, act
in good faith with the popular party she resisted all salutary reform,
would not restore the Constitution of 1812 until compelled to by a
popular uprising, and disgraced herself by a scandalous connection with
one Munos, one of the royal bodyguards. She enriched this favorite and
amassed a vast fortune for herself, which she sent out of the country.
In 1839, when Don Carlos was driven out of the country by the patriot
soldier Espartero, she endeavored to gain him over to her side, but
failed. Espartero became Regent, and Maria Christina repaired to Paris,
where she was received with great distinction by Louis Philippe,
and Paris became the focus of all sorts of machinations against the
constitutional government of Spain, and of plots for its overthrow. One
of these had just been defeated at the time of Irving's arrival. It was
a desperate attempt of a band of soldiers of the rebel army to carry
off the little Queen and her sister, which was frustrated only by
the gallant resistance of the halberdiers in the palace. The little
princesses had scarcely recovered from the horror of this night attack
when our minister presented his credentials to the Queen through the
Regent, thus breaking a diplomatic deadlock, in which he was followed by
all the other embassies except the French. I take some passages from the
author's description of his first audience at the royal palace:

"We passed through the spacious court, up the noble staircase, and
through the long suites of apartments of this splendid edifice, most of
them silent and vacant, the casements closed to keep out the heat,
so that a twilight reigned throughout the mighty pile, not a little
emblematical of the dubious fortunes of its inmates. It seemed more like
traversing a convent than a palace. I ought to have mentioned that in
ascending the grand staircase we found the portal at the head of it,
opening into the royal suite of apartments, still bearing the marks of
the midnight attack upon the palace in October last, when an attempt
was made to get possession of the persons of the little Queen and her
sister, to carry them off.... The marble casements of the doors had been
shattered in several places, and the double doors themselves pierced all
over with bullet holes, from the musketry that played upon them from the
staircase during that eventful night. What must have been the feelings
of those poor children, on listening, from their apartment, to the
horrid tumu