To the surprise of the Minister, the list was rejected by the Queen in a cold, disdainful way, so O’Donnell found himself forced to offer his resignation. This was accepted with the usual meaningless smiles and compliments.
Then O’Donnell returned to his house, where his friends were waiting for him. His face betrayed his rage and mortification, and, throwing his gloves on the table with an angry gesture, he exclaimed:
“I have been dismissed just as you would dismiss one of your servants.”
“My General,” exclaimed one of the partisans of the ex-Minister, “the camarilla delayed the change of Ministry for two days after the mutiny; why was that? And Ayala returned because it was better for Narvaez that we should have the odium of shooting the insurgents. Now he can take his place in Parliament with all the airs of clemency.”
O’Donnell, who could not deny the truth of this remark, took General Serrano by the arm into another room, but they could plainly hear their indignant followers saying: “Eso, señora, es imposible!”
The Marquis of Miraflores says that a General Pierrad, the head of the Pronunciamento, told a chief of the halberdiers that he had better tell the Queen that there were no means of putting down meetings, and this for two reasons: Prim and his friends only wanted a change in the power by a disciplined Pronunciamento, but the artillery, through some strange influence, would not recognize military chiefs. He who said this was to have been shot down by them; he saw them drunk and faithless to their commands. This communication was made to the Queen. In 1867 an important interview took place in the Palace of Madrid between Isabel II. and her sister, the Duchess of Montpensier.
It will be remembered that, after the adventures of the royal couple in the revolution of 1848, the Duke and Duchess retired to Seville, where they lived in the Palace of San Telmo with all the state dignity of sovereigns. The Queen had made the Duke an Infante of Spain, and he had also been appointed Captain-General.
The Duke decided to take his wife to Madrid to counsel her sister to adopt a more liberal policy. The Duchess was expecting another child, but she was advised not to postpone her visit to the royal palace of Madrid. The interview was far from satisfactory, for Isabella had no intention of allowing Montpensier to have an active part in the Government. So the Princess returned to Seville, and Isabella afterwards wrote her a letter, in which she expressed displeasure at her aims. This letter received an angry reply, first from the husband, and then from the wife. So a coldness grew up between the sisters, and, indeed, Isabella’s want of confidence in Montpensier was proved by the subsequent events in 1868, when Prim himself rejected the Duke’s offer to raise forces in his favour.
During all this time the little Prince of Asturias, who was nine years old when the insurrection broke out in the barracks of San Gil for Prim, was pursuing his education in the palace. The style of the Prince’s education is given in the remark of the royal child’s playmate to his father, when he had been to spend a day at the palace.
“Papa,” said the boy, “Alfonso does not know anything. He is taught nothing but religion and drilling. After the religious lesson, which was very dull,” the child continued, “Alfonso was given a spear and a sword, and he waved them about so much that Juanito and I were afraid he would hurt us.”