As Napoleon I. said, “You may confer titles and dignities, but you cannot give that particular _cachet_ which goes with real Court society.” The Countess of Campo Alange always said, “Did So-and-so learn the minuet when he was young?” For if the answer to this question were in the negative, it showed that the courtier only belonged to the new dynasty. The Marquis of San Rafael was then Prime Minister, but when the Marchioness wished to enter the Queen’s presence she was not allowed to pass, whereas an arrogant lady of the old aristocracy quickly forced her way in. The Prime Minister was advised to report this slight to Amadeus himself. When the King heard of the matter, he only shrugged his shoulders, and said, “Let them fight it out.” The King and Queen felt that their days in Spain were numbered, and it only wanted some incident to put the match to the train of discontent. The ostensible cause of the break of the King with the Government was the appointment to the command of the artillery of Hidalgo, who five years before had been in command of the company which had made the insurrection in the barracks of San Gil in 1866. The King himself did not favour this appointment, but when Ruiz Zorilla showed him a vote of confidence in the course carried by the Congress, Amadeus thought it time to resign the crown which meant nothing but mortification to himself and his wife. So on that evening (February 11, 1873) the republic was proclaimed, and six o’clock the following morning saw the sad exit from Spanish Court life of the Italians who had been so fruitlessly summoned to its circle. Queen Maria Victoria had also been wounded in her susceptibilities as a mother. When her second child was born to her about a fortnight before the proclamation of the republic, the young Sovereigns naturally expected that the Ministry, Diplomatic Corps, military dignitaries, and clerical leaders, would be ready to greet the baby Prince according to the Court etiquette of the country. But the representatives of the country did not feel sufficient interest in the birth of “the little foreigner” to hasten to pay him their respects; and although the red and yellow flags waved triumphantly above the royal palace, it was several hours before there gathered in the audience chamber an assembly sufficiently large and august to receive the presentation of the son of Amadeus and Maria Victoria. It was hardly a fortnight later when the die was cast, and the Italians decided to abandon the throne of Spain. The personal attendants of the Queen wept as they saw her carried to the entrance of the palace still weak and ill from her recent confinement. The dethroned young King took the frail form of his wife in his arms when she was taken from the litter at the foot of the grand staircase, and, after placing her in the carriage waiting in the archway, proudly saluted the Guard and stepped in by her side.