Espartero made a crusade against the undue priestly influence at Court. The weak-minded King was quite under the power of “the bleeding nun,” as Patrocinio was called, and his constant visits to her apartments in the palace were said to have been in search of spiritual counsel, with which she was supposed to be miraculously endowed by reason of the wounds in her forehead and hands, which refused to be healed, as they were said to be illustrative of those of the Saviour. The Queen and all the Royal Family became hysterically hypnotized by this phenomenon.
But Espartero soon put an end to the matter by having the lady put under the authoritative care of a doctor, who had her hands tied so as to prevent her irritating the wounds; and thus in a short time the supposed miracle was over, and the power of the religieuse and her brother, the Archbishop Claret, was at an end.
Espartero had O’Donnell as his Minister of War. Dissensions broke out again in the Cabinet, and O’Donnell reaped the success of his camarilla influence at the midnight Council meeting held before the Queen in July, 1856. For when Espartero found that his measures for the new Constitution were rejected, he offered his resignation; and then, to his surprise, the Queen, by a prearranged concert, turned to his colleague with her sweetest smile, saying, “I am sure you won’t abandon me, will you?” and he was sworn in as Prime Minister the following day.
But O’Donnell had a powerful rival for favour at the palace in the person of Narvaez, a General of some fame, whose alert, dapper little figure, said to have been improved by corsets, made him popular at Court as a dancer.
This officer was extremely arrogant, and noting that the grandees, by right of their special prerogative, stood covered in the royal presence during the ceremony of the King washing the feet of the poor, and feeding them in the historical Hall of Columns, he promptly put his own cocked hat on his head, and bade his officers do the same.
O’Donnell, who was of a heavier, clumsier build than his rival, suffered much at the sight of the success of Narvaez in the arts of society. One day at a state ball at the palace the two Generals stood in readiness to conduct the Queen through the mazes of the rigodon. As Prime Minister, O’Donnell considered that the distinction of taking Isabella’s hand for the figures was his by right, but Isabella could not resist the temptation of having for a partner a man distinguished as a follower of Terpsichore, and she therefore singled out Narvaez as her partner.
In a fury at what he considered a public slight, O’Donnell gave in his resignation the next day as President of the Council, and General Narvaez was chosen to fill the vacant place.
It was well known at Court that the British Ambassador, Bulwer Lytton, was working against the Court of Spain in England, and consequently he was an object of great aversion to the military leader of the Government.
Irritated at the Englishman’s assumption of authority, Narvaez said one day to Bulwer Lytton that Spain did not interfere with the affairs of Queen Victoria like England did with those of Isabella II. To this remark the British diplomat returned that Victoria did not owe her throne to foreign intervention, as Isabella did.
One day Narvaez was in his bureau in a great state of irritation about some action of the British Ambassador, when Bulwer Lytton was announced. He drew a chair close to Narvaez, and, although the Spaniard pushed his back, drew his seat still closer. Upon this Narvaez jumped up in his excitable manner, and then, wishing to seat himself again, he missed the place and found himself lower than he wished.