Here was a fix for the easy-going King,--dubbed by many “_l’Indolente_,” the Indolent,--between the devil and the deep sea. The Queen point-blank refused to say good-bye to her _devotés_, and her wiles prevailed to retain many a merry lover at her Court, for the stoutest will of man yields to the witchery of beauty in every rank of life!
If Queen Yolanda was a “gay woman,” as historians have called her,--and no class of men are anything like so mendacious,--she was not the “fast” woman some of them have maliciously styled her. No, she was a loving spouse and a devoted mother. Perhaps, could she have chosen, she would have brought forth a boy; but, still, every mother loves her child regardless of sex or other considerations. She addressed herself zealously to the rearing of the little princess. No sour-visaged _hidalgo_ and no censorious citizen was allowed the entrée to the nursery. Minstrels rejoiced at the nativity, and minstrels shared the rocking of the cradle. She was baptized at the old mosque-like cathedral of Sa Zeo, or San Salvador,--where the Kings her forbears were all anointed and crowned,--with the courtly ceremonial of Holy Church, whilst outside the people sang their well-loved ditties. Quite the favourite was “_Nocte Buena_”--
“La Vergin se fui’ in lavar Sui manos blancas al rio; El Sol sequedó parado, La Mar perdio su ruido,” etc.
“To the rivulet the Virgin sped, Her fair white hands to wash; The wandering Sun stood still o’erhead, The Sea cast up no splash,” etc.
and many, many other verses. Zaragoza was famous for the splendour of her mystery plays, as many quaint entries in the archives of the archdiocese prove: “Seven _sueldos_ for making up the heads of the ass and the ox for the stable at Bethlehem; six _sueldos_ for wigs for the prophets; ten _sueldos_ for gloves for the angels.”
The little Princess was not the only occupant of the royal nursery in Zaragoza; King Juan’s child Juanita greeted her baby companion with glee, but the Queen was not too well pleased that she should be allowed to remain there. Indeed, an arrangement was come to whereby Mahaud’s child was delivered over to a _governante_, and Princess Yolanda was queen of all she saw. Very carefully her training was taken in hand, with due respect to the peccadilloes of the Court; but her mother saw to it that her environment should be youthful, bright, and intelligent. Hardly before the child was out of leading-strings her future was under serious consideration, for the King had no son nor the promise of one by his consort, and Queen Yolanda determined to do all that lay in her power to circumvent the obnoxious clauses of the Salic Law.