[2] Ruiz Zorrilla did not actually preside over nor attend the meetings, and successively delegated the chair of the lodge to Simón Gris Benítez, Manuel Llano y Persi [es] and José Carvajal.

[3] On the arrival of Amadeus in Spain, Ruiz Zorrilla became Minister of Public Works for a short time before resigning in protest against Serrano and Topete entering the councils of the new king.

[1][4] After the departure of Amadeus, Ruiz Zorrilla advocated the establishment of a republic, but he was not called upon either by the Federal Republicans to help them during 1873 or by Marshal Serrano in 1874 to join Martos and Sagasta in his cabinet.

[1] He was for nearly 18 years the soul of the republican conspiracies, the prompter of revolutionary propaganda and the chief inspirer of intrigues concerted by discontented military men of all ranks.

Failing health and the loss of his wife had decreased his energies, and the Madrid government allowed him to return to Spain some months before he died at Burgos, of heart disease.