Although Philip displayed immense pride and pleasure at having sired another child, he became anxious about carrying the baby to the font for baptism. According to the French ambassador, who must have got the story from the queen, Philip practised ‘carrying a large doll from one side of the room to the other; but in the end he could not manage it, obliging him to let Don John carry the infanta’. Perhaps the king’s anxiety arose because Isabel developed puerperal fever, just like his first wife, María Manuela, but she soon recovered and Ambassador Fourquevaux predicted that ‘the queen will give us a son or daughter every year’.16 His forecast soon came true: early in 1567 Isabel became pregnant again.