So when Cristina was satisfied with the result of her declaration, she took one or two others into her confidence, and on December 28, 1833, the morganatic marriage of the widowed Queen with the _gentil hombre_ Don Fernando Muñoz took place at ten o’clock in the morning, the witnesses being Herrera y Acebedo and the cleric Gonzalez, who left a bed of sickness to perform the ceremony. Teresa Valcarcel and a lady in retreat called Antonia were the other witnesses of the rite. The fact of this event, if not actually known by all the Court, was surmised, for Muñoz was seen wearing the cravat pins of the late Ferdinand; he had a room in the palace, a magnificent carriage; he dined with the Queen, and he was seen driving with her as an equal; moreover, he was created Duke of Rianzares, decorated with the Order of the Golden Fleece, and raised to the rank of grandee of the first order. It was certainly a marriage which, if wanting in class distinction, was not failing in morality. The Queen-mother was now so taken up with “Fernando VIII.,” as he was called, that she preferred the more private life of the royal country-seats to that of the palace of the capital. So on March 15, 1834, we find her at Aranjuez, at Carabanchel on June 11, and then at La Granja, whose beautiful gardens formed a fitting scene for the happiness she had found with Muñoz. It was at Pardo that her child was born, and to an affectionate nature like Cristina’s the obedience to the law of circumstances, which took the baby from the mother’s arms, cost her many a tearful and sleepless night. The little daughter was confided to the care of the widow of the administrator Villarel, who had settled at Segovia, and for this reason La Granja was the favourite resort of the Queen-Regent, as she could have her child brought to her to Quitapesares, the beautiful estate on the road to the palace, where she had wooed its father. Doña Teresa Valcarcel, the daughter of the Court dressmaker, was, as we have said, the great confidante of Queen Maria Cristina, and it was as her friend that she first met Muñoz, who soon exercised such a fascination over her.