The interview was characteristic of the kind-heartedness of the Queen.
After waiting for half an hour in the antechamber, the gentleman was shown into the royal presence.
“You have been quite lost,” said Isabel graciously, as her visitor bent over her hand. “It is a thousand years since you have been to see me.”
Whilst excusing himself with courtly grace, Tarfe noticed that during the two years in which he had been absent from the palace the Queen had grown much stouter, and had thus lost some of her queenly dignity. She seemed distrait and troubled, and the red lids of her limpid blue eyes gave her an expression of weariness. They were, moreover, the eyes of a woman who had been brought in contact with the encyclopædic array of the various forms of the despoilers of innocence.
The petitioner submitted his plea for mercy for his friends by saying that his request was backed by a letter from the holy Mother, begging her to write two letters to General Hoyos for their release. To the delight of the intercessor, the Sovereign at once wrote the letters. When this was done, the surprise of the courtier was increased when the Queen, who was generally mañanista, said in a quick, nervous tone: “Do not delay giving these letters; do not wait till to-morrow; do it to-day!”
Before leaving the royal presence, Tarfe ventured to say that O’Donnell was much upset by the events of the preceding day, and the Queen replied in a tone curiously devoid of feeling: “Yes, I like O’Donnell very much.” This she said three times in the same passionless voice, and then, seeing that he was dismissed, Tarfe took leave of Her Majesty; and after fulfilling the mission to Hoyos, he went to see O’Donnell at his palace of Buenavista.
The General declined to believe the reports of his friends, of the intrigues which were to compass his fall.
The victor at Tetuan was more able to repel the open advance of an enemy than the underhand plots of a palace.
But when Ortiz de Pinedo suddenly came in, and said, “Gonzalez Brabo has left San Juan de Luz to-day, and he is coming to form a Ministry with Narvaez,” the General was somewhat taken aback.
On the following morning, after finishing a long despatch for the royal signature, he repaired to the palace, and, anxious to know the real state of affairs, he submitted to Her Majesty the list of appointments to the Senate-house, many of which had been suggested by Isabel herself.