Queen Maria Cristina wished to share the popularity of the hero, and so she arranged to meet him at Lerida, on her way to Barcelona, under the pretext that sea-baths were required for her daughter Isabella. In the interview with the General, the Queen suggested that he should take the post of Prime Minister; but this honour the soldier declined, unless the Congress were closed and the Bill for the election of the Mayors of the Corporations by royal order abandoned, as it was contrary to the Constitution of 1837. These conditions the Queen declined, and she did not see Espartero again until he entered the Catalonian capital in triumph, after giving the final blow to Carlism by the rout of Cabrera at Berga. The ovation given to the General was tremendous. “Viva Espartero! Viva la Constitution! Down with the Law of the Corporations! Down with the Government!” came the cries from the people. The Queen-Regent was alarmed, and it is said on good authority that she sent for the Count of Lucena, the bizarre Don Leopold O’Donnell, and told him of the difficulty. “Well, you have only to send for a company of grenadiers to shoot Espartero,” said the leader of the Moderate party; to which Maria Cristina returned: “Be silent! You frighten me.” [Illustration: MARSHAL LEOPOLDO O’DONNELL, DUKE OF TETUAN] At last the military hero arrived at the palace, which then stood where there are now some little houses, opposite the old Custom-house. The interview seems to have been somewhat stormy. Maria Cristina is reported to have said: “I have made you a Count, and I have made you a Duke, but I cannot make you a gentleman.”[14] [14] Series of biographies of Spanish generals published in _La Vanguardia_ during 1907. At last the Queen-Regent had to submit, and she had to agree to the conditions under which Espartero was willing to accept the post of Prime Minister. On August 21 there was a meeting in Barcelona for the purpose of manifesting loyalty to Maria Cristina, and when the Queen-Regent appeared in her carriage, with her little daughters, the leaders of the meeting exclaimed: “This is the true expression, lady, of the opinions of Barcelona!” It was commonly known as the “frock-coat meeting,” as it consisted of those of a superior class; but the confusion caused by the “blouse” people led to a cessation of the cries of “Viva la Reina!” The matter would have blown over if Francisco Balmes, a lawyer partisan of the Queen-Regent, and Manuel Bosch de Torres, had not been shot in a street fray on the following day. Then, unfortunately for Maria Cristina, she acted under the advice of the French Ambassador, M. de Redotte, who came to pay her his respects in the Palace of Barcelona, and declined to dissolve the Cortes or to withdraw the project for the Corporation elections by royal decree. Maria Cristina was evidently now very unpopular, and the press was full of calumnious attacks about her secret marriage with Muñoz.