“It is the money for the man of letters, and this shows Your Majesty how large is the sum of 20,000 francs.”
“So much the better,” was the prompt reply; and the courtier saw it was not by proving the amount of the boon that he could check his Sovereign in her generous actions.
A Court official at Madrid, who has been sixty years in office at the palace, told me he often saw Isabella take off her bracelets, and give them to the beggars who pressed upon her as she crossed the courtyard of the royal domain.
“And who could help loving her?” said the old courtier, with tears in his eyes; “I know I could not.”
Caught in the darkness of ignorance and intrigue, Isabella was naturally enraged at the revolution. When her son Alfonso was nearly made captive by the Carlists at Lucar, she said: “I would rather my Alfonso be a prisoner of the Carlists than a captive of the revolutionists.”
Isabella had a faithful friend in the Marquis of Grizalba, and he said to Croze:[18]
“It is the loss of faith which causes our woes; the charm of death has been destroyed with the hope of a hereafter. But Spain will die like a gentleman.”
[18] The author of “La Vie intime d’Alfonse XIII.”
From September 19, 1868, to 1870 there is no history of the Court of Spain, as there was no King, and it was not known if there ever would be one again. Isabella lived, as we know, in Paris, and her son pursued his education in Vienna, in the Theresan College, and later at Sandhurst. The young ex-Prince was devoted to society and to gaiety, and, seeing how his mother was fêted in Paris, he was often heard to say:
“I should rather like to be a dethroned King and live in Paris with plenty of money.”