Isabella’s marriage was now a burning subject of discussion and intrigue. The objection offered to her marriage with one of the sons of the Infanta Luisa Carlota was the hatred reigning between the mother of the proposed bridegroom and Queen Maria Cristina. Louis Philippe of France had also his own designs in these marriage prospects, and would fain have united the Dauphin to the young Queen. But, as we know, England put her veto upon this alliance, as it would have upset the balance of European power; so the French King had to be contented with the marriage of his younger son, the Duke of Montpensier, with Isabel’s sister Luisa Fernanda. There was a strong party in favour of the Queen’s marriage with the Count of Montemolin, son of Don Carlos, as this union would have put an end to the rivalry reigning between these two branches of the Royal Family. But finally attention was turned to the sons of Don Francisco de Paula as the most suitable candidates for the hand of the Queen. Miraflores explains that it was natural for the Duke of Cadiz, the eldest son of the Infante, to be preferred by the existing Cabinet in Spain and the Queen-mother, as he was a quiet, judicious Prince, who had accepted and fulfilled with honour the post of Colonel of a cavalry regiment; whilst Don Henry was of a turbulent disposition, whose conduct left much to be desired at the Court of the Queen-mother, to whom he had written from Bayonne very disrespectfully, and in Brussels he had distinguished himself by publishing ideas which bordered on being revolutionary. [Illustration: ISABELLA II., QUEEN OF SPAIN After a Painting by De Madrazo] Whilst the royal party was at Pampeluna a mysterious document in French fell into the hands of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, signed “Legitimista.” The document ran thus: “_To the Minister of Foreign Affairs._ “Before the Duc de Nemours and the Duc d’Aumale left Paris as the emissaries of His Majesty the great ‘Père de famille,’ French legitimists knew that the meeting at Pampeluna was merely a matter of form. The Duc d’Aumale cannot be the husband of Doña Isabel; his father knows it; M. Guizot and M. Bresson know it; and the Queen, wife of the Citizen-King, knows it, and she is the most strongly opposed to the union.