“Please give my kind regards to the Duke of Rianzares, and thank him for the part he has taken in the matter I have so much at heart.”
So France and her supporters in Spain gained the day, and the double wedding of the young sisters was fixed for October 10, 1846. It was with all the magnificent state for which the Court of Spain is famed that the reception by Isabel and Fernanda took place at the palace (for the publication of the marriage contracts) in the Salon of the Ambassadors. Alexandre Dumas was among the distinguished Frenchmen accompanying the bridegroom of the Infanta Fernanda, and the great author attended a bull-fight with the noblemen as toreadors, and the fêtes all the week were of surpassing splendour.
The religious ceremony itself was held in the Church of Atocha with all imaginable pomp and splendour. The Patriarch of the Indias received the brides at the door of the church, and noticeable among the French guests was Alexandre Dumas, author of “The Three Musketeers.” All the Diplomatic Corps were there with the exception of the English.
In the ceremony the Patriarch placed upon the open palms of the Queen’s bridegroom the thirteen pieces of money pledged as his dowry, which was then passed by the bridegroom to the hands of his bride, saying, “This ring and this money I give you as a sign of marriage,” and the Queen replied, “I accept them.”
The same ceremony was used with the Infanta and her bridegroom, and then the prelate, with his mitre and crook, escorted the royal couples to the altar, and there read the Mass. During the Epistle the Patriarch presented the candles, veils, and conjugal yoke, and at the conclusion of the Gospel the Patriarch turned to the Queen and her bridegroom, and said to the latter: “I give Your Majesty a companion, and not a servant; Your Majesty must love her as Christ loves His Church.” And then the same words were said to the other couple. The periodical which published this account of the wedding remarked that the Queen and her husband looked smiling and pleased, but the Infanta looked sad.
The attempt on the life of the Queen soon after her marriage caused great excitement, and the trial of Angel de la Riva, a native of Santiago, in Galicia, and editor of a paper called El Clamor Publico, who was caught just after firing the shot, was followed with the deepest interest.
The testimony of Don Manuel Matheu, officer of the Royal Guard of Halberdiers, a man of thirty-five years of age, gives some idea of the etiquette of the time.
He declared that on May 4, 1847, he was on duty, so when the Queen returned from her drive he went as usual to receive her at the foot of the staircase with his little company of six halberdiers, and a Captain with a lamp, and two other attendants with their axes. On descending from the carriage, Her Majesty said to him: “Do you know that on passing through the Calle de Alcalá two shots were fired at me.”
The officer returned: “Two shots at Your Majesty?”
“Yes,” was the reply; “you cannot doubt it; I saw them get down from a carriage or cab.”