2-913-646 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Public Entry of Espartero into Madrid, 1854. 'The troops did not surround the Duke's carriage, nor in the least prevent the people from pressing close up to its doors, waving hats and handkerchiefs, and uttering vivas...Any man must have felt proud and happy at such spontaneous and unsought enthusiasm. Dressed in a General's uniform, and looking very well, and very young for his age, he stood up in his carriage and shook hands with many of the persons who thronged around it... From every balcony handkerchiefs were waved and flowers flung...All along the Alcala, through the Puerta del Sol, and along the Calle Mayor...crowds in the streets, crowds at the windows, on scaffoldings, and on housetops...out of all the side streets surged tides of humanity, bent on getting at least a passing glance of the Pacificator of Spain, as they love to call him'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.