Note 134 — Chapter XIV · THE RESTORATION OF THE BOURBONS (continued 2)

[At the head of the Madrid garrison, the captain-general of the capital turned the members of the cortes into the streets, dismissed the government, including the war minister, and dissolved parliament. He then profoundly surprised his fellow countrymen by declining to use his dictatorship as a stepping-stone to power. For the first time in Spain, the victorious leader of a pronunciamiento invited the leaders of all parties to form a government to restore and maintain peace. Castelar naturally declined. Cánovas del Castillo, the chief agent of the Alfonsist propaganda, held aloof, because he saw that events were playing into his hands. Marshal Serrano, with Sagasta and Martos, consented to form a nameless provisional government, which attempted for eleven months to reorganise Spain, first crushing the republican risings in the south, and then vigorously attacking the Carlists in northern and central Spain.k]