Treachery was the keynote of the Court of Spain, and some of the leaders of the revolution were those who had used the Sovereign’s ignorance and foolhardiness to their own ends. In such an atmosphere of untruth and treachery such men as Espartero, Prim, etc., could play no enduring part. Hardly had Espartero swept the Court clean of the Regency of Queen Maria Cristina than his fall was encompassed by O’Donnell, his rival. The flagrant falsification of the Parliamentary election returns--which is still the cankerworm of the country--was the check to all progress. Count San Luis made a primitive effort for the reform of the elections; he suggested that the names of the candidates as deputies should be put in a bag, and drawn out by a child blindfolded, for the law of chance seemed to him better than the custom of deception. Isabella’s acts of generosity are still quoted with admiration at the royal palace of Madrid by those who served her as Queen. Four hundred girls owed their marriage _dots_ to Isabella, and it was the fathers of these four hundred royally endowed brides who treacherously worked for her expulsion. One day, hearing the story of the penury of a clever man of letters, Isabella commanded 20,000 francs to be sent to him. The administrator of her finances, thinking the Queen could hardly know how much money this sum represented, had twenty notes of 1,000 francs each changed into small money, and put out on a table by which she had to pass. “What is all this money for?” asked Isabella, when she saw it spread out to view. “It is the money for the man of letters, and this shows Your Majesty how large is the sum of 20,000 francs.” “So much the better,” was the prompt reply; and the courtier saw it was not by proving the amount of the boon that he could check his Sovereign in her generous actions. A Court official at Madrid, who has been sixty years in office at the palace, told me he often saw Isabella take off her bracelets, and give them to the beggars who pressed upon her as she crossed the courtyard of the royal domain. “And who could help loving her?” said the old courtier, with tears in his eyes; “I know I could not.” Caught in the darkness of ignorance and intrigue, Isabella was naturally enraged at the revolution. When her son Alfonso was nearly made captive by the Carlists at Lucar, she said: “I would rather my Alfonso be a prisoner of the Carlists than a captive of the revolutionists.” Isabella had a faithful friend in the Marquis of Grizalba, and he said to Croze:[18] “It is the loss of faith which causes our woes; the charm of death has been destroyed with the hope of a hereafter. But Spain will die like a gentleman.” [18] The author of “La Vie intime d’Alfonse XIII.”