This was one of the most bitter experiences in the life of the Queen-Regent; and Barrio Ayuso’s laconic message to Madrid—“Send help at once, or I don’t know what will befall Their Majesties”—showed that in his opinion the Royal Family was in real danger.
By permission of a hurriedly summoned Council of Ministers, General Roman summoned the troops, but enthusiastic cries for the Constitution and Liberty were mingled with “Vivas” for the Queen and the Queen-mother; and when the soldiers filed past the palace, its shuttered windows were eloquent of the terror which reigned within.
It must have been with a heavy heart that Maria Cristina waited in La Granja till the time came for her to go to Madrid, for there were divisions amid the revels as to what she was to be permitted to do. Those hundred hours of deep humiliation and disillusion as to her influence in the land left their mark upon her face. The winged figures and mythological groups of statuary in the beautiful Italian gardens of the palace must have mocked her, with their air of jubilation, as she walked to and fro on the terrace and thought over her position; and the fountain, topped with the figure of the flying Pegasus draining the goblet of joy, was symbolical of the draughts of popularity which she had quaffed, until now there was nothing but the dregs of dismay.
At last, after much discussion with the rebels, the Queen-Regent set out for Madrid, after both Villiers, the English Ambassador, and the French Minister, had frankly explained to her the danger of withstanding the evident will of the nation with regard to the Constitution.
It was at this time that the gallant Espartero appeared upon the scene. The danger threatening Madrid brought him by forced marches to the city, where he led eleven battalions and several squadrons in review before the palace.
GENERAL ESPARTERO, PRINCE OF VERGARA
From a Painting by Casado del Alisal
The severe rebuke administered in the Congress by General Sevanes to the commanding officers whose sergeants had rebelled at La Granja against all royal authority led to a duel between the speaker and Captain Fernando Fernandez de Cordova, in which the General was wounded.
Madrid was soon threatened by another revolution, for Don Carlos appeared before the city, with a large number of followers, but, annoyed at the threat, 20,000 citizens armed themselves in defence of their Queens. This remarkable body of loyal subjects was reviewed in the morning on which they assembled by the Infante Don Francisco; and when the Queen-mother, accompanied by Isabel, who was then seven years old, and her little sister, drove down the lines of Royalists in the afternoon, the enthusiasm of the assembly was intense.