, affecting not to understand him. The Downfall of Cristina 211 ** That which says your Majesty has contracted ties, which you are free as a widow to do, but which would incapacitate you from the regency." " It is not true," angrily replied the Queen. Cortina looked at her. "Not true.?" "No, it is not true ! '* The minister could say no more, and at last they agreed upon the text of the document. " I would rather tear it up," said Cortina before he read it. " No," said Cristina wearily, " I've identified myself with a party, and that makes my government impossible in Spain. Espartero has made the same mistake." On the 1 2th October, the ministers and principal authorities of Valencia assembled in the audience chamber. Cristina, gracious and affable, splendidly dressed, read her act of renunciation. It ran: "The state of the nation and the condition of my health oblige me, despite the earnest remonstrances of my ministers, to resign the regency " ; it being impossible for her, she went on to state, to accede to the wishes of the people as at present expressed. Her august daughters she recommended to the persons to be appointed by the Cortes. She signed the paper, stepped down from the throne, and, in her old queenly way, swept into a room beyond. Espartero took the document to a side table, and witnessed it. Then with his colleagues he followed the ex-Regent, and found her turning over the pages of a magazine with affected composure. 212 A Queen at Bay When they had gone her emotion escaped from control. She wept tears of grief and rage, and producing from a drawer a file of newspapers and pamphlets, she expressed her ardent desire to leave a country where she had been thus vilified. Against Espartero she displayed no malice. The courtiers attacked him, but she said a word in his defence. *^ He is a man of honour, and even now I could win him over to my side. But enough blood has been shed in Spain. Better times are in store. Espartero's fall, mark you, will be soon and rapid." The little Queen and her sister could not under- stand why their mother should leave them. They cried bitterly, and implored her to take them with her. At the request of the ministers she deferred her departure till the 17th October. With frantic kisses and sobs, she tore herself away from her little girls. She wished to ahght on her way to the harbour to hear Mass at the church of the Virgen de los Desamparados, but her desire was overruled, Cortina warning her that some of her partisans might endeavour to prevent her departure, should such an opportunity occur. At half-past six in the morning she went aboard the steamship Mercurio, escorted by the ministers, while the guns thundered the respect that Spain did not feel for the widow of Fernando VII. Again she adjured Espartero to stand by her daughters, and begged him not to persecute the men who had attached The Downfall of Cristina 213 themselves to her cause : " They are not many/* she sighed, thinking at this last moment how few of the great party to which she had sacrificed herself had stood by her.* And so ended the regency of Cristina de Bourbon. CHAPTER XII CRISTINA IN EXILE THE good ship Mercurio steamed into Port Vendres on the night of the i8th October. Cristina's first care on landing was to write to Espartero, recommending the officers of the vessel for promotion and begging for news of her daughters. Then she set out for Marseille, over the road she had come eleven years before as the affianced bride of Fernando VII. At Perpignan and Narbonne she was received with military honours. She reached Montpellier in the afternoon, and stopped for three hours at the Hotel du Midi. By an odd coincidence, the Carlist refugee Cabrera was in the town, and from the balcony of his lodgings feasted his eyes on his foe, now forced like him into exile. Cristina, femme jusquau bout des ongles^ saw nothing either dramatic or mortifying in the encounter, but was childishly curious to see the redoubtable chief, and on resuming her journey, thrust her head out of the window to have a good look at him. She reached Nimes late that night (21st October), as an Englishman, staying at the Hotel du Luxem- 214 Cristina in Exile 215 bourg, informs us, through the columns of 'The Times} He goes on to say : " The best apartments in the hotel were already taken by an English family, which had already retired to rest, so that Cristina and her suite were obliged to content themselves with second-rate apartments. " The suite was certainly not a very splendid one, for the whole cortege was only composed of two carriages, and the vehicle of the Queen looked more like an English waggon or a French diligence than a royal carriage. " This morning, after breakfasting a la fourchette at eleven o'clock, her ex-Majesty and suite took the railway as far as Tarascon, on their way to Marseille, their ultimate destination being Naples. The last occasion on which I had seen her was at the Cascine at Florence in the month of September 1829, when she was on her way to marry Fernando. She was then a thin but beautiful young woman. Eleven years have since passed, and though still fresh and beautiful, she has grown into an embonpoint, which, though not disagreeable to me, is distasteful to many. ** For the rest, she is just as gay and degagee as she was eleven years ago. It is the same free- spoken and frank Neapolitan with the laughing eye and strenuous solicitude to please, which I saw in fair Florence, and perhaps time has in some respects imparted additional graces. ' Times ^ 28th October, 1840, 2i6 A Queen at Bay " Maria Cristina was accompanied by a dame d'honneur, an aide-de-camp (a good-looking young man), and a general officer. [One of these must have been Munoz.] She arrived here with a fat almoner, with a face of contented ignorance, but his reverence has already deserted fallen royalty, and starts to-morrow for Lyon. '* The arrival of so fine a woman has put all the commercial travellers at all the hotels on the qui vivCy but now that she has gone these infamous, profligate, and abandoned scamps [!] give their tongues a license, for which their bodies politic merit a cooling in the nearest horsepond. '* The days of chivalry in France at least are gone, and I fear never to return. Cristina embarks on a Neapolitan steamer at Marseille for Naples. I learn that her wish was to proceed to Paris, but she has been overruled." Notwithstanding the decline of chivalry, her Majesty had no reason to complain of her reception at Aries, where she " did " the sights most con- scientiously, or at Marseille, where a special guard of honour was told off to attend her. Glad apparently of this opportunity of seeing the world, she ran over to Toulon, where she was shown over the fleet and welcomed with naval and military honours. On her return to Marseille, she had interesting news. The cabinet of Spain had constituted itself into a provisional regency, Espartero at its head, and had summoned the Cortes to meet the following Cristina in Exile 217 March. More important still were the tidings from Paris. M. Thiers had resigned, and the new ministry, formed by M. Guizot, was composed of men likely to be more sympathetic with her than with the new government at Madrid. She also found awaiting her her faithful knight the Marques de Miraflores, who had resigned his post of ambassador to the French court, and now came to offer his services to his beloved mistress. Cristina poured her sorrows into her old friend's ears, bursting into tears in the middle of the recital. The Marquis, also, was deeply moved. He was of opinion that, while her Majesty could abdicate the regency of her own free will, she remained bound to watch over her daughter's throne and to intervene at any moment that daughter's interests appeared to be imperilled. He drafted a manifesto, stating these views, which he urged the Queen to sign. He also counselled her to proceed at once to Paris to take advantage of the favourable change in the ministry ; and sure enough, before he had gone to prepare for her journey, the Comte d'Houdetot presented himself with letters from Louis Philippe to his wife's niece, couched in the warmest terms. Another old friend now came to pay his respects to fallen royalty — Cea Bermudez, of " enlightened despotism " fame. He had a rare opportunity of saying " I told you so," but as he remained on good terms with Cristina, we must suppose he said no such thing. Instead he drew up a manifesto to 2i8 A Queen at Bay the Spanish nation, which was published over the Queen's signature at Marseille on the 8th November. Cristina expressed her unalterable affection for the people of Spain, and begged to remind them that she had persuaded her late husband to reopen the universities and to pardon many hundreds of political offenders ; that she had, of her own free will, decreed a constitution, and, when it was found that the nation was not satisfied with that, had solemnly subscribed to the constitution of 1837. To that she had been scrupulously faithful, refusing to suspend a law that had been passed by both Houses of Parliament ; this she could not have done without acknowledging the right of force, " which is not recognized either by divine or human laws, and the existence of which is incompatible with our con- stitution as with all constitutions " ; in conclusion, Cristina drew an affecting picture of her own bereaved condition, but disclaimed with horror any intention of troubling the peace of Spain. In the light of after-events, no great sagacity is re- vealed in this document. The definite disclaimer was unwise and unnecessary. If, too, the manifesto was designed to enlist sympathy and to disarm the suspicions of the Madrid government, it would have been better to have left out all allusion to the immediate causes of the Queen's abdication. The declaration suggested by Miraflores strikes as much better conceived. The Provisional Government of Spain replied a week later, traversing most of the Cristina in Exile 219 Queen's contentions, and deploring the retirement of a Princess, from whom much good might have been expected, had she been able to ignore con- siderations of party. Before this rejoinder met her eyes, Cristina was on her way to Paris. She travelled vid Lyon, the inundation of the Rhone having rendered the usual route by Valence impracticable. In the French capital her husband awaited her, and the children born of their union, the eldest of whom she had not seen for nearly three years. In the society of her dear ones, and in the enjoyment of her colossal fortune, she might forget the stormy days of her regency. Louis Philippe, accompanied by his wife and daughters and the Due d'Aumale, came out to Fontainebleau to meet her. At four o'clock on the 20th November, she drove into the Cour du Cheval Blanc, escorted by a squadron of the 6th Dragoons. On entering the palace she was affectionately greeted by the old King, on whose arm she ascended the grand staircase, to be embraced by her aunt Marie Amelie, whom she had not met since 1829. Her arrival was the occasion of a banquet at the early hour of six, when she sat in the place of honour on the King's right. " Queen Cristina," said a reporter on this occasion, '' is of medium height. She has a beautiful face. Her eyes are of remarkable vivacity." (''Thirsting for pleasure," as they were described by Princess Clementine.) ** Her expression exhibits a gentle 220 A Queen at Bay firmness blended with charming grace. The calm strength and keenness revealed by her countenance explain how this woman has been able to struggle during ten years against the audacity, the malice, and the cunning of the political party which now exploits Spain — how this Queen abandoned her authority rather than abuse it." Her Majesty's reception by the public on the road to Paris was hardly less sympathetic than the 'Journal des T)ebats, On Sunday afternoon, the royal cortege, escorted by dragoons and mounted national guards, drove to the Palais Royal. Im- mense crowds lined the quays. On arriving, the King of the French himself conducted the exiled Queen to the apartments prepared for her in the left wing of the palace, between the garden and the Rue de Nemours. The Dukes of Orleans and Montpensier, with Marshal Soult, Guizot, and her own ex-ministers, were all there to welcome her. Even her detested sister and brother-in-law, Francisco de Paula, thought fit, for the sake of appearances, to wait upon her, and were invited by the good old Citizen King to dine with her at the Tuileries that evening. I imagine that the Queen was glad when all these festivities were over, and she could steal away to the babies from whom she had been so long separated. Never was there so indefatigable a sightseer as Cristina. During this, her first visit to the Ville Lumi^re, she went everywhere and saw everything. Cristina in Exile 221 The newly opened railway to Versailles greatly interested her ; nor did she neglect the National Library, where this record of her doings has been in J great part prepared. It is certain notwithstanding that she found time for consultation with the sage King of the French, with his astute minister, and her own advisers. Espartero had avowed himself a staunch friend of England, and his accession to power could not, therefore, be regarded with favour by France. Louis Philippe and Guizot, in modern phrase, went solid for Cristina, and deterred her from visiting London as Miraflores had suggested she should do. No definite policy could be formu- lated till the Spanish Cortes had met, and the still uncertain position of Espartero was determined. Probably upon the advice of her host, the exiled Queen determined to employ the interval in enlisting the sympathies of the Italian courts, which had hitherto been hostile to her. Leaving Paris on 12th December, she travelled post to Leghorn. There she took ship for Civita Vecchia, and reached Rome on Christmas Eve, 1840. She put up at the Hotel de Serny in the Piazza di Spagna. Her reception by the Papal authorities disposed her to believe that her overtures would be acceptable to his Holiness. Gregory XVI., who then filled the chair of Peter, had been among the first sovereigns to recognize Don Carlos as King of Spain, and had even accredited a Nuncio to his court at Estella. But the Pretender^s hopes were 222 A Queen at Bay finally shattered ; and the anti-clerical policy of the Provisional Government of Madrid made the Pope glad of a new ally. He received the ex-Regent in audience on the 30th December ; the conversation was brief, but it was resumed, and more intently, when news came that Arellano, the Pope's charge d'affaires at Madrid, had been put across the frontier with almost brutal want of ceremony by order of Espartero. Great was Gregory's wrath, and the angrier he became with this upstart soldier- regent, the more kindly did he feel towards the mother of Isabel II. Cristina bided her time, and remained in the Eternal City, edifying the clergy by her piety and ultramontane sentiments. The news of her regeneration reached Naples, and her brother, the pious Bomba, cordially invited her to visit him. He offered to place the Palazzo Chiatamone at her disposal. " Come back," he wrote to the prodigal ; " all is forgiven — even your wickedness in upholding your daughter's rights." The Queen thought, however, she had more to gain by conciliating the Supreme Pontiff. On the 1st March, Gregory pronounced an allocution on the affairs of Spain, which was not unfairly described in a French newspaper as an incitement to revolt. The faithful were invited to treat all the acts of the government since Fernando's death, as they affected the Church, as null and void. It is to be hoped that the Pope took this step on his own initiative, not urged thereto by those anxious to undermine Cristina in Exile 223 the authority of the existing Spanish government in every possible way. Cristina determined, at all events, to lose nothing by this appeal to Catholic feeling. In the presence of his Holiness, she recited and signed an act of repentance for having given her consent to the laws of 1835, suppressing religious communities ; and was then solemnly relieved of all ecclesiastical censures, explicit or implicit. The Papal absolution is believed also to have covered certain canonical informalities incident to her second marriage. These probably weighed heavily on the mind of Cristina, affecting as they would the status of her younger children. Though very far from religious, she possessed a good share of the native superstition of the Neapolitan, and a flaw in her marriage lines would in her eyes have made all the difference between good and evil. Her public re- cantation of her errors as a ruler shows that she was bidding for the support of the reactionary and con- servative elements in Spain, though as she also was an exile, it is not clear why she should have hoped they would prefer her as a leader to Don Carlos. In the long run this abject submission to the Papacy seems to have had little effect on her affairs, one way or another. Resuming her incognito, the Queen turned her face northwards, and in ten days accomplished the journey from Rome to Milan, where she arrived on the 30th March. The Austrian authorities, now that she was purged of her liberalism, received her 224 A Queen at Bay with all honour. The attentions of a guard of honour she gracefully declined, but she assisted de- lightedly at a gala performance at the Scala. From Lombardy she proceeded to Turin, in pursuance of her scheme of conciliating the Courts hitherto most devoted to the interests of Don Carlos. The marriage of Isabel and Carlos Luis was again talked of. Meanwhile, in Spain, the nation was divided on the question of the regency. Was it to be exercised by one, three, or five persons ? Cristina wrote to a politician in her confidence at Madrid, expressing her desire that there should be but one Regent, and that Espartero ; *' that this should be so, it is necessary to exert oneself. The good which may result will be immense." It is not easy to fathom the Queen^s policy at this juncture. She may have cherished certain hopes concerning Espartero ; she may have thought that a multiple regency would accustom the nation to the idea of a republic ; most probable of all, she dreaded lest the regency should fall into the hands of the detested Francisco de Paula, who had already claimed the guardianship of Queen Isabel as her uncle and natural protector. Her instructions were evidently understood by her party, for in the Cortes, which must necessarily have contained many of her secret adherents, only three votes were given to her against 103 to Arguelles and 179 to Espartero. The General became sole Regent of Spain. Cristina heard the news on her return to France From a lithograph after the painting by D, Vicente Lope? ISABEL II. IN 1842 p. 334] Cristina in Exile 225 in the middle of May. It was rumoured that she would pass the summer in Switzerland, but after a stay of some days at, Lyon, she went on to Paris, where she was lodged as before at the Palais Royal. She soon, however, made a home for herself in a palace in the Rue de Courcelles, where all her old friends gathered round her. The news that Arguelles — one of the noblest and most upright men in Spain — had been named by Espartero governor or tutor of the young Queen, stirred her into action. On the 19th July, 1841, she addressed a protest to the Spanish nation, claiming that the guardianship of her infant daughters was hers by every law human and divine ; that it was expressly reserved to her by the will of her late husband ; and that the Cortes had no power under the constitution or by the law of Spain to take away her right. This protest she accompanied by a letter to Espartero, arguing that her renunciation of the regency was never meant to imply the abandonment of her maternal rights, and reproaching him with this outrage on the principles of religion and humanity. Both documents were addressed to Don Baldomero Espartero, his dignity and authority as Regent of Spain being deliberately ignored. The protest was published, notwithstanding, in the official gazette of Madrid, together with the government's reply. It was contended that by her voluntary abdication of the regency and withdrawal from the kingdom, the Queen-Mother had in fact resigned the guar- 15 226 A Queen at Bay dianship of her daughters, and attention was drawn to the concluding words of her manifesto of the 8th November : '' She who was Queen of Spain now asks only that you love her children and respect her memory." But that manifesto had been drawn up before Louis Philippe and Guizot had held out to Cristina hopes of restoring her to power, before she had obtained assurances of sympathy from the Pope and the Italian powers. Her Majesty, it may have been noted, was not more distinguished than other royal persons for the rigidity of her principles, and by consistency, '' that bugbear of small minds," she was troubled little. " 'Tis not I that change, but circumstance," she might have said. But though she had in fact abandoned her maternal duties when she left Spain, she probably felt, like most parents, that her maternal rights were another matter ; and that the appointment of a guardian in her room was erecting between her and her children a barrier where hitherto there had only been a void. Up till now, she had maintained a pretty constant correspondence with her daughters through the medium of persons about the palace ; but these were all supplanted now by creatures chosen by Arguelles on account of their probity, learning, rectitude, and other uncomfortable qualities. The young Queen would surely be taught to despise her mother, and to neglect the cult of medals, relics, and scapulars in which Neapolitan religion largely Cristina in Exile 227 consists. Instead, Arguelles was capable of pro- posing the great heathens of antiquity as models to his august charge. .Poor Cristina was consumed by direful forebodings. She dreaded, too, that her odious sister might acquire some ascendency over Isabel. Francisco de Paula had been mean enough to write to Espartero congratulating him on his appointment to the regency ; whereupon Luisa Carlota had delightedly exclaimed, " That will put an end to Cristina' s manifestos and pretensions ! " From her modest establishment in the Rue des Dames Augustines, the Infanta had, moreover, written to her royal niece, warning her against her mother, and proposing her as an awful example of depravity. The poor child must have been distracted by these violent and recriminatory letters from her mother and aunt, pressed into her hand at odd moments, with furtive smiles and signs, by persons in her entourage. To all that Arguelles put an end ; so that, thanks to his tutelage, Cristina in reality stood less chance now than before of losing her daughters' affections. It was now open war between the Queen-Mother and the Regent of Spain. Her Majesty's protest was formally communicated by her agent, the Comte de Colombi, to the various courts of Europe ; her council sat daily in the palace in the Rue de Courcelles. A venerable Cardinal invoked the bless- ings of Heaven upon Cristina and her followers. Espartero, hearing these things, became spiteful. 228 A Queen at Bay He had already given publicity to the story of his rival's secret marriage ; now he refused his assent to a bill settling a pension on the widow of Fernando VII. But Cristina's war-chest was well supplied. Money does not slip through Italian fingers ; and the five millions left by her first husband had been added to by the fortunate specu- lations of the second, and supplemented by the comfortable salary of ^450,000 per annum she had drawn while Regent of Spain. All through the summer of 1841, she carried on a systematic campaign against the new govern- ment. Special efforts were made to win over deputies and military men. Louis Philippe and his minister were undoubtedly privy to all Cristina's plans. In August Guizot thought victory was in sight. He wrote to his master (August 6, 1 841) as follows: *' It is greatly to be desired that the friends of Queen Cristina should remain quiet and leave the government of the actual Regent to follow the course of its own errors and the destinies they will produce. It goes down visibly. M. Cea is strongly penetrated with these ideas, and Queen Cristina is, I believe, well disposed to adopt them." At an interview at Saint Cloud, Louis Philippe discussed the situation with the Queen, and found, as is minister had said, that she was pre- pared to await the course of events a little while longer. A few days later Guizot suggested sending an envoy to Madrid, lest the French government Cristina in Exile 229 should have the air, as he put it, of abandoning " this poor little Queen, who has near her neither mother nor gouvernanie, nor any faithful and de- voted servant." The person who was thus to be at once an ambassador and a mother to the young Isabel, was the late Minister of Public Instruction, M. de Salvandy. His appointment was approved by the Queen-Mother, though she observed that, in recognizing the regency of Espartero, "the King, her uncle, was less Cristino than she could have wished " ; but (adds Guizot) " she was one of those who knew how to yield without renouncing their opinions." Despite her ostensible adoption of a passive policy, Cristina had reason to hope that, by the time the French envoy reached Madrid, he would find a government of her own choosing in possession. Among the officers who had followed her into exile was the gallant Leopold O'Donnell, a hero of the Carlist war and one of Espartero's ablest lieutenants. His merits were so conspicuous that in 1839 ^^ attained the rank of Captain-General, though he had not completed his thirtieth year. Certainly with Cristina's knowledge, probably with her tacit approval, the young general left Paris, determined to bring the government of Espartero to an end. He obtained possession of the citadel of Pamplona without firing a shot. Dressed as a civilian and accompanied by a dozen officers, he walked into the barrack yard on the ist October, and persuaded 230 A Queen at Bay the garrison to recognize him as Captain- General of Navarra, and to acclaim Cristina Queen-Regent of Spain. The troops in the town refused their adhesion to the reactionary movement, but left O'Donnell practically unmolested. Meanwhile, Don Manuel Montes de Oca set up a provisional govern- ment in the name of the Queen-Mother at Vitoria, where he had the support of the municipal authorities and the military ; and both generals made strenuous appeals to the Basques and Navarrese to arm in defence o( thQir fueros, which her Majesty guaranteed on her royal word, and which the so-called Liberal government of Madrid was conspiring to take away. These demonstrations were part of an elaborate scheme, which was to include risings in all the principal towns of Spain, culminating at Madrid in the seizure of the young Queen's person. The execution of this desperate venture was undertaken by two brilliant young generals, Concha and Leon. The enterprise had in it no likelihood of success, but its mere daring captivated the two officers, in whom the instinct of self-preservation appears to have been suspended. On the yth October, Concha went at five o'clock in the afternoon to the quarters of his old regiment, the Princess's Chasseurs. Calling together the officers, he appealed to them to assist him in restoring the authority of the Queen- Regent, the illustrious Cristina. One alone responded — Lieutenant Manuel Boria, who stepped forward, brandishing his sword, and cried, Cristina in Exile 231 " To arms, Princess's ! to the rescue of our Queen ! " Upwards of three hundred men fell in behind him. The rest of the regiment, probably not unwillingly, allowed themselves to be disarmed and confined to barracks. The Guards locked themselves in their quarters on the approach of the insurgents, and received them with a discharge of blank cartridges — the favourite missiles of the man sitting on the fence. Once he could get possession of the Queen, Concha saw that this and other regiments would de- clare for him. The sentries at the gates of the palace offered no resistance, and a moment later the court- yard of the immense and grandiose edifice was filled with his men, eager and hopeful. The Queen and her sister were taking a music lesson. The clamour without interrupted them — no doubt to their momentary relief. Don Domingo Dulce, the veteran commander of the Halberdiers on duty within the palace, suspected something was amiss, and ordered the doors of the royal apartments to be closed fast. He had only time to post his little band at the head of the great marble staircase, when it was mounted by Boria, followed by a company of Chasseurs. " What means this outrage ? " sternly demanded the colonel. " I've come to do my duty," answered the lieutenant ; " stand aside." Dulce in vain implored him to retire, for his own sake and his men's. Seeing the guard would not give way, Boria ordered his men to fire. The Halberdiers from their commanding position 232 A Queen at Bay at the head of the stairs replied, and were able to hold the intruders at bay. Hearing the rattle of musketry at their own door, the royal children went into paroxysms of terror. They clung to the Condesa Mina, their aya or governess, imploring her to save them, and shrieked aloud as the bullets came crashing and splintering through the door. '' Tell them we will go anywhere with them, if they will only spare our lives ! " screamed the child Queen. The widow of the redoubtable Mina was a woman of courage. She tried to reassure the children, and led them into an interior apartment. Crash-crack-crash ! went the musketry ; never was such a scene witnessed in the palace of the King. Concha, who had been disposing the rest of his men in the courtyard, rushed in, and shouted to Boria to cease firing. " For God's sake, Manolito, remember we are in her Majesty's palace ! " An odd scruple in the midst of such an enterprise ! In rushed Diego Leon, in full general's uniform, alarmed lest Concha should gain all the glory of the conspiracy. He begged the Halberdiers to stand aside and let the deliverers of the Queen pass. The defenders replied with a volley. The generals were warned that the government had taken alarm, and the militia were marching on the palace. The game was up, and it was time to flee. It was three in the morning. The little band of insurgents tried to gain the open country by the garden between the palace and the Manzanares. They were attacked Cristina in Exile 233 and dispersed by a detachment of cavalry. Concha hid himself among the trees, and got away. Leon was captured, tried by court-martial, and sentenced to death. His wife threw herself in the path of the girl Queen, and prevailed on her to write to Espartero, commanding him to spare the young general's! life. The Regent ignored the command, and remained deaf to the entreaties of his own Duchess and of nearly all his old companions in arms. Leon drove to the place of execution in full uniform, his breast covered with decorations, seated beside General Roncali. He made a fine figure as he stood there — only thirty-one years old, handsome, glittering with all the insignia of military rank. Placing his hand on his heart, he faced the platoon, unmoved as when he had faced the Carlist hosts. '* Make ready ! take aim ! fire ! " he gave the short sharp words of command himself, and fell dead of the first wound he had received after so many campaigns. Three days after the attempted abduction of her daughter, Cristina sat in her palace at Paris, anxiously waiting for news. It was Isabel's birthday, and all the Moderates in the city had come to pay their respects and to hear the latest intelligence from Spain. To the astonishment of every one, in the midst of the throng appeared Salustiano Olozaga, an ardent radical statesman, now Spanish ambassador to the court of France. He elbowed his way, smiling, through his personal and political foes, and was 234 A Queen at Bay admitted to the presence of the Queen- Mother. She received him with surprise, but with her usual good nature, addressing him as thou^ as she always did her daughter's subjects. " Good morning," began Don Salustiano. " I bring you six letters. Two of them are stuck together, but I prefer to hand them to you as they are." " You might have separated them," remarked the Queen, wondering. " I did not, out of respect for the royal seal by which, precisely, they are united." The letters were from Isabel. " Well, I began to be anxious for news," said Cristina. '' I don't wonder at such a moment," commented the ambassador, keeping his eyes fixed upon her. '' What then has happened ? " asked her Majesty. Olozaga affected surprise. " I am astonished that your Majesty should inquire. You ought to be better informed than I, seeing that O'Donnell has entitled himself your Majesty's viceroy in Navarra, and that Montes de Oca claims to be a member of your own provisional government." It was the Queen's turn to simulate surprise. " They claim to act in my name ? " *' Explicitly." " Let them produce their proofs." ''They talk as if they had them." " And how could I authorize them } " " Not by a decree, but there are other ways." Cristina in Exile 235 ** Well," said the Queen, " I can only say that I am surprised at what you tell me." " In short, your Majesty does not wish to kindle a civil war in Spain ? " asked Olozaga tentatively. " It would be a calumny to suggest it," replied Cristina with hauteur. The ambassador inwardly rejoiced. " I have your Majesty's authority for saying so.?" he inquired. " Certainly," said the Queen-Mother ; and the envoy withdrew, well pleased with the result of his reconnaissance into the heart of the enemy's camp. He at once gave publicity to the Queen's dis- avowal. Montes de Oca, thus repudiated, found it impossible to satisfy the wary Basques as to the maintenance of their fueros. His force dwindled away, and the rest submitted on the approach of Espartero. The ringleader was taken and shot. On the news of the collapse of the attempt at Madrid, O'Donnell evacuated the citadel of Pam- plona, and by running away to France, lived to fight on many another day. The Cristino rising of 184 1 had failed. To prevent its recurrence, Olozaga wished to alienate Cristina from her adherents, or failing this, to hold her up before all Europe as the author of the recent outrages. On being apprised of the attempt to kidnap Isabel II., he wrote to the Queen- Mother saying that, with her permission, he had given the utmost publicity to her disavowal of the 236 A Queen at Bay men claiming to act in her name ; and that in view of this last outrage upon the person and dignity of her august daughter, he presumed she would be eager to publish a still more emphatic denial of her complicity, which he would be glad to transmit to the Spanish nation. Cristina had already awakened to the unwisdom and meanness of her verbal repudiation of the men who were laying down their lives for her. Farther she would not go. Her reply, addressed simply to Don Salustiano Olozaga, and signed by her private secretary, was brief : "I am commanded by Queen Maria Cristina de Borbon to state that she does not think proper to reply to your singular communication of the 12th instant, in which you misrepresent facts and falsify the words of her Majesty." The ambassador replied that he was prepared to overlook the insult conveyed in her Majesty's letter, but, on behalf of his government, he desired to know whether he had been right in saying that Queen Cristina disavowed the promoters of the late revolt and their proceedings. Her Majesty's rejoinder took the form of a very long letter, dated the 24th October, 1841, and again signed by her secretary. She persisted in her denial that she was the instigator of the recent insurrection ; its origin, she maintained, was to be found in the revolutionary nature of the existing government, in its usurpation of the royal authority, its deprivation of a mother Cristina in Exile 237 of the care of her children, its attacks upon religion, its insults to the Holy Father, and its violation of the pact made at Vergara with the noble Basques and Navarrese ; of such a government her Majesty declined to make herself the accomplice by con- demning those who in their resistance to tyranny invoked her name, and who sought to rescue her august children from their painful captivity. Olozaga, in acknowledging this letter, said that he saw in it, first, a renewal of the Queen's original disavowal ; secondly, another and strongly worded manifesto against the government of Spain. In consequence, he took the bold step of requesting the French government to expel Maria Cristina from their territory, as one who was openly fomenting war against a friendly power. The answer was what he probably expected. The King of the French, he was told, understood his duties to friendly powers, but he had other duties to consider : Queen Cristina had sought refuge in France, at the court of her uncle, the best friend of her royal daughter ; the hospitality then extended to her would not be withdrawn. This curt reply left the Spanish ambassador speechless. His government was not prepared to fight France. The Cristino rising had been followed by a much more serious republican outbreak in Barcelona, which threatened for a time to bring Espartero to the ground. Seeing that Olozaga had taken his defeat quietly, Louis Philippe sent Salvandy 238 A Queen at Bay to Madrid. Here another difficulty arose. The French government in 1833, unlike our cabinet, had made the mistake of accrediting its repre- sentative to the Regent instead of to the Queen. M. de Salvandy sought to set aside this precedent, and to present his credentials to Isabel in person, in the presence, if necessary, of Espartero. The Spanish government stood firm ; so did the envoy ; and in the end, he returned to Paris, the relations of the two powers having been strained almost to breaking-point. In England, this rebuff to Louis Philippe made Espartero more popular than ever. We were supposed to be in alliance with France, but it suited certain London journals to paint the Citizen King and his minister as the arch-enemies of mankind and of England in particular, and every slap in the face they received was accepted as a pat on the back for us. CHAPTER XIII THE DOWNFALL OF ESPARTERO CRISTINA, perceiving that the government of the detested Espartero was not going to fall after the manner of the walls of Jericho, settled down for a prolonged stay in Paris. She purchased Malmaison, the Empress Josephine's old home, for 500,000 francs, and made it her principal residence, still main- taining the establishment in the Rue de Courcelles. This was the centre of a secret society formed by Martinez de la Rosa and Toreno to promote her interests. Its direction was entrusted to Munoz, who for all his alleged want of ambition, seems, according to the correspondence he kept up with Don Fernando de Cordova, to have watched very carefully over his wife's political interests. Cordova tells us that the Queen's supporters in Paris were sharply divided into the civil and military sets, the most distinguished members of the latter being Narvaez, Llauder, Cleonard, and Pavia. O'Donnell took up his abode at Orleans, and Concha at Florence, on account of his intense antipathy to Munoz. The Queen's secretary was Donoso Cortes, 239 240 A Queen at Bay one of the most eminent orators and political writers Spain has produced. In two years' time, unless Espartero carried out the treasonable designs of which his enemies accused him^ Isabel would assume the headship of the government, and would, it could hardly be doubted, at once recall her mother. The Infanta Luisa Carlota determined to make the most of the time at her disposal. Her dutiful husband wrote to Espartero, announcing that he was about to return to Spain with his family, and was ready to draw the sword for the existing government. Louis Philippe, at the instance of Cristina, exerted himself in vain to dissuade the princely couple from their project. He ordered his officials to throw every obstacle in their way ; but all resistance proved futile before the tempestuous rage and vehemence that had torn the crown from the head of Don Carlos. '' If you will not let the carriages proceed, we will walk into Spain on foot," screamed the Infanta to the French custom-house authorities. The terrified officials could only yield. Luisa Carlota triumphantly swept across the Bidassoa, continuing her journey to Santander. Her husband crossed the frontier at 016ron, and travelling by Zaragoza, joined his wife at Burgos. Arrived at Madrid, they were refused accommodation in the palace by Espartero, who re- luctantly permitted them to see the Queen and her sister once a week. Cristina knew very well that her sister's design The Downfall of Espartero 241 was to secure the hand of Isabel II. for one of her sons — a scheme as obnoxious to Espartero as to her. Concealed in a fashion journal sent her by her mother, the girl Queen found a letter warning her against " that maleficent genius, Carlota," who had had a hand in every intrigue against her throne. " Beware of that woman," the letter ran ; *' she sows everywhere ruin and misfortune ! Her words are lies, her presence is a peril. Take care that she does not gain an entrance to your heart." Carlota tried very hard to do so. She dogged her royal niece's footsteps, and pounced upon her in her walks. The Condesa Mina complained to Arguelles, who wrote a strong letter of re- monstrance to the Infanta. The person who had the courage to deliver this was literally kicked out of her presence by her Royal Highness. She found means, thereafter, of communicating with her niece by means of the Marquesa de Belgida, who, however, resenting the watchfulness of Arguelles, presently resigned her duties. A few days later, her Majesty was found to be in possession of a glorified likeness of her cousin, Don Francisco de Asis, in hussar's uniform. The portrait was promptly confiscated, and Don Jose Ventosa, one of the Queen's tutors, having introduced it into the palace, was there and then dismissed. This time, Espartero put his foot down very firmly ; and her Royal Highness, attended by her consort and family, deemed it prudent to take up her abode at Zaragoza. 16 242 A Queen at Bay A queen regnant is hardly out of her swaddling clothes before her marriage is discussed. No doubt the hope of seeing her son King Consort of Spain had prompted Luisa Carlota in her defence of her niece's claims ten years before. Espartero is said to have dreamt of an alliance that would unite Spain and Portugal ultimately under one head. Even the melancholy and hitherto irreconcilable Don Carlos began to look with favour on the oft-discussed scheme of a marriage between his son and the actual Queen of Spain. In a letter published in The Times^ Cristina is represented as writing to the Pretender, '* I agree to the alliance you propose between my august daughter, the lawful Queen of Spain, and your son, his Highness the Prince of Asturias," adding, " I do not wish to deprive Spain of a constitution, but I think the one actually in force stands in need of revision." This project, as when it was mooted before, excited the violent opposition of the old Apostolic section of the Carlist faction. One of these fanatics, Father Antonio Casares, waxed so very intemperate in his utterances anent the matter that his master disavowed him (a way Princes have !) and left him to cool his fevered brain in a French prison. To others besides the poor friar the scheme was ob- jectionable. Queen Victoria wrote under date 13th August, 1843, ^o Lord Aberdeen, expressing her great regret that Prince Metternich had revived his favourite scheme of a marriage between the The Downfall of Espartero 243 Queen of Spain and a son of Don Carlos, and that King Louis Philippe had almost come to a secret understanding with him upon that point. The English prime minister saw more deeply than his royal mistress into the mind of the wily King of the French. He replied to her Majesty pointing out that the interests of this country and of all Europe were deeply concerned in the exclusion of a French Prince from the possibility of receiving the hand of the Queen of Spain ; and that it would be unwise to oppose any marriage by which this would be effected, consistently with the free choice of the Queen, and the sanction of the Spanish government and people. " The avowed predilec- tions of Queen Cristina [the despatch concludes], and her increased means of influence recently acquired, render this a matter of considerable importance and anxiety at the present moment." Both Cristina and Louis Philippe had, in fact, long ago come to an understanding. If Isabel would not be allowed by the other powers to marry one of the King's sons, then the alliance between the two branches of the Bourbon family must be brought about in some other way. The realization of the plan was not likely to be long delayed ; for the increased means of influence which Lord Aberdeen observed Queen Cristina had acquired was nothing less than the downfall of Espartero's government and his flight from Spain in the summer of 1843. The Regent had quarrelled 244 A Queen at Bay with many of his old supporters, and had rendered himself as odious to the Liberals as to the Moderates. His bombardment of Barcelona had not been for- given by the people of the province, and it was a young Catalan colonel, afterwards famous as Marshal Prim, who now took steps to effect his downfall. " In the month of February or March, 1 843," says Don Fernando de Cordova, " Colonel Don Juan Prim appeared in Paris. This officer, who was then hardly twenty-nine years old, had already acquired a reputation in the Carlist war, in which he had obtained, while serving in a Catalan irregular corps, the rank of colonel in the army. Distinguished by very advanced progressive ideas, he had been returned as deputy for the province of Tarragona to the Cortes of 1841 ; his cold but energetic character, coupled with an enterprising spirit, soon won for him a political position of importance. " He came to Paris to fulfil a great mission. He aimed at nothing less than establishing an alliance between the military exiles party and the progressive opposition in the Cortes. His first steps were attended with success. Having been presented at the palace in the Rue de Courcelles, he had several interviews with the Queen, and a great many with Don Fernando Munoz, which were the foundation of the intimate and cordial friendship which united these gentlemen and which was never broken off despite the vicissitudes that followed." Munoz The Downfall of Espartero 245 referred his new friend to Narvaez, with whom the details of the coalition were settled. It is clear that both factions bound themselves to work together for the overthrow of the common foe and the declaration of the majority of Queen Isabel ; after which they should be free to pursue their separate ends. After more conferences with Munoz, whose share in these political movements was larger than seems to be generally supposed, the young Catalan officer set off for Spain. On the 30th May he appealed to the troops under his command and the people of the town of Reus, to rise in defence of the Queen against the dictator Espartero. The revolt spread with amazing rapidity. Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla, Granada, Cadiz, Burgos, and La Coruna all pronounced against the government. Narvaez appeared at Barcelona, raised an army, and marched on Madrid. The Regent's nerve seems to have forsaken him. He lingered at Albacete, undecided in which direction to march. General Seoane hurried out of Madrid to meet the enemy. According to one version, Espartero's general had been bought over to the side of Cristina ; according to another, his troops were deliberately misled and thrown into confusion by their opponents* re-echoing their shouts of '' Viva Isabel segunda ! Viva la constitucion ! " That night, Narvaez entered Madrid in triumph. Espartero retreated to Andalucia, while his troops rapidly fell away from him. With only four hundred horse he made for 246 A Queen at Bay Puerto Santa Maria, hotly pursued by General Concha, who reached the shore just in time to see the ex-Regent pulling out in a boat towards the British frigate Malabar. In London the fugitive General was made much of, in gratitude for his devotion to our policy. He was feasted by the Lord Mayor and Corporation, whose hospitality appears to be extended indiffer- ently to the friends and the enemies of freedom, to Czars and revolutionaries, to the Shah of Persia and to Giuseppe Garibaldi. Meanwhile, the Moderates flocked back into Spain to divide the spoils with the Progressives. A new ministry was formed, which included Narvaez, Prim, and the late prime minister, Lopez. Isabel was informed that it was the national will that she should be declared of age and assume the functions of government ; a proposal to which, of course, the twelve- years-old girl returned a delighted assent. On the 8th November, 1843, ^^ was sworn in as Queen of Spain with all possible ceremony, amid the rejoicing of the whole nation. This solemn submission of a great people to the control of a mere child was a curious spectacle, and was witnessed by Washington Irving, then United States Minister to Spain. He passed up the vast and magnificent staircase, thronged by '' hosts of old aristocratic courtiers," and paused at the doors of the royal apartments " still riddled like a sieve ** by Boria's musket-balls. In the Hall of the Am- The Downfall of Espartero 247 bassadors was a dense and brilliant crowd, among whom the minister particularly remarked Narvaez and O'Donnell. '' For a while all was buzz and hum, like a beehive at swarming time, when suddenly a voice from the lower end of the saloon proclaimed * La Reina ! la reina ! ' In an instant all was hushed. A lane was opened through the crowd, and the little Queen advanced, led by the venerable General Castanos, Duke of Bailen, who had succeeded Arguelles as tutor and governor. Her train was borne by the Marchioness of Valverde, a splendid- looking woman, one of the highest nobility : next followed her little sister, her train borne by the Duchess of Medinaceli ; several other ladies of the highest rank were in attendance. The Queen was handed up to the throne by the Duke of Bailen, who took his stand beside her ; the Marchioness of Valverde arranged the royal train over the back of the throne, so that it spread behind the little Queen like the tail of a peacock. "The little Queen looked well. She is quite plump, and . . . acquitted herself with wonderful self-possession. Her manner was dignified and graceful. Her little sister, however, is far her superior in looks and carriage. ** When the Queen had taken her seat, the cabinet ministers took their stand before the throne, and one of them read an address to her, stating the circumstances that made it expedient she should 248 A Queen at Bay be declared of age. As the little Queen held her reply, ready cut and dried, in her hand, she paid but little attention to the speech, but kept glancing here and there about the hall, and now and then towards her sister, when a faint smile would appear, but instantly repressed. The speech ended, she opened the paper in her hand, and read the brief reply which had been prepared for her. A shout then burst forth from the assemblage of Viva la reina ! The venerable Duke of Bailen then bent on one knee, and kissed her hand. The Infante Don Francisco and his son gave the same token of allegiance. The same was done by every person present, excepting the diplomatic corps. Some kissed the hand of Don Francisco, but these were his partisans. This ceremonial took up some time. I observed that the Queen and her sister discriminated greatly as to the crowd of persons who paid this homage, distinguishing with smiles and sometimes with pleasant words those with whom they were acquainted. It was curious to see generals kneeling and kissing the hand of the sovereign, who but three weeks since were in rebellion against her government, besieging her capital, and menacing the royal abode. . . ." At the conclusion of the ceremony, the Queen and her sister stationed themselves on a balcony under a rich silk awning, while at the windows of the palace were seen the courtiers and functionaries in their most brilliant dresses. In the calm twilight The Downfall of Espartcro 249 of an autumn evening in Spain, the army that had delivered her youthful Majesty from the tiresome Espartero, passed in review before her, Narvaez with drawn sword marching, an heroic figure, at their head. And so amidst plaudits and rejoicings Isabel 11. began the reign that was to end in flight and exile. One figure was conspicuous by her absence from the scene which but for her resolution and — let it be admitted — -finesse had never taken place. The Queen's mother still awaited beyond the frontiers of Spain the summons for her recall. Poor little Isabel soon learned to want her protection. Spain was in an uproar, cannon were thundering (as usual) over Barcelona, the Liberals clamoured to be ad- mitted to a share in the spoils. A coalition ministry was in office, at the head of which was Salustiano Olozaga, who, though he had to deal with a Moderate majority in the Cortes, strove to steer the ship of state towards a Liberal port. At last he made up his mind to dissolve the parliament. On the 29th November, Madrid was startled by a report that the prime minister had used violence towards the Queen, and had been dismissed. The amazing story was contained in a notarial deposition signed and sworn to by her Majesty. She stated that Olozaga unexpectedly laid before her a decree for the dissolution of parliament, which she refused to sign. In the face of his insistence, she thought fit to with- draw, whereupon he sprang to the door before her, 250 A Queen at Bay locked it, and seizing her by her dress, forced her back to the table. Then, guiding her hand, he made her dash off the signature " Yo la Reina." When this statement was read in the Cortes, Olozaga was unable to contradict it in its essentials, but en- deavoured to represent the facts stated in another light. Washington Irving, who was no friend of his, thought he saw in this conduct merely the familiarity of ''a tutor enforcing a necessary task upon his pupil, and the Queen acquiesced as a matter of course, without probably feeling outraged by his dictatorial conduct." Afterwards (suggests the American) she sought to throw the blame of the decree on the minister, and told her friends that he made her sign it. Then it was explained to her that she had been subjected to a sacrilegious outrage, and that she must at once tell the whole story to Narvaez — which she did probably with the embellishments stories generally receive with every repetition. How much of the story is true, we agree with Major Martin Hume, it is impossible now to say ; true or false, Olozaga had to leave the country, and a successor was found for him in the yellow-journalist i Gonzalez Bravo, now an ardent Conservative. This person had been the author of the most scurrilous attacks upon Cristina in a sheet called the Guirigay, and had noised abroad the story of her *' relations " with Mufioz. The beggar on horseback now wished to strengthen his position The Downfall of Espartcro 251 at court, and he .was actually among the first to propose the recall of the Queen-Mother and the ennoblement of her husband. This measure, in- evitable sooner or later, was facilitated by the opportune death of the Infanta Luisa Carlota. Washington Irving announcing the event in a letter dated 9th February, 1844, says that the Princess " had embroiled herself with all parties, and im- poverished her husband and herself in the prosecu- tion of her plans. Their failure mortified her pride and exasperated her temper, and of late she had been extremely ungracious in looks and manners. Her illness was preceded by a kind of fever of the mind. ^ I do not know what is the matter with me,' said she to one of her attendants ; ' wher- ever I am, and wherever I go, I am in a constant state of irritation ; at the theatre, on the Prado, at home, it is still the same — I am in a passion — -je rn enrage' In this state of mind she was attacked by measles and pulmonia (a kind of inflammation of the lungs), which, acting upon an extremely full plethoric habit, hurried her out of existence in the course of two or three days, and in the thirty-ninth year of her age. The body lay in state for three days, and the populace were admitted to see it. The corpse was on a bed of state, and arrayed in a gala dress — white brocade and gold, with a royal coronet — the face livid and bloated with disease." Luisa Carlota was calm at last ; but the webs spun by her busy brain had already entangled two 252 A Queen at Bay young lives and threatened to spread over three nations. Within a month of her sister's death. Queen Cristina was on her way to Madrid. She might have come sooner, but that she was expecting the birth of her third or fourth child by her second husband. She came, ostensibly, in compliance with an invitation from the cabinet, backed by the prayer of the grandees of Spain and numerous powerful corporations. " She returns," writes Washington Irving, '' by the very way by which she left the kingdom in 1840, when the whole world seemed to be roused against her, and she was followed by clamour and execrations. What is the case at present ? The cities that were then almost in arms against her, now receive her with fetes and re- joicings. Arches of triumph are erected in the streets ; Te Deums are chanted in the cathedrals ; processions issue forth to escort her ; the streets ring with shouts and acclamations ; homage and adulation meet her at every step ; the meanest village has its ceremonial of respect, and a speech of loyalty from its alcalde. Thus her progress through the kingdom is a continual triumph." The American minister drove over to Aranjuez on the 2 1 St March, to see her arrive. '' The scene of the rendezvous was quite picturesque," he tells his correspondent. " On an open plain, a short distance from the road, was pitched the royal tent — very spacious and decorated with fluttering flags The Downfall of Espartero 253 and streamers. Three or four other tents were pitched in the vicinity, and there was an immense assemblage of carriages, with squadrons of cavalry, and crowds of people of all ranks, from the grandee to the beggar. The impatience of the little Queen and her sister would not permit them to remain in the tent ; they were continually sallying forth among the courtiers, to a position that commanded a distant view of the road from Ocana. Poor things ! they were kept nearly a couple of hours in anxious suspense. At length the royal cortege was seen descending the distant slope of the road, escorted by squadrons of lancers, whose yellow uniforms, with the red flag of the lance fluttering aloft, made them look at a distance like a moving mass of fire and flame. As they drew near the squadrons of horse wheeled off into the plain, and the royal carriage approached. The impatience of the little Queen could no longer be restrained. Without waiting at the entrance of the tent to receive her royal mother, she hurried forth through the avenue of guards, quite to the road, where I lost sight of her. . . . The reception of the Queen- Mother was quite enthusiastic. The air resounded with acclamations. The old nobility, who have long been cast down and dispirited, look upon the return of the Queen- Mother as the triumph of their cause and the harbinger of happier and more prosperous days." Yes, Cristina had returned, having in the long 254 A Queen at Bay run triumphed over Espartero and the Liberals as she had triumphed over Carlos and the Conservatives. A good-natured woman of the world, she bore no malice and was content to forget past humiliation in the triumph of the present. At once she began to talk of an amnesty for recent political offenders, and of moderating the severity with which the Queen's generals were subduing the rebellion in various parts of the country. As she was entering Madrid, seated on the left of her daughter, a courtier rode up to the carriage, and gleefully announced the death, that same day, of her old opponent Arguelles, the Queen's late tutor. *' Hush," said Cristina, "do not let the children hear you, for they loved the old man." CHAPTER XIV THE SPANISH MARRIAGES CRISTINA, while she showed no disposition to pursue her enemies, determined that her friends should participate in her recovered good fortune. She did not forget those who were dead. The body of her old partisan, Montes de Oca, who had been shot by Espartero, was exhumed, transported to Madrid, and reinterred with the most solemn funeral honours. Now, too, Cristina was at last able to ennoble her much-loved spouse. Munoz was created a grandee of Spain of the first class, under the title of Duke of Riansares (that being the name of the river on which his native town stands) ; and in the official gazette appeared the royal decree authorizing the marriage contracted eleven years before. It ran thus : " Having regard to the grave considerations submitted to me by my august mother, Dona Maria Cristina de Borbon, and having taken counsel with my ministers, I have authorized her to contract a marriage with Don Fernando Munoz, Duque de Riansares ; and I further declare that in so contracting an alliance with a person of lower station, she has in no way 255 256 A Queen at Bay forfeited my favour and affection ; she shall suffer no prejudice in her style and title, or in any of the honours, prerogatives, and distinctions belonging to her ; and the issue of this marriage shall be subject to the I2th article of the 9th law, title 11, book 10, of the Nueva Recopilacion^ being able to inherit the property of their parents, in the manner the law directs. I, the Queen." In conformity with this decree, Cristina and Munoz were married a second time on the 1 2th October, 1844, by the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo. As the Catholic Church forbids the repeti- tion of the sacrament of marriage between the same persons, we may well be puzzled as to the nature of the first ceremony, which seems to have been legalized by the Pope during Cristina's stay at Rome. In all Christian countries except England, however, there seems to have flourished the belief that marriage consisted in the solemn taking of each other before witnesses for man and wife — the superstition that it consisted in a precise legal or religious formula being confined to us. Certain Catholic theologians certainly continued to make a distinction between marriage and the sacrament of marriage, till Pius IX. in 1852 declared that outside the sacrament there could be no marriage between Catholics. But in 1833, Cristina and Munoz were probably well and truly married in the opinion of all Christians outside England. The point is of interest, but hardly important. From a lithograph by S. Gonzales AGUSTIN FERNANDO MUNOZ DIKE OF RIAXSARES p. 256] The Spanish Marriages 257 Gonzalez Bravo* took some credit to himself for this satisfactory adjustment of the Queen-Mother's affairs, and he was certainly on the high road to her favour, when some unknown enemy of his sent her Majesty a richly chased casket, which was found to contain the copy of El Guirigay denouncing in the most scurrilous terms the connection of Cristina and the ex-guardsman. The revelation cost the journalist minister his post. He was sent to the embassy at Lisbon, and a cabinet was formed under the presidency of Narvaez. Now began the regime not untruly termed the second regency of Cristina. Her Majesty was now a stout matron, nearing forty ; a much less beautiful but far shrewder woman than the wife of Fernando VII. In her exile she appears to have found spiritual regeneration, for she was as con- spicuous now for her piety as formerly for the lack of it. Solicitude for one's welfare in the next world is not unfrequently accompanied by the liveliest concern for one's interests in this ; and the Queen- Mother's devotion to relics and religious exercises was equalled if not surpassed by her zeal for money- getting and speculation. If she went on her travels again, she had clearly determined that it should be with a purse well lined and with friends all comfortably provided for. The treatment she had received from the Spanish people had not been such as to endear them to her, or to quicken whatever sense of responsibility as a ruler she may ever have 17 258 A Queen at Bay possessed. Moreovef, all her affection seems to have been reserved for the children of her second marriage, her love-match. To strengthen her position and theirs, she was not disposed to consider too closely the sentiments of poor ugly little Isabel or of the nation. The little Queen had a large measure of her mother's passionate nature, and much of her father's cynical, indelicate humour ; but bold, bluff, and knowing as she was, she was but a puppet in the hands of her clever mother and her step- father, the unassuming, unambitious, and intensely self-seeking Duke of Riansares. The dynasty must be strengthened by a family alliance with a first-class power, whose arms would protect it against domestic and foreign foes. This was the primary consideration that Cristina saw in regard to her daughter's marriage. From first to last, throughout the tangled negotiations that nearly set Europe ablaze, she never seems to have given Isabel's personal inclinations a moment's attention. She had never been consulted as to her own marriage with the elderly, worn-out King of Spain ; as a Neapolitan and a Princess, she expected to be dis- posed of absolutely as her parents willed. On the whole, she would probably have argued, her parents had done very well for her, and she could have found no reason (had she looked for one) for pur- suing a different policy as regarded her daughter. Incapable of deliberate cruelty, Cristina sacrificed everybody and everything to her own aims, with The Spanish Marriages 259 the cheery conviction that the others would not mind much, and that if they did, it would all come right in the end. The ideal scheme was to marry Isabel to Louis Philippe's fourth son, Henri, Due d'Aumale ; but the old King shook his head. The other powers, least of all England, would not tolerate this revival of the schemes of Louis XIV. ; there were still, alas ! the Pyrenees. On the other hand, France, in diplomatic phrase, could not regard with indiffer- ence the establishment of a foreign dynasty in the adjoining kingdom. The matrimonial alliances of sovereigns in those days had a powerful influence in the affairs of nations. Portugal, for instance, whose Queen was married to the cousin of our Prince Albert, was completely under the thumb of England ; and this instance was the more ominous since it was rumoured that another Coburg Prince considered himself a candidate for Queen Isabel's hand. The scheme must be nipped in the bud. Before long there would be a Coburg on every throne in Europe. Louis Philippe saw a way of re- lieving the apprehensions of both France and England. The French ambassador in London proposed to Lord Aberdeen that her Catholic Majesty's choice of a husband should be limited to her own House of Bourbon, the French branch, however, being barred. The English prime minister demurred. He could not see by what right the two powers could pre- sume to limit the young lady's choice. " Then 26o A Queen at Bay you cannot object to our Due d'Aumale ? " said the Frenchman. There was the difficulty. However, in September 1843, Queen Victoria visited Louis Philippe at Eu, and the two prime ministers who accompanied them struck a bargain. The French proposal was accepted. Louis Philippe's son would decline the honour of the Queen of Spain's hand, on the understanding that it was to be given to another Bourbon Prince. England was to give no countenance or support to any candidate not belonging to the dynasty of Henri IV. " And remember," concluded Guizot, " the apparition of the Prince of Coburg will mean the resurrection of the Due d'Aumale." Cristina, of course, was no party to this compact. She did not share her uncle's fear of England, know- ing very well that once the marriage she had at heart had taken place, we should have had to accept the accomplished fact and would not have gone to war with two nations merely to gratify our spite. How- ever, she pretended to fall in with the old King's views, and agreed to look for a husband for her daughter among the Spanish and Italian Bourbons. There was the Conde de Montemolin, the son of Don Carlos ; the sons of Francisco de Paula and Luisa Carlota ; and her own brothers of Naples. Her choice fell upon one of these last, the Conte di Trapani, a youth still in his 'teens. Louis Philippe thought the match would be a good one, but nobody was enthusiastic about it. Metternich, The Spanish Marriages 261 who wanted Isabel to marry Montemolin, opposed it, and even brought the Queen of Naples round to his view. The boy himself had entered a Jesuit novitiate, and had no taste for matrimony. The Spaniards looked on him disdainfully, as an Italian and a weakling. " If he is going to marry our Queen," quoth the brusque Narvaez, *' at least let him learn something of a soldier's life and shake off his cassock ! " The negotiations languished. They were followed with the liveliest interest by M. Bresson and Mr. Henry Bulwer, the representatives of France and England at the court of Madrid. Both these diplo- matists were strong-minded, high-spirited men, each eager and ready to outwit the other. Their disposi- tions prompted them to act first and to consult their Governments afterwards. Bulwer, who was Palmer- ston's man, of course stood for progress and liberalism, and was regarded with profound distrust by the party now in power in Spain. He had no sympathy with the Bourbon-only policy of Lord Aberdeen, and was inclined to think a great deal less of it than his lordship's previous pronouncement on the Queen of Spain's freedom of choice. When leaving Paris in November 1843, ^^ ^^^^ ^P ^^^ appointment at Madrid, he had been received by Cristina, who told him that failing the Due d' Aumale, she would like Coburg for a son-in-law. Unaffected by the agreement come to at Eu, the Spanish ambassador in London also said, quite openly, that 262 A Queen at Bay if the French match was impossible, Spain must seek a matrimonial alliance with England, as the support of one of these great powers was essential to her prosperity. Whether Cristina was sincere in these declarations, it is unsafe to say. She had set her heart on a French marriage, but she may have seriously contemplated the other eventuality as a last resource. If it was merely her object to work on the fears of Louis Philippe, she was successful. Bresson warned Guizot that the Queen-Mother was getting out of control, and asked, if it was the only means of excluding Coburg, whether he could bring the Due d'Aumale once more into the lists. To this his government would not consent ; the Duke was, in fact, married to a Neapolitan Princess on the 25th November, 1 844 ; but on the following day Guizot wrote to the ambassador, telling him that if Isabel married the Conte di Trapani, Louis Philippe would accept the hand of her sister, the Infanta Luisa Fernanda, for his fifth son, the Due de Montpensier. Cristina heard this announcement with joy. " For the love of God, don't let this Prince escape us," she cried to Narvaez. The offer seems to have been regarded as none the less liberal because the Infanta had a private fortune of about six hundred thousand pounds — no bad price, if I may be allowed to say so, for the fifth son of a citizen king. Narvaez also approved the scheme ; but asked impatiently why, after all, the Prince should not p. 262] DON FRANCISCO DE ASIS HUSBAND OF ISABEL II. The Spanish Marriages 263 marry the Queen herself. Perhaps it was to force France's hand that the Trapani match was suffered definitely to collapse. But Louis Philippe stood firm : the Due de Montpensier for Luisa Fernanda only when Isabel has married a Spanish or Italian Bourbon. But the only Bourbons left were the sons of the hated Luisa Carlota — the Dukes of Cadiz and Seville. The first, Don Francisco de Asis, was regarded with something like derision even by his own family, by whom he was familiarly known as Paquita (Fanny). Though in military uniform he could look smart enough, there was such an absence of all that is masculine about him that no one ever thought of him as a husband. His brother, Don Enrique, on the other hand, had inherited his mother's vivacious temper, and much of her force of character. He had avowed himself a decided Radical, and having been mixed up in a pronunciamiento^ had been practically exiled to the frigate of which he was commander. Surely the King of the French did not expect the Queen of Spain to marry either of these impossible young men ? His Majesty did ; he did not favour the Duke of Seville, but he could not see that any serious objection could be raised to Don Francisco. Because a man's friends persist in calling him by a girl's name, is he to be denied the advantages and pretensions of his state of life ? The only possible answer to such a query is, of course, You should know the man yourself! 264 A Queen at Bay Bulwer, our ambassador, was fortunate enough to do so ; and to him at this juncture the Queen- Mother turned for sympathy. He was placed in an awkward situation, for on the occasion of Queen Victoria's second visit to Eu, in September 1845, Lord Aberdeen had again disavowed the Coburg candidature, in exchange for Guizot's promise that the Montpensier marriage should not take place till Isabel had been married and had borne a child. Yet here was Donoso Cortes, her Catholic Majesty's secretary, talking to the envoy about the amiable Prince Leopold, of the unhappy fate in store for the girl Queen, of the natural feelings of a mother, and of the tyrannical conduct of Louis Philippe. The new prime minister, Isturiz, presently began to hold forth in the same strain. " Finally," says Bulwer, *'came the Duke of Riansares, Queen Cristina's husband, who said that Spain v/as not strong enough to stand up alone against Louis Philippe ; but that if England would promise her support, the young Queen would not submit passively to have her destiny subjected to foreign dictation, and to be treated with supercilious indifference." The temptation to score off M. Bresson was too strong for our representative. "Pity for the young Princess about to be so heartlessly sacrificed," and the not unwarrantable behef that the German match would be approved at Windsor while condemned at Downing Street, induced Bulwer to lend a willing ear to the proposals of Cristina and her wily husband. The Spanish Marriages 265 '' Had I been able to guide the conduct of the Spanish court," he admits, " I should have tied its tongue, and confined its endeavours to getting Prince Leopold to visit Madrid, when a marriage taking place suddenly, with the approval of the Cortes and amidst the acclamations of the army, would have been irrevocable." As far as this, considering the engagements entered into by his government, he dared not go ; but he permitted himself to say that he did not see how a marriage so reasonable and unobjectionable could be persistently opposed by the King of the French if the parties immediately interested were bent upon it. To this his Grace of Riansares repHed that his august consort considered her uncle's demands unreasonable, and was prepared to oppose them, if there were any chance of success ; as to the Due de Montpensier, if he wished, in consequence of the Queen's marriage, to withdraw his demand for the hand of the Infanta, he was quite free to do so. Queen Cristina's language and conduct were, in the opinion of Bulwer, frank and consistent, and did not deserve the suspicions of duplicity they excited in some quarters. In the end. Sir Henry undertook to deliver a letter from her Majesty to Prince Leopold, who was then staying at Lisbon. *' I am aware," wrote Cristina, " that the Queen of England is animated by friendship for France, and that she supports an alliance favourable to that country ; but I believe her to insist as strongly as I do myself on the 266 A Queen at Bay independence of Spain in this matter, and 1 presume that, should my daughter*s choice fall on you, the match could not but be agreeable to her." To this letter his Highness could only reply by expressing his gratitude, for he dared not, being a Prince, take any step without the consent of the heads of his family — the King of the Belgians, the Prince Consort, and the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The unlucky Bulwer, on mentioning his share in this transaction to Lord Aberdeen, found that he had fired a mine. The minister severely repri- manded him, and disclosed the whole business to M. Guizot. The Coburg candidature collapsed, and Cristina had to submit to a sound rating from her uncle and aunt. Despite Lord Aberdeen's prompt repudiation of his agent's acts, the incident completely destroyed all confidence between England and France. The French not unnaturally believed that Bulwer was on the watch to trick them. Nor was the understanding between the three powers improved by the return of Lord Palmerston to the Foreign Office, for he was known to be the enemy of France and the staunch friend and protector of Espartero. Taking advantage of the bad impression his appointment made on the Spanish court, Bresson tried to woo Cristina back to the French side. But she was hard to manage, changing (or affecting to change) her mind from day to day, seeming sometimes on the point of returning to the Trapani scheme, at others, of The Spanish Marriages 267 renewing negotiations with the irrepressible Coburg. At last Bresson determined, by taking a leaf out of Bulwer's book, to bring matters to a head. He considered that, through her ambassador's support of Prince Leopold, England had released France from her reciprocal undertaking. On the nth July, 1846, he told Queen Cristina that the day Isabel II. was married to a Bourbon Prince, the Due de Montpensier would marry her sister, the stipulation that the latter marriage should not take place till after the first being thus disregarded. Cristina at once closed with the bargain. The Bourbon Prince must be the ridiculous Paquita, but this was rather an advantage than otherwise, for she made sure he would not have a child, and Louis Philippe's grandson becoming thus heir to the throne of Spain, France would have to stand by her dynasty tide what may. In short, the scheme, as she supposed it was going to result, meant the realization of her first project deferred one step. But if Bresson's proposal filled her with joy, it made old Louis Philippe frantic. Never mind about Bulwer's want of faith ; he would stick to his bond with England ; the marriages should not take place simultaneously. He had never broken faith with any one, and he was not going to let his agents do it in his name. But, as if to justify Bresson's manoeuvre, at the very moment the old King was speaking thus (July 19th), Lord Palmerston was penning a despatch to Bulwer, in which he examined 268 A Queen at Bay the claims of the candidates for the Queen's hand, and expressed the hope that she would take Coburg, and her sister, Don Enrique. In plain English, we were backing the very candidate we had repudiated at Eu. In a later despatch, his Lordship went further, and told Bulwer that the most important thing was to prevent the Montpensier match. Having thus broken with France, the minister seems to have thought he had not sufficiently antagonized the Spanish government by proposing Don Enrique, and therefore rated it soundly for its wickedness and incapacity. We are not surprised that Isturiz asked Bulwer if his chief had gone mad. This being the attitude of England, Cristina hesitated no longer. Don Francisco, unknown to her, had written on the I2th July to the young Don Carlos, acknowledging his superior claim to the hand of their cousin. This indiscreet letter fell into the hands of Guizot, by whom it was burnt ; and upon the renewed assurance of Bresson that the marriages should be practically simultaneous, the silly young Prince was summoned to Madrid and told to make himself agreeable to her Majesty. He tried with so little success that it seemed that the whole project would be defeated by opposition from the quarter whence it was least expected — from the person most interested. Isabel envied her sister " her nice Montpensier." On the night of the 27th August there was a scene at the palace — another of those outrages on morality and humanity which the home The Spanish Marriages 269 of the Kings of Spain had so often witnessed. A young girl was heard weeping within the royal apartments. Cristina tried persuasion, some say violence, but retired at last baffled and perhaps ashamed. Then the Duke of Riansares was sent in to her Majesty. Probably he had not entirely forgotten his barrack-room manners, and they may have come in useful now. The halberdiers who had fought so lustily to save their Queen from Concha and Leon, made no effort to rescue her from worse foes now. Long past midnight Isabel rushed into her mother's room, threw herself into her arms, and said '* Yes." The ministers, who were awaiting this result, were at once called in, and were informed that her Catholic Majesty had deigned to accept the hand of the Infante Don Francisco de Asis, and at the same time to bestow her sister in marriage on the Due de Montpensier. Then some one ran off, at two o'clock at night, to awaken Bresson and to tell him the good news. In England the announcement of the double espousals excited a storm of indignation. In the columns of The Times and other newspapers the most opprobrious epithets were applied to Louis Philippe and his minister. Queen Victoria in angry notes, with every second word underscored, told the King of the Belgians what she thought of her late friend and ally ; though she admitted that Palmerston was largely responsible for the misunder- 270 A Queen at Bay standing. Bulwer called at the palace to congratulate her Majesty on her approaching marriage. " But as to the proposed alliance of her Highness the Infanta " he went on. '' It will take place the same day as her Majesty's/' said the Queen-Mother sweetly. Before the envoy could resume what would no doubt have been an expostulation, he found himself engaged in a conversation with his royal interrupter and General Narvaez on the advantage the latter had derived from a stay in Paris. Before long, official protests were presented by the English ambassador to the French and Spanish governments. Cristina cared nothing for them, and nothing for the unpopularity of the Montpensier match in Spain itself. With Narvaez at her side, to use the stick and hit hard (to quote his own phrase), she felt fully equal to the situation. The petitions against the marriage that were sent in from every town in the kingdom were deposited in the royal waste-paper baskets ; the angry cries of Down with the gahachos I heard in the lower quarters of Madrid were stifled by the police and the troops. Her Majesty's innumerable enemies at home and abroad began to gnash their teeth, but finally determined to set them and to bear it. Cristina had won the game ; and on the 6th September, she went off with her husband to his native place of Tarancon, to offer their thanks to the local Virgin — a present from Gregory the Great to King Reccared. This pilgrimage was made the occasion of a reception at The Spanish Marriages 271 the handsome new palace the Duke of Riansares had built on the banks of his eponymous stream. Despite protests and threats, the preparations for the marriage went on apace. The two alliances were approved by the Cortes, with one dissentient voice — that of Senor Orense. The contracts were drawn up and signed ; and the Due de Montpensier, accompanied by his brother of Aumale, set out for Madrid on the 28th September. He was followed by a whole host of sightseers, among whom was the genial Alexandre Dumas. England's hostile attitude now rather disposed the people towards the French, and the Princes were well received in all the towns through which they passed. Their entry into the capital was certainly not the signal for an outburst of popular rejoicing ; but it was all very pleasant and decorous. There had been some talk of shooting Montpensier from a window on the line of the procession, but Bulwer, to whom the plot was communicated, insisted on its abandon- ment, and manifested his resentment only by retiring to Aranjuez during the festivities that followed. The sacrifice was consummated on Isabel's six- teenth birthday, the loth October, 1846. The ceremony, as appears to have been usual in Spain, was in two parts. At nine o'clock at night, in the throne-room of the palace, the Queen plighted her troth to her cousin, Don Francisco de Asis, and the two were then joined in matrimony by the 272 A Queen at Bay Patriarch of the Indies. The Infanta Luisa Fernanda —a child of fourteen — was then married to the Due de Montpensier. Next day, the newly wedded couples went in great state to the church of the Atocha, to assist at the nuptial mass and to receive the Pontifical benediction — the velacion this part of the ceremony is called in Spain, from the veils placed over the brides' heads while the blessing is pronounced. Then the party returned to the palace, *' followed," says a Spanish writer, " by the gaze but not the acclamations of the multitude." " There were one or two cries of Viva el Infante Don Francisco^'' says an eye-witness, " and Viva la Reina ! But, notwithstanding the constant efforts of the Queen-Mother and the French Princes to attract attention by bowing, smiling, nodding their heads, no notice was taken of them ; nor were their salutes returned. In the passage leading to the church of the Atocha, some well-dressed persons raised their hats as the Infanta passed. The Due de Montpensier availed himself of the occasion to return the salute. It was, however, by no means intended for him, but only for the sister of the Queen. The day was fine, notwithstanding a smart breeze. The troops looked well ; and the hangings in the balconies of the fine street of Alcala had a gay appearance. As far as the people were con- cerned, there were no signs of enthusiasm, nor anything approaching it." Even in England at that time, it should be remembered, it was not The Spanish Marriages 273 considered bad taste to be wanting in enthusiasm for foreign royalty, and monarchs esteemed tyrants in their own countries could by no means count on a welcome among us. But this was sixty years ago. Everything was done to give an air of festivity to the proceedings. The arena of Madrid was sodden with the blood of hundreds of bulls and horses. The Puerta del Sol outrivalled Smithfield market. Rockets and Bengal lights announced for miles around the marriage of the Queen of Spain. Cristina, newly established in a palace in the Calle de las Rejas, was radiant and benign. To her triumphs over Don Carlos and liberalism, she added this victory over English diplomacy. She had welded the thrones of France and Spain together by in- dissoluble bonds — bonds, rather, that would unite them so long as both stood upright. Her husband, too, had good cause for rejoicing. Louis Philippe had recognized his services by conferring on him the dukedom of Montmorot and the grand cordon of the Legion of Honour. He was a knight, also, of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Very pleased was Francisco de Asis, on whom was bestowed the title of Majesty and of King-Consort. Cristina, having had her way, wanted everybody to be happy. Don Enrique was coaxed back, and promised to behave more discreetly in the future. Decorations and rewards were showered on the French party, and Bresson's infant son was created 18 274 A Queen at Bay a grandee of Spain. Luisa Fernanda, delighted with her husband, set out with him for Paris on the 22nd October. There, it was stated, they in- tended permanently to reside. And the unhappiest girl in all Spain was its sixteen-year-old Queen. CHAPTER XV CROWNS IN PROSPECT AND IN PERIL CRISTINA, perceiving that the tide of success was at its flood, determined to launch her second family upon it. Her husband was a Senator, a Grandee of Spain, a Duke twice over, a General, a Knight of the Golden Fleece and of the Legion of Honour — for him she could not do much more just then. For his father, she obtained the title of Count of Retamoso ; for his brothers, various decorations and offices ; his sister, she married to Don Jose Fulgosio, an ex-Carlist, now Captain- General of New Castille. The elevation of this family gave offence to many of the old nobility, who talked the usual platitudes about upstarts, beggars on horseback, and so forth, regardless of the fact that their own ancestors had in nearly all cases owed their rank to the favour of some king or queen. If titles of nobiUty were conferred according to merit, the objection to the aggrandisement of the Munoz family could be sustained ; but to the ordinary intelligence it might seem that the good- will and liking of your sovereign is as good a 275 276 A Queen at Bay title to distinction as the services, real or imaginary, rendered by some ancestor dead centuries before. It is still more difficult to account for the contempt professed in some quarters for Cristina's children by her second husband, who were undoubtedly Bourbons on one side and the grandchildren of a King. They were now brought to Madrid, and introduced to their royal half-sister, who showered titles upon them. There was nearly an explosion in aristocratic circles when, at a reception given by Cristina, it was noticed that the chairs occupied by the little Condesa de Vista Alegre and the Marquesa del Castillejo were placed on the same level as that in which sat the Queen herself. His Grace of Riansares always posed as a retiring, unassuming man, devoid of ambition, but neither he nor his consort missed a chance of promoting the interests of their children. Soon after the Queen- Mother's return to Madrid, Spain found herself involved in difficulties with her one-time dependency of Mexico. With the aid of a party in that country, Narvaez, then prime minister, believed he saw an opportunity of converting the republic into a monarchy under a Spanish Prince. He thought the crown would fit the troublesome Don Enrique, whose father, it will be remembered, had been interested in a similar scheme twenty years before, but Cristina astonished him by suggesting one of her own little sons for the honour. The general said that Spain would not pour out her Crowns in Prospect and in Peril 277 blood and treasure for the aggrandisement of a private family. " Very well," replied her Majesty, " then place Montemolin on the Mexican throne. It will be a good way of getting rid of him." In view of what afterwards happened to the Emperor Maximilian, the Queen spoke more truly than she knew. Narvaez considered both her suggestions impracticable, and, mainly owing to this disagreement, resigned the presidency of the council of ministers. Among the numerous exiled South American presidents and dictators inhabiting Paris at this time was General Flores, who had played the same part in Ecuador as Rosas in the Argentine. Perhaps he had heard some whispers of the Mexican scheme ; in any case, he presented himself to the Duque de Rivas, Spanish ambassador at Naples, and told him that the time had come for Soain to reassert her sway over her old colonies and to put an end to the anarchy that prevailed there. With an assumption of candour, the ex-President informed the ambassador that he had himself fought for the independence of his country, but that he regretted his error, as he saw now that the people were unfitted for liberty and that they were entirely subject to the influence of men without rank or principle. These views were most gratifying to the Duke, who passed Flores on to Madrid with introductions to Isturiz, the new prime minister, to Riansares, and to Cristina herself. Here then was a kingdom — a long way off, it 278 A Queen at Bay is true — for Munoz's son. Flores readily agreed to place him on the throne of Ecuador — as soon as it was constructed — with the title of Juan I. Cristina, her husband, his brother, and the ministry were afterwards taxed with having been privy to this conspiracy against the independence of a friendly state ; though this was never proved, it is certain that Flores was allowed to equip an expedition at Santander and Bilbao, and that numerous officers and men of the regular army were licensed to take service under him. Public attention was engrossed at the time by the royal marriages ; but a dispute occurred between the agents of the filibusters in London, and this ended in the exposure of the project. The ministry could no longer shut its eyes to what was going on. The officers and privates who had joined Flores were recalled to their regiments, and his force melted away. Cristina's dream of a kingdom for her boy faded into thin air, and she was obliged to content herself with seeing him made Duke of Tarancon, his father's native place. Her Majesty had soon reason to regret that Don Enrique and Don Carlos the younger had not been relegated to Mexico, or to an even warmer and remoter region. Every effort was made to mollify the King-Consort's brother, and to detach him from his alliance with the Liberals. He was believed to be in correspondence with Espartero, and was offered the rank of admiral if he would Crowns in Prospect and in Peril 279 give up the ex-Regent's letters. But the son of Luisa Carlota proved intractable and incorruptible. Cristina introduced a spy into his household in the person of Senora Arana, who was lady-in-waiting to his sisters. The Prince was not slow to conceive suspicions of this lady, and she soon found her post anything but a bed of roses. The palace of San Juan resounded with imprecations, recrimina- tions, and loud complainings. Several times the unfortunate woman was dismissed, but, with an in- trepidity that cannot be too much admired, returned to the post of danger and duty. One night the young Queen was at the theatre. " Her cousins the Infantas [says The Times correspondent] were in the habit of visiting the royal box on such occasions, and remaining there during the perform- ance. On the night in question they were unable to do so, because Maria Cristina, Munoz, and her women-in-waiting were there, as well as Senora Arana ; and the royal box was completely filled. These little manoeuvres were known to be planned by Maria Cristina with the object of preventing her daughter from enjoying the society of her cousins. " Don Enrique was with his sisters, and was observed to cast indignant glances at the place where the Queen was sitting, at finding that they were excluded from her society by such persons as the husband and attendants of his aunt. '' When the family of Don Francisco returned home, Don Enrique gave vent to his feelings in a 28o A Queen at Bay burst of rage. When the wife of Arana returned next day to perform her usual duties, he informed her, in terms not to be misunderstood, that she should instantly quit the service of his sisters. She resisted, and, presuming on her secret favour with Maria Cristina, answered him in a tone of insolence. Don Enrique went beyond all bounds : he declared that if Senora Arana did not, without further delay or parley, quit the house of his father hy the door^ he should show her the way out without ceremony, and by a mode of exit much more rapid but not so convenient. This threat frightened her out of her wits, and she saw by the expression in the Prince's eyes that he was quite in earnest. " Regardless of bag or baggage, she ran off to her protectress, Maria Cristina, who accompanied her to the Queen ; and then Senora Arana began to weep most piteously at the insult oifered to her, and, what was still worse, at the loss of her place, which, I believe, is lucrative. It is not necessary to dwell on this scene of affliction, which even melted * the foolish, fat scullions ' of the royal kitchen. It is sufficient to say that the wife of that important officer, the introductor of ambassadors [Senora Arana], was enrolled among the waiting women of the Queen herself. Her row with Don Enrique only ended in her promotion. The Infante was, no doubt, smarting under the sting of his late humiliation, and was anxious to give vent to his rage on some one." i From " Romance of Royalty ' p. 280] DON ENRIQUE Crowns in Prospect and in Peril 281 His Highness was sternly rebuked for his im- petuosity, and his resentment increasing to fever- heat, he joined the Freemasons — a body identified in Spain with anti-monarchical and anti-clerical doctrines. Cristina thought of finding him a wife. He found one for himself — Dona Elena de Castelvi, the charming sister of the Marques de Castella. '' I told you I would never marry any one but a Spaniard," proclaimed Enrique. Isabel II., probably angry that one who had lately been a suitor for her hand should so soon have consoled himself, refused to recognize the marriage, and the happy pair had to leave Spain. Enrique became an en- thusiastic republican, and was in consequence stripped of his dignities and titles. He returned to his country upon the setting up of a republic, and vigorously combated the proposed restoration of the monarchy. The peculiar object of his hatred was the Due de Montpensier, whom he assailed with vitriolic invective and satire. The inevitable encounter took place on the 12th March, 1870, and the Frenchman shot the Spaniard through the head. Enrique the republican was buried with solemn masonic rites in the cemetery of San Isidro ; his funeral dirge was the Marseillaise. On the door of his house some one nailed this inscription, " Here dwelt a Bourbon, the only honest man of his race, who for speaking the truth died on the field of honour." The epitaph was not unworthy of a descendant of Henri Quatre, 282 A Queen at Bay Carlos the younger, Conde de Montemolin, proved even more troublesome than his cousin. Having eluded the vigilance of his custodians at Bourges, he appeared in London, and v^as cordially received by Lord Palmerston. His escape was the signal for a rising of his partisans in Cataluna, v^^hich soon assumed serious proportions. Cabrera once more appeared at the head of some six thousand men, and harried the country v^ith fire and sv^ord. But the suspicion that the Carlists were incited and financed by England out of hostility to the govern- ment of Madrid destroyed their chances of success. Yet the war, conducted with the ferocity of the former campaign, was not finally suppressed till the spring of 1 849, when Carlos Luis was trapped as he was about to enter Spain by some French custom- house officers. Vainly did the young Pretender offer his captors two thousand francs for his release. He was confined in the citadel of Perpignan, and the second Carlist war came to an end. Cristina, between civil strife, fierce family dis- sensions, and tangled political intrigues, found that her triumph had been dearly bought. She, the idol of the Madrid populace ten or twelve years before, could hardly appear in public without being insulted. In her husband, the people pro- fessed to see another Godoy. The whole country was ready to leap up and to tear down the throne, the moment the terrible pressure of the army was relaxed. The Moderates were in power, Crowns In Prospect and in Peril 283 thanks to carefully engineered elections, but even from their ranks proceeded angry murmurs against the Queen-Mother. The nation had by this time awakened to a sense of the iniquity of the pretended marriage of the young Queen and her cousin. The two became estranged within a few weeks of their wedding, and Isabel showed every day a less submissive manner towards the mother who had wrecked her life. Cristina, who refused to believe she had done her daughter any wrong, was shocked and irritated by this rebellion to her authority. The cabinet formed: by her staunch friend Isturiz had fallen, and now her Majesty, contrary to her mother's advice, seemed disposed to dismiss the ministry that had succeeded it. When her triumph seemed complete, Cristina slowly realized that she was worsted and out- manoeuvred. For the moment, at all events, her daughter was beyond her control. She promptly sold out all her shares in various Spanish concerns, and raised a sum of nearly ^70,000 in anticipation of her pension from the government. Then, for the second time, she turned her back on Spain. Fearing the hostility of the people, she set out from Madrid at four o'clock in the morning, on March 8, 1847, accompanied by her husband and her two daughters, the Duque de San Carlos, and the faithful Isturiz. A few days later she reached Paris. To satisfy herself that she was a good and virtuous woman, she at once applied herself with 284 A Queen at Bay great zest to religious exercises, and indulged during Lent in an ecstasy of self-denial. She built an oratory in the gardens of Malmaison. It is clear that the business of her daughter's marriage had begun at last to trouble her by no means sensitive conscience. Still she did not neglect her temporal interests. Though living almost in retreat, she transacted business every day with her stockbroker, her notary, and men of affairs ; and deliberated with her private council, composed of a judge of the Court of Cassation, an advocate in the High Court, and a member of the Council of State. She kept her finger on the pulse of Spain, thanks to the reports sent her by her spies around the Queen. The news was not good. Isabel had bestowed her affections on General Serrano, el honito Ministro (the pretty minister), as she had once called him. Palmerston, like the Queen-Mother, had his eyes on the palace of Madrid, and, not despairing yet of undoing Guizot's work, directed Bulwer to cultivate friendly relations with the favoured officer. " Lord Palmerston," says his agent and biographer, " looking at the young Queen's conduct as the natural result of the alliance she had been more or less compelled to contract, regarded her rather with interest and pity than with blame or reproach, and was for taking advantage of the attachment she had formed for the purpose of dissolving her own marriage, which, it was said, had never been consummated, for setting aside the Montpensier Crowns in Prospect and in Peril 285 succession, and bringing his favourite progresistas into power. All this could only be accomplished by the influence of General Serrano. " The dissolution of the Queen's marriage was the only chance for her happy life or creditable reign. But the Spaniards are a decorous people. Some very respectable and respected men discussed very gravely the propriety of putting the King quietly out of the way by a cup of coffee ; but the scandal of a divorce shocked them." The ministers were equally shocked when they intercepted a love-letter from the general to the Queen ; and they ordered him to proceed at once to Pamplona to inspect the forces in that district. Serrano replied that, as a senator, he was in duty bound to assist at the deliberations of the Cortes, and refused to go. The ministry proposed to impeach him, and was, of course, dismissed by the Queen. What girl of seventeen would prefer her ministers to her sweetheart ? To Bulwer's huge delight, a new cabinet was formed composed of the general's personal friends, and having at its head Don Joaquin Pacheco. Serrano was supposed to be a Progressist, as the Liberals were now called, but he was an opponent of Espartero and was on good terms with the Moderates. Bulwer courted his favour, and obtained from him leave for the ex-Regent to return to Spain ; but that wary exile knew better than to trust himself to the mercies of his political opponents. The English am- 286 A Queen at Bay bassador was, in the long run, outmanoeuvred as usual by the Moderates, who at one and the same time seemed willing to assist the favourite in his intrigues with the Queen, and did their best to undermine him in her regard. Serrano, says Bulwer, was an honest man and a good patriot, but he seems to have been a poor politician. The King-Consort, meanwhile, retired in dudgeon to the palace of El Pardo. Benavides, one of the ministers, was sent to remonstrate with him. " My dignity as a husband has been outraged," said his titular Majesty, " though no one can say that my pretensions are exaggerated. I am well aware that Isabelita doesn^t love me ; I don't reproach her for that, for ours was a marriage of policy, not of inclination. I am the more tolerant, since I don't love her myself. Nor did I particularly object to keeping up appearances, in order to avoid a disagreeable rupture. Perhaps Isabelita is more ingenuous or more outspoken than I, but she never could keep to this sort of hypocrisy, which, after all, the interests of the nation demand. I married [continued the King-Consort with engaging candour] because I had to marry, because I fancied the dignity of King ; I did well over the bargain ; I certainly wasn't going to throw the presents of fortune out of the window. I wished to be as tolerant towards others, as I want them to be towards me. I should never have objected to a favourite." Crowns in Prospect and in Peril 287 This lucid exposition of his Majesty's views perplexed the minister. " But," he asked, " is it not the favour enjoyed by General Serrano that stands in the way of the reconciliation we desire to bring about? " " I don't deny it," said Francisco ; " that is the obstacle. Let him be dismissed, and I will welcome my spouse with open arms. I would have tolerated Serrano, I would have raised no objections if my person had not been attacked. He has been wanting in respect towards me. He has failed in the courtesy to which I have a right. I hate him. He is another Godoy, who doesn't know how to comport himself. Godoy, at least, had the sense to make himself agreeable to Carlos IV. The good of fifteen millions of people demands this sacrifice, as it demands others. " I am not intended for Isabelita," the Prince went on, " nor she for me. But people must be led to suppose the contrary. I wish to raise no difficulties. If Serrano goes, I will consent to a reconciliation." In fairness to his Majesty, it must be supposed that Serrano could have had very little tact in not being able to accommodate himself to a husband of such liberal views. The moderation of Francisco is less surprising than the unctuous audacity of Cristina, who having deliberately sacrificed her daughter to satisfy her own ambitions, dared to write to her as follows : " I may have been weak. 288 A Queen at Bay 1 am not ashamed to confess a fault which is buried in repentance. But I never did wrong to the husband to whom Providence destined me, and it was only when I was free from any of those ties that bind a woman, that 1 opened my heart to a love, which I have legitimized before God, that He might pardon me for having kept it secret from the beloved people to whose happiness I was devoted. I don't believe I have offended Him in elevating honourable obscurity to my own level. In obedience to my modest instincts, I sought the protection of God I don't wish to know the cause of your separation : I have heard both, and believe that you should forgive each other and resolve upon a peaceable existence, salutary for you and for the Spanish nation. Thus you will avoid harsh criticism, and the comments of the European cabinets. I beg you, therefore, as your mother, to return to your husband, to whom I write by the same post." If from the moment of the marriages of her daughters, Cristina had been entitled to any sym- pathy, she would certainly have forfeited it now. Having thrown her daughter on to a bed of thorns, she reproached her for not lying quietly on it. Her allusion to her having legitimized her marriage before God, thanks to the good offices of Senor Gonzalez Bravo and the Patriarch of the Indies, and the half-fear expressed that the Divinity might have been offended at her keeping her union secret. Crowns in Prospect and in Peril 289 shows to what extent superstition may influence a woman extraordinarily shrewd and level-headed in the everyday affairs of life. In the end Serrano did go ; not out of respect for the wishes of Francisco and Cristina, but be- cause Isabel — affectionately described as a thorough woman and a thorough Spaniard — had got tired of him. He wa consoled with the Captain-General- ship of Granada, and avenged himself on the mistress who had discarded him by expelling her, years after, from her kingdom. Pacheco gave way to the masterful Narvaez, who determined to put an end to the palace scandal. On the 13th October, he drove out to El Pardo, and at four o'clock that afternoon brought back the King-Consort in triumph. The Queen, standing on the balcony, saw them arrive. Francisco was taken to her apart- ments, when a reconciliation was patched up, and he was then conducted to the rooms specially allotted to him. Isabel had no sooner recovered from the shock of this interview than she was informed that her mother had reappeared in Madrid. Sure enough, Cristina and Riansares, at the instiga- tion of Louis PhiHppe, had left Paris secretly, travelling incognito, and were here at the doors of the palace. Her Majesty is said to have received her mother and step- father with tears of joy. It is probable that she wept on finding herself in leading strings once more. Francisco was sum- moned, and the family dined together. Cristina 19 290 A Queen at Bay- was as smiling and gracious as ever. She looked at many of her daughter's attendants with amused curiosity. " What shocking people ! " we can imagine her saying ; " you must get rid of them, my dear." They were got rid of. In a week or two's time, Isabel found that nearly every one about her person was her mother's creature. At last she made a stand. To the dismissal of the Aya Dona Catalina and the Conde de Santa Coloma, she refused to consent. A council of the ministers, presided over by the majestic Narvaez and sup- ported by the persuasive Cristina, failed to overawe her. Finally her advisers told her they would resign if she did not give way on this point. Her Majesty was understood to say that they could do so as soon as they liked. The ministers then changed the subject. But though in domestic matters the Queen some- times had her way, the real rulers of the country were Cristina and Narvaez. They deserve some credit for having withstood the upheaval which cost Louis Philippe his throne. In March 1848 the revolution of Paris found an echo in Madrid, which was instantly suppressed, and, wonderful to relate, was not followed by any executions. The downfall of the King of the French set at naught all Cristina's elaborate intrigues. The Spanish marriages had united her family to a fallen dynasty, whose head was now plain " Mr. Smith " in England. During the invasion of the Tuileries by the mob, the safety Crowns in Prospect and in Peril 291 of the Duchesse de Montpensier — the heiress-pre- sumptive of Spain — was for a moment doubtful. For the support of a broken reed, Cristina had bartered her daughter's happiness. It was a pitiful business, but we may be quite sure that the Queen- Mother told herself that she had acted for the best. And — strangest part of it all — Spain proved quite able to get on without the aid she had been at such pains to procure her. A sequel to the revolution of February was the expulsion of Bulwer from Madrid. Fearing that another catastrophe might be produced by the harsh and tyrannical measures of the Spanish government, Lord Palmerston instructed Bulwer to recommend the ministry to adopt a legal and con- stitutional course. Nowadays such a protest would be regarded in this country as an impertinence ; but at that time people thought a great deal more about the rights of men, and justice, and freedom, than about international courtesy. However, the Spanish government cannot be blamed for returning the despatch with indignant comment. Moreover, reports were circulated that the English ambassador himself was intriguing with the Progressists for the overthrow of the ministry. On the 17th May, 1848, Bulwer was ordered to leave Madrid within twenty- four hours. His conduct, he was told, had been condemned by his own government, against which no offence was intended in thus dismissing him ; moreover, his personal safety could not be guaran- 29^ A Queen at Bay teed among a people whom his intrigues had out- raged. The ambassador of England briefly replied that he had no fear for his person : he relied on the might of his country — " abiding as much in him alone, amid a hostile population, as in those powerful armaments which, under provocation, Great Britain could at a single word call forth." What attitude his government would adopt his Excellency would not venture to predict. On the 1 8th May, he set out for England. Beyond the interruption for a couple of years of formal diplomatic relations between the two countries, this insult to our representative was left unavenged. England was at that time passing through an anti-revolutionary panic, and, in sym- pathy with reaction generally, was willing to forget this slight on her national honour. ^' The arbitrary- acts of Narvaez were approved as the vigorous efforts of authority to restore order. The liberal sentiments of Lord Palmerston were viewed with distrust." *'We are against liberty first and for England after," these opponents of the great states- man might have murmured. CHAPTER XVI THE END OF A QUEEN AND A WOMAN DURING the troubled inglorious years that followed Cristina's return to Madrid, Narvaez might have boasted that, if not the state, he was the government of Spain. The preservation of the monarchy is entirely due to him. It is for Spaniards to say whether on this account he is entitled to their gratitude. The Queen had grown up into a sensual, impulsive, kind-hearted woman, with no capacity whatever for government and no sense of responsibility. As she grew older, she became more impatient of the control of her mother, who left her very much to the tender mercies of the general. In more than one direction, Cristina had over- reached herself. The only result of the alliance with the House of Orleans had been to provide a French Prince with a home in Spain ; and now the King-Consort, intended to be a mere lay-figure, grew insubordinate and presumed to follow a policy of his own. In reconciling the royal pair, Cristina had set up in the court an influence counter to her own. For Francisco had developed into a r^action^ 294 A Queen at Bay ary of the old type, such as had not been seen in the palace since the death of Fernando VII. Narvaez, harsh martinet though he was, recognized the need of some check on the royal authority ; Cristina had no rooted objection to a constitution, which she was always clever enough to evade ; but Francisco, like Don Carlos, believed in absolutism, unlimited and unrestrained. He was a feeble-minded youth, and had fallen an easy dupe to his confessor. Father Fulgencio, and to Don Manuel Quiroga, one of his personal atten- dants. This man was the brother of the Franciscan nun, Sor Maria Rafaela del Patrocinio, whose pretended miracles and revelations had given the government a great deal of trouble in 1836. In that year she declared that the devil had carried her off out of her cell, and taking her with him to Aranjuez, had shown her that the Queen-Mother was a wicked woman, and that her daughter was not and could not be Queen of Spain ; from which it would appear that the devil was an ally of Don Carlos. He next transported the nun to the other side of the Guadarrama, where he revealed to her other wickednesses indulged in by Cristina ; and finally deposited her on the roof of her convent in Madrid, where she was found next morning by the sisters. Soon after it was noised abroad that Sor Patrocinio had received the stigmata. She was examined by order of the government, when it was found that the wounds^ whatever might have been their origin, The End of a Queen and a Woman 295 were healed. Convicted of seditious utterances, she was ordered to be confined in a convent of the most rigorous observance at Talavera de la Reina. She does not appear to have made any nocturnal ex- cursions during this period of seclusion, but in the course of a few years, she found her way back to Madrid, and became an inmate of the Convent of Jesus. Don Francisco, who heard her story from her brother's lips, was persuaded of her sanctity, and regarded all her pronouncements on questions of state as inspired. What passed between the nun and the kinglet is not exactly known, but she evidently persuaded him that he was the instrument chosen by God to put an end to constitutional government in Spain. To work on the supersti- tions and desires of Isabel was not difficult. In the early morning of the i8th October, 1849, Narvaez was informed that he and his colleagues were dis- missed. Had a thunderbolt descended into the general's coffee-cup, he could not have been more surprised. He hastened to the palace, and found her Majesty agitated but determined. Don Ramon having formally handed in his resignation withdrew, still in the dark as to the cause of his downfall. The next day Madrid was startled and then amused by the appointment of a most heterogeneous ministry, of which the principal members were Conde de Cleonard, General Balboa, and Cea Bermudez (who was at the moment at Lisbon). Before any of these gentlemen had time to realize 296 A Queen at Bay what was expected of them, Isabel began to repent of her rashness, and sent for her mother to consult her in her perplexity. Cristina, however, was furiously angry, and vowed she would not re-enter the palace so long as Cleonard and Balboa remained in power. She attributed this sudden change in the ministry to Father Fulgencio, whom she de- scribed as a dangerous Carlist. Isabel now turned on her husband, and bitterly reproached him for his ill-advice. Never, she swore, would she be guided by him again. She then went ofF, accom- panied by the Duquesa de Gor, to visit her mother in the Calle de las Rejas. After half an hour's entreaties, Cristina consented to use her good offices with Narvaez. The general was angry, and at first refused to resume office. Cristina waxed warmer in her entreaties, painted the state of the country in alarming colours, and at last prevailed upon him to accept the presidency of the council. General Cleonard, meanwhile, had gone to the palace to consult with the Queen. He was told to return in a few hours. When he did so, he was told to countersign a decree dismissing General Balboa and appointing the Conde de San Luis in his room. The Queen then went on to dismiss him and all his other colleagues, reinstating Narvaez and the ministry of two days before. Thus fell the famous " Lightning Cabinet " after an existence of barely forty-eight hours. Narvaez at once put his heavy hand on those The End of a Queen and a Woman 297 who had engineered this ridiculous intrigue. The unfortunate Cleonard was relieved of his command of the Royal Military College ; General Balboa was banished to Ceuta ; Quiroga was expelled from Madrid ; and Father Fulgencio despatched to Archidona in Andalucia, with orders to stay there. Sor Patrocinio was promptly restored to the com- munity at Talavera de la Reina. Nor did the general spare the luckless little King. He straight- way deprived his Majesty of his functions of keeper of the royal household and patrimony, and refused to allow him to hide his shame at his discomfiture at Valladolid. Francisco knew, however, that it was in his power to destroy the credit of his wife's throne. He sulked and threatened throughout the winter, and in February 1850 he announced his intention of leaving the Queen and living at Aranjuez. Narvaez stormed and bullied in vain. Cristina the indispensable and the persuasive Riansares were called in. The minister had to accept the terms ofii'ered by his insignificant Majesty. The control of the interior of the royal household was restored to him ; and Father Fulgencio came back from Andalucia, with a charming actress for travelling companion. The holy man was promised the bishopric of Cartagena. The prestige of the King-Consort was decidedly augmented by the longed-for birth of a child to his wife in the following July. The infant came as a surprise, and questioning glances were directed 298 A Queen at Bay towards his Majesty. But Don Francisco appeared proud and gratified, Cristina radiant with delight. " The child won't live," said the Liberals ; " it was never intended to." The suspicions vaguely expressed were untenable. Now Louis Philippe had fallen, neither Cristina nor any of her family or party could have had any special reasons for placing the Due de Montpensier or his child upon the throne of Spain. The sinister prophecies were, however, fulfilled. The baby lived for three days only — long enough to inspire his mother with frantic grief for his loss. Another year and six months passed. Again it was rumoured that the Queen was about to become a mother. In December the Infanta Isabel was born, and showed every disposition to live. Montpensier was now barred, said the Spaniards, and they accorded the Queen and the little stranger a frantic welcome as her Majesty went to return thanks at the church of the Atocha. But all Spaniards did not love the Queen. There was among the crowd a strange, saturnine priest. Merino by name, who combined the Catholic faith with a fervent Liberalism. He pressed forward to offer the Queen a petition, as it seemed. As the happy mother extended her hand to receive it, the man dealt her a blow with a poniard. ** I am wounded ! " she shrieked, and fainted. Merino was seized by the guards. Every one's first thought was for Isabel. She opened her eyes, and cried. The End of a Queen and a Woman 299 *' My child ! my child ! " A big guardsman held the infant high in the air before her, to show it was safe from all harm. The blow had been broken by the Queen's corset ; her wound was of the slightest. Merino, despite his intended victim's entreaties, was garrotted and his body burnt. He met his fate with the composure usual in men who die for their political or religious convictions. The assassin's blow had rendered the Queen good service. She became the most popular person in her dominions. Seeing her good-nature, her prodigal liberality, her generosity, people very sensibly told themselves that her love-affairs were no concern of theirs. Had her undoubted love for her subjects taught her the art of governing them, the years of her reign might have exceeded those of Victoria's. She disliked Narvaez — feared, perhaps, that he might play the part of Espartero — and this time found her mother on hen side. Cristina knew that for her there was no political future. She and her husband cared only for money, and saw in the political game only the chances and means of adding to their already enormous wealth. She lent her support to the clever financier Brabo Murillo, who supplanted Narvaez. Louis Napoleon's coup d'etat seemed to have ended the period of gropifig after freedom and righteousness, and to have inaugurated the reign of force and the material. Brabo Murillo seriously meditated sweeping away 300 A Queen at Bay the constitution, but even the Conservatives in Spain believed in some form of representative government, and the conspiracy was abandoned. Cristina, who dreaded a revolution, strongly dis- approved the plot. She sent her secretary, Don Antonio Rubio, to the prime minister, to inform him that, if he persisted in his design, she would at once leave Spain with all her family, and would make her husband renounce all his offices and dignities. She would not witness, she declared, the destruction of a system which she had herself founded. In the early fifties the railway mania spread to Spain. Cristina and Riansares were not slow to recognize the financial possibilities of the new enterprises. We find his Grace chairman of the Northern Railway Company, and associated with his brother, the Conde de Retamoso, and the banker Salamanca, in promoting a great variety of syndicates. He and his wife were accused of trafficking in concessions, and of resorting to all sorts of devices to raise and to lower the prices of shares. It seems, however, that the conduct of his Grace gave great satisfaction to the shareholders in his companies, whom, I suppose, it was his business to please. The distinction between things lawful and unlawful in matters of high finance seems to be very finely drawn, and I am unable to say if the Duke overstepped the limit. He never presented a false balance-sheet. The End of a Queen and a Woman 301 which it appears is definitely regarded as a wrongful act ; and we are not told that he formed one company to buy another in which he was interested, which is perhaps legitimate. The projects with which he was connected, also, did materialize. He never floated a syndicate to acquire an imaginary mine in Nova Zembla or the Falkland Islands. His principal accuser, too, was Manuel de la Concha, who had always been his bitter foe, and who, being a rude soldier, was probably incapable of appreciating the subtleties of financial ethics. The Spanish people generally shared this sim- plicity, and regarded Cristina and her spouse with suspicion and detestation. It was a little unfair. The Queen-Mother, as we have seen, was opposed to the reactionary tendencies of the cabinet, and enjoyed very much less influence than she was credited with. She was just a middle-aged mother of a family, such as was to be found behind the counters of every shop in Madrid and Naples, bent on piling up money for her children and marrying them well. She was no better and no worse than most of the women of her own age in the Spanish capital. She had no ideas of right and wrong beyond those to be derived from the catechism, wherein speculation and selling at a profit are not specifically forbidden. She had taken advantage of her position to add to her wealth, but, she might have reminded the nation, you must not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. She 30-2 A Queen at Bay had no wish to harm any one, yet at the close of the year 1853 she was the best-hated woman in all Spain. It was not she but her daughter who should have been blamed for the repeated changes of ministries and the ever-recurring dissolutions of the Cortes, which had reduced parliamentary government to a ghastly farce. Narvaez had left the country, and strong men were rigorously ex- cluded from the direction of affairs. In other respects, Isabel's choice of advisers seems to have been a matter of caprice, but each was worse than his predecessor. The country was going downhill at an alarming rate. One of the premiers, the Conde de San Luis, resolutely attempted to gag the press. In retaliation, practically no attention was devoted by the newspapers to the birth of another child to the Queen. But from the editorial offices there issued a special sheet, vehemently denouncing the unconstitutional and oppressive conduct of the government ; while a second publication, called the Murcielago^ was circulated broadcast and called for vengeance on the Queen's advisers, on the Queen-Mother, and on the Duque de Riansares. This was followed up by a leaflet, thrust under every door in Madrid, calling on Spaniards to rise in defence of their liberties. " Are there no swords in the land of the Cid '^. " O'Donnell's blade leaped from its scabbard. He, the leader of the Moderates, the intrepid chief who p. 302] From a lithosrafyh after A. Maurin MARIA CRISTINA QUEEN DOWAGER OF SPAIN The End of a Queen and a Woman 303 had fought for Cristina ten years before, now put himself at the head of her enemies. The Conser- vatives in Spain had sown the wind and reaped the whirlwind. They had fought hard to restrain the liberty of their fellow-citizens, and had now to battle for their own. Drawing off the regiments attached to him from the garrison of Madrid, the general effected a junction at Canillejas with the forces of other officers in sympathy with the move- ment. The ministry, alive to its danger, sent word to Isabel to return to the capital from the Escorial, and sent General Anselmo Blaser to crush the re- volt. A battle was fought at Vicalvaro. Both sides claimed the victory. Blaser returned to Madrid with a few prisoners, but O'Donnell captured Aranjuez, and from Manzanares on the 7th July, 1854, issued an appeal to Liberals and Conservatives alike to rise in defence of the constitution. The proclamation echoed through Spain like the blast of the tempest. Barcelona — the ever-turbulent — flew to arms. The revolution spread from town to town. Down went the ministry. The dis- tracted Isabel called Fernandez de Cordova to the helm. He was a soldier and a man of action ; and he needed all his resolution now. The downfall of the San Luis Cabinet was an- nounced to the people of Madrid at a great bull fight. With their ugliest passions excited by the savage show, the crowd streamed into the streets, aglow with triumph, and shouting for the punish- 304 A Queen at Bay ment of the fallen ministers and of the detested Queen-Mother. Cristina heard the tocsin ringing from every belfry in Madrid. Hurriedly she took refuge with her husband in the royal palace. Her daughters, the Condesa de Vista Alegre and the Marquesa del Castillejo, were disguised, and sent off to Valencia, thence to be shipped off to France. The city was in revolt. A mob of armed peasants, who had flocked in at the call of the bells, sur- rounded the Queen-Mother's palace in the Calle de las Rejas, and broke the windows. Then they set fire to the four sentry-boxes. The commander of the little guard of thirty artillerymen boldly expostulated with the rioters, who contented them- selves with dragging the boxes away and making a bonfire with them in front of the ministries. But a crowd of a different sort immediately collected, forced in the gates, and swarmed up the staircase of Cristina's home. In their disappointment at finding that their prey had escaped them, they tore down the hangings and smashed everything they could lay their hands on. Their work accomplished, or alarmed in the midst of it, they issued into the street, and were instantly fired upon by a column sent by Cordova at the Queen's instance to protect her mother's property. In the tumult some of Cristina's servants made their way into the palace, and saved some of her most confidential letters and deeds. By accident or design, some one set fire to a curtain, and in a few minutes the whole place was The End of a Queen and a Woman 305 ablaze. The building itself was spared, but the interior was gutted. That was the end of Cristina's last home in Spain. " Crush the canaille ! " Isabel commanded Cordova, and for three days every street in Madrid was a battlefield between the troops and the people. But from the country came the news that O'Donnell was gathering strength, that the government was surely foundering. To O'Donnell the Queens would not surrender. In their despair they turned to Espartero, who, permitted to return from England, had quietly settled down to watch events in his native province. He was the only man in Spain that could make terms between the sovereign and the people. Summoned to the capital, he sent first an aide-de-camp, whose coarse language and stern rebukes almost made Isabel repent of her surrender. But on the 28th July, ^854, the ex-Regent entered Madrid in triumph amid the frantic plaudits of the people. All would be right, he told them ; in his hands the constitution was safe. That day there was a strange meeting at the palace : Espartero was face to face with the Queen whose throne he had saved, the Queen-Mother whose downfall he had brought about years before, the general who had raised the standard of revolt against him. Now they consulted together how the throne of Spain might again be saved. But there was a problem yet more difficult to solve. With cheers for the constitution and for 20 3o6 A Queen at Bay Espartero were mingled cries of " Death to the robber ! " Cristina heard the cry, and knew that it was meant for her. She had faced the Spaniards before at La Granja, at Barcelona, at Valencia. She was not frightened of them now. They talked of her escaping. No, she declared, she would leave that palace only as a Queen. She was at bay. It was not only the crowd that demanded vengeance upon her. A deputation of prominent politicians and lawyers waited on Espartero and insisted that she should be brought to trial before the Cortes. She had rendered the government of the country impossible, and had stolen crown property. Espar- tero and O'Donnell promised the deputation that the Queen-Mother should not leave Madrid by day or by night, openly or furtively. But they knew they must break the promise, partly because the charges could never have been proved, partly because it was impossible to put the mother of the reigning sovereign on her trial. For a month Cristina dwelt practically a prisoner in her daughter's palace, which was watched closely by armed citizens and peasants. Go in disguise, she would not. At last, at four in the morning of the 28th August, a carriage was driven up to the prin- cipal entrance of the royal abode, escorted by two squadrons of horse commanded by General Garrigo. At the sound of the wheels, Cristina embraced her nervous, weeping daughter and her trim, frightened son-in-law. Turning to the others, she bade them The End of a Queen and a Woman 307 farewell in her old winning, gracious manner, and descended the stairs up which Fernando had led her as his bride, five-and-twenty years before. Beside her walked her old rival, Espartero ; behind her, the general who had offered to save her at Valencia. Her husband, unconcerned and unruffled, brought up the rear. '' I shall come back," said her Majesty, as she bowed stiffly to the generals. Riansares took his place beside her, the carriage door was shut, and with the cavalry clattering behind them, they drove at full gallop through the silent white streets of Madrid. The city, exhausted by its frenzies, slept soundly — even the fiercest revolu- tionary was abed. When Madrid awoke, the Queen-Mother was well on her way to Portugal. She passed out of Spain, and out of the ken of history. Great was the wrath of her enemies when they found she had eluded them ; bitter were the re- proaches they addressed to Espartero and 0*Donnell ; but, in the end, every one was glad they had got rid of her. A parliamentary commission was appointed to inquire into her acts, but the only possible verdict was Non-proven. In the turmoil that followed she was soon forgotten. O'Donnell supplanted Espartero, Narvaez supplanted O'Donnell. Cristina settled down to enjoy her wealth at Paris, and there and at her summer villa at Ste. Adresse near Havre, watched and waited for the inevitable sequel. Meanwhile her eldest boy — he for whom 3oS A Queen at Bay the crown of Ecuador had been dreamed of — died at Malmaison at the age of twenty. Riansares had still three sons — the Duque de Tarancon, the Conde de Gracia, and the Conde del Recuerdo ; and three daughters, of whom the two eldest married Prince Ladislas Czartoryski and the Neapolitan Principe del Drago. Their lot in life was pleasanter than their half-sister's. In 1868 Isabel II. came flying over the frontier, an exile like her mother. And thus, everybody thought, ends Cristina's lifelong struggle to keep her daughter and her dynasty upon the throne ; for this then was Carlos disinherited over thirty years before. But it was not the end. Spain, strangely enough, was not yet weary of kings. She welcomed the son of Isabel II. to her tottering throne, and the crown rested securely on his brow. Cristina had seen Louis Philippe fall ; she saw the throne of her kinsmen at Naples swept away for ever, the upstart Second Empire come crashing down. But her grandson was King of Spain ; she had not lost the battle she had fought long years ago with the Princesses of Braganga, with Carlos, and with Calomarde. Very old and widowed — for her hand- some guardsman had died in 1873 — ^^^ travelled once more to Madrid in January 1878, to witness the culmination of her old Orleanist policy. For her grandson, Alfonso XIL, was to wed his beloved cousin. Dona Mercedes, the daughter of Montpensier. And so Cristina's dreams actually The End of a Queen and a Woman 309 came to pass, though she benefited in no way by them. Perhaps, as she journeyed back to her home on that windy clifF above the English Channel, the old woman hoped to see a Prince of Asturias acclaimed as heir to the thrones of France and Spain. It was not to be ; Montpensier's hopes perished in the coffin of his childless daughter ; but Cristina was not to know that. For on the 29th August, 1878, while the Norman watering- place looked its brightest and gayest^ poor exiled Isabel was summoned in hot haste from Paris to close her mother's eyes. The special train came too late. Cristina de Borbon had already died in the seventy-third year of her age. She was buried in the Escorial — the only wife of Fernando VII. whose child had sat on the throne of Spain. The nation had long since for- gotten and forgiven her — forgiven her avarice and her absorption in the interests of her family, forgotten that she had instituted the constitutional monarchy of Spain. She was a human woman, always thinking more of her husband, her children, and immediate dependents than of the millions of unseen and unknown Spaniards whose custody a droll tradition had committed to her. She wished evil to none ; from the deliberate cruelties so con- stantly resorted to by other sovereigns of her house, she shrank in disgust. Had she been less a woman, she would have made a worse ruler. If she never 310 A Queen at Bay understood the responsibilities of her high office, she never flinched from its dangers. At bay against the revolution during two-thirds of her life, she never relapsed into abject fear of modern ideas or tried to quench liberty in wholesale bloodshed. She was no fanatic, as so many Bourbons have been. Without education or experience, she was called upon to face the most powerful combination of enemies and to sail out of the familiar harbour of despotism into the unknown sea of constitu- tional liberties. She could not see far ahead ; but she went on cheerfully, distrusting the people, but never hating them. She would have been better understood in England than in Spain. " With the constitutional government of this realm, I have always been identified," she wrote just before her final expulsion. She was not quite justified in making that boast. But she was two things of price — a brave woman and a kindly-natured Queen. AUTHORITIES The principal works consulted in the preparation of this volume are the following : Pirala, Historia de la guerra civil; Burgos, Anales del reinado de Isabel II. ; Bermejo, Estafeta del Palacio ; Fernandez de los Rios, Estudios politicos ; Mirafiores, Memorias ; Cordova, Memorias ; Florez, Vida de Espartero; Vida politica y militar de Narvdez ; Llauder, Memorias ; Pacheco, Historia de la regencia de Maria Cristina ; Cristina, historia contempordnea ; Cortina, Dictamen dado d S.M. la Reina Cristina ; Historia del Ecuador. Hubbard, Histoire contemporaine de VEspagne ; Auguet de St. Sylvain, Chapitre dans I'histoire de Charles V. ; Custine, L'Espagne sous Ferdinand VII. ; Didier, Une annee en Espagne ; Dembowski, Deux ans en Espagne ; Thureau-Dangin, Histoire de la monarchie de Juillet ; Journal des Debats, 1840-41. Walton, Revolutions of Spain; Henningsen, Most Striking Events in a Campaign with Zumalacarregui ; Life and Letters of Washington Irving ; Bulwer, Life of Lord Palmer ston ; Times, 1840-53 ; Slidell Mackenzie, A Year in Spain. \ ■ni) 311 PRINTED BY HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD. LONDON AND AYLESBURY. iix 17 « *^o< ,-t°