When, moreover, the Ministry suggested that the Queen’s post as Regent should be shared with Espartero, the Prime Minister, she proudly declared that, as she had decided to go abroad, it could be given to whom they thought fit. The scene was worthy of Maria Cristina as Queen and mother. Fate had been against her. She had failed where success had seemed so easy, and the most dignified thing was to leave the field to him who, she declared, whilst pretending to maintain her influence, had never ceased to undermine it. So on August 28 the Queen-Regent left Barcelona for Valencia, without even bidding farewell to the Corporation. The parting between the Queen-mother and her little girls was very sad, and, while going in the carriage of Espartero’s wife down to the port, she was eloquent in her injunctions to the General to protect her fatherless children; and when the ship left the port, it was to leave Espartero practically master of the situation. The triumph of Espartero was accentuated by the banquet given in his honour on August 30, when he was given a crown of gold laurel-leaves. From Valencia Maria Cristina strove to form a new Ministry, but, though she would not accept the Progressists’ programme, she was finally obliged to put the reins of power in Espartero’s hands, who was proclaimed in Madrid sole Regent of Spain; whilst Maria Cristina left her land for France. The well-known General O’Donnell accompanied his royal mistress into exile, and remained with her till Espartero’s overthrow in 1843. So it was on October 12, 1840, that the royal children returned to Madrid for the opening of Parliament under the new condition of affairs, in which Espartero was Regent. It was said that he had the same solicitous affection for the little Queen and her sister as he had for his own children. He certainly did well in appointing Don Manuel José Quintana, the illustrious poet, as preceptor to the Queen his charge, Agustin Argüelles as tutor-guardian, and Martin de los Heros as steward of the royal household. When Espartero had the Regency in his hands, he was practically ruler of the whole country, and this supremacy of an officer whose ideas of military rule left little room for constitutional liberty was bitterly resented by some of the other generals. La Concha, Leon, and O’Donnell, formed the bold idea of getting possession of the persons of the young Princesses, so as to use them as a lever for a less autocratic form of government. Espartero was also opposed by the Carlists, and before many months had gone the bold design was formed, by the disaffected chief, of getting hold of the royal children, and putting them in the hands of the Moderate party, under Maria Cristina, who was under the protection of the French. CHAPTER VII QUEEN ISABELLA’S GIRLHOOD, AND THE DANGERS WHICH BESET IT 1840-1846