his destined prey; but political events marched faster than his calculations, and fresh instructions from the Emperor prescribed an immediate advance upon Lisbon; Junot obeyed, and the family of Braganza, at his approach, fled to the Brazils. The series of interesting transactions which attended this invasion will be treated of hereafter; at present, I must return to Spain, now bending to the first gusts of that hurricane, which soon swept over her with destructive violence.

The accusation of treason and intended parricide preferred by Charles IV. against his son Ferdinand, (Dec. 1807,) gave rise to some judicial proceedings, which ended in the submission of the Prince, who, being absolved of the imputed crime, wrote a letter to his father and mother, acknowledging his own fault, but accusing the persons in his confidence of being the instigators of deeds which he himself abhorred.* The intrigues of his advisers, however, continued, and the plans of Napoleon advanced as a necessary consequence of the divisions in the Spanish court.

By the terms of the convention of Fontainebleau, forty thousand men were to be held in reserve at Bayonne; but a greater number were assembled on different points of the frontier, and in the course of December, two corps had entered the Spanish territory, and were quartered in Vittoria, Miranda, Briviesca, and the neighborhood. The one, commanded by General Dupont, was called the second army of observation of the "Gironde." The other, commanded by Marshal Moncey, took the title of the army of observation of the "Côte d'Ocean." In the gross, they amounted to fiftythree thousand men, of which above forty thousand were fit for duty; and in the course of the month of December, Dupont advanced to Valladolid, while a reinforcement for Junot, four thousand seven hundred in number, took up their quarters at Salamanca. It thus appeared as if the French troops were quietly following the natural line of communication between France and Portugal; but in reality, Dupont and Moncey's positions cut off the capital from all intercourse with the northern provinces, and secured the direct road from Bayonne to Madrid. Small divisions under different pretexts continually reinforced these two bodies, and through the Eastern Pyrenees twelve thousand men, commanded by General Duhesme, penetrated into Catalonia, and established themselves in Barcelona.

In the mean time the dispute betwen the King (March, 1808) *Nellerto. Historia de la Guerra contra Nap.

+ Return of the French army, Appendix. Journal of Dupont's Operations,

MSS.

‡ Notes of Napoleon, found in the portfolio of King Joseph at the battle of Vittoria.

and his son, or rather between the Prince of the Peace and the advisers of Ferdinand, was brought to a crisis by insurrections at Aranjuez and Madrid, which took place upon the 17th, 18th, and 19th of March, 1808. The old King, deceived by intrigues, or frightened at the difficulties which surrounded him, had determined, as it is supposed by some, to quit Spain, and take refuge in his American dominions, and preparations were made for a flight to Seville, when the Prince's grooms commenced a tumult, in which the populace of Aranjuez soon joined, and were only pacified by the assurance that no journey was in contemplation.

Upon the 18th, the people of Madrid, following the example of Aranjuez, sacked the house of the obnoxious Manuel Godoy, and upon the 19th, the riots having recommenced at Aranjuez, that minister secreted himself; but his retreat being discovered, he was maltreated, and on the point of being killed, when the soldiers of the royal guard rescued him. Charles IV., terrified by the violent proceedings of his subjects, had abdicated the day before, and this event being proclaimed at Madrid on the 20th, Ferdinand was declared King, to the great joy of the nation at large: little did the people know what they rejoiced at, and time has since taught them that the fable of the frogs demanding a monarch had its meaning.

During these transactions (March, 1808) Murat, Grand Duke of Berg, who had taken the command of all the French troops in Spain, quitted his quarters at Aranda de Duero, passed the Somosierra, and entered Madrid the 23d, with Moncey's corps and a fine body of cavalry; Dupont at the same time, deviating from the road to Portugal, crossed the Duero, and occupied Segovia, the Escurial, and Aranjuez. Ferdinand, who arrived at Madrid on the 24th, was not recognized by Murat as King; nevertheless, at the demand of his powerful guest, he delivered to him the sword of Francis I. with much ceremony. Meanwhile Charles protested to Murat that his abdication had been forced, and also wrote to Napoleon in the same strain. This state of affairs being unexpected by the Emperor, he sent General Savary to conduct his plans, which appear to have been considerably deranged by the vehemence of the people, and the precipitation with which Murat had seized the capital.* But previous to Savary's arrival, Don Carlos, the brother of Ferdinand, departed from Madrid, hoping to meet the Emperor Napoleon, whose presence in that city was confidently expected; and upon the 10th of April, Ferdinand, having first appointed a supreme junta, of which his uncle, Don Antonio, was named president and Murat a member, commenced * Napoleon in Las Casas.

his own remarkable journey to Bayonne. The true causes of this measure have not yet been developed; perhaps, when they shall be known, some petty personal intrigue may be found to have had a greater influence than the grand machinations attributed to Napoleon, who could not have anticipated, much less have calculated a great political scheme upon such a surprising example of weak

ness.

The people everywhere manifested their anger at this journey; in Vittoria they cut the traces of Ferdinand's carriage, and at different times several gallant men offered, at the risk of their lives, to carry him off by sea, in defiance of the French troops quartered along the road. Unmoved by their entreaties and zeal, and regardless of the warning contained in a letter that he received at this period from Napoleon, (who, withholding the title of majesty, sharply reproved him for his past conduct, and scarcely expressed a wish to meet him,) Ferdinand continued his progress, and, on the 20th of April, 1808, found himself a prisoner in Bayonne. In the mean time, Charles, under the protection of Murat, resumed his authority, obtained the liberty of Godoy, and quitting Spain, also threw himself, his cause and kingdom, into the Emperor's hands.

These events were in themselves quite enough to urge a more cautious people than the Spaniards into action; but other measures had been pursued, which proved beyond the possibility of a doubt, that the country was destined to be the spoil of the French. The troops of that nation had been admitted, without reserve or precaution, into the different fortresses upon the Spanish frontier, and, taking advantage of this hospitality to forward the views of their chief, they got possession, by various artifices, of the citadels of St. Sebastian in Guipuscoa, of Pampeluna in Navarre, and of the forts of Figueras and Monjuik, and the citadel of Barcelona, in Catalonia. Thus, under the pretence of mediating between the father and the son, in a time of profound peace, a foreign force was suddenly established in the capital, on the communications, and in the principal frontier fortresses; its chief was admitted to a share of the government, and a fiery, proud, and jealous nation was laid prostrate at the feet of a stranger, without a blow being struck, without one warning voice being raised, without a suspicion being excited in sufficient time to guard against those acts upon which all were gazing with stupid amazement.

It is idle to attribute this surprising event to the subtlety of Napoleon's policy, to the depth of his deceit, or to the treachery of Godoy; such a fatal calamity could only be the result of bad government, and the consequent degradation of public feeling. It matters but little to those who wish to derive a lesson from expe

rience, whether it be a Godoy or a Savary that strikes the last bargain of corruption, the silly father or the rebellious son that signs the final act of degradation and infamy. Fortunately, it is easier to oppress the people of all countries, than to destroy their generous feelings; when all patriotism is lost among the upper classes, it may still be found among the lower; in the Peninsula it was not found, but started into life with a fervor and energy that ennobled even the wild and savage form in which it appeared; nor was it the less admirable that it burst forth attended by many evils; the good feeling displayed was the people's own, their cruelty, folly, and perverseness were the effects of a long course of misgovernment.

There are many reasons why Napoleon should have meddled with the interior affairs of Spain; there seems to be no good one for his manner of doing it. The Spanish Bourbons could never have been sincere friends to France while Bonaparte held the sceptre, and the moment that the fear of his power ceased to operate, it was quite certain that their apparent friendship would change to active hostility; the proclamation issued by the Spanish cabinet just before the battle of Jena was evidence of this fact. But if the Bourbons were Napoleon's enemies, it did not follow that the people sympathized with their rulers; his great error was that he looked only to the court, and treated the nation with contempt. Had he, before he openly meddled in their affairs, brought the people into hostile contact with their government, and how many points would not such a government have offered!—instead of appearing as the treacherous arbitrator in a domestic quarrel, he would have been hailed as the deliverer of a great people.

The journey of Ferdinand, the liberation of Godoy, the flight of Charles, the appointing Murat to be a member of the governing junta, and the movements of the French troops who were advancing from all parts towards Madrid, aroused the indignation of the nation, and tumults and assassinations had taken place in various parts; at Toledo, a serious riot occurred on the 23d of April, the peasants joined the inhabitants of the town, and it was only by the advance of a division of infantry and some cavalry of Dupont's corps, then quartered at Aranjuez, that order was restored.* The agitation of the public mind, however, increased; the French troops were all young men, or rather boys, taken from the last conscription, and disciplined after they had entered Spain; their youth and apparent feebleness excited the contempt of the Spaniards, who pride themselves much upon individual prowess, and the swelling indignation at last broke out.

* Journal of Dupont's Operations, MSS.

Upon the 2d of May, a carriage being prepared, as the people supposed, to convey Don Antonio, the uncle of Ferdinand, to France, a crowd collected about it; their language indicated a determination not to permit the last of the royal family to be spirited away, the traces of the carriage were cut, and loud imprecations against the French burst forth on every side; at that moment Colonel La Grange, aide-de-camp to Murat, appeared-he was assailed and maltreated, and in an instant the whole city was in commotion. The French soldiers, expecting no violence, were killed in every street; about four hundred fell, and the hospital was attacked, but the attendants and sick men defended themselves; and meanwhile the alarm having spread to the camp outside the city, the French cavalry galloped in to the assistance of their countrymen by the gate of Alcala, while General Lanfranc, with three thousand infantry, descending from the heights on the northwest quarter, entered the Calle Ancha de Bernardo. As he crossed the end of the street Maravelles, Daois and Velarde, two Spanish officers who were in a state of great excitement, discharged a cannon at the passing troops, and were immediately attacked and killed by some voltigeurs; the column, however, continued its march, releasing, as it advanced, several superior officers, who were in a manner besieged by the populace. The cavalry at the other end of the town, treating the affair as a tumult, and not as an action, made some hundred prisoners, and some men were killed or maimed by the horses; but Marshal Moncey, General Harispe, and Gonzalvo O'Farril restored order.* Nevertheless, after nightfall, the peasantry of the neighborhood, who were armed and in considerable numbers, beset the city gates, and the French guards, firing upon them, killed twenty or thirty, and wounded more.

In the first moment of irritation, Murat ordered all the prisoners to be tried by a military commission, which condemned them to death; but the municipality interfering, represented to that prince the extreme cruelty of visiting this angry ebullition of an injured and insulted people with such severity, whereupon, admitting the weight of their arguments, he forbade any executions on the sentence. Yet it is said that General Grouchy, in whose immediate power the prisoners remained, after exclaiming that his own life. had been attempted, that the blood of the French soldiers was not to be spilt with impunity, and that the prisoners, having been condemned by a council of war, ought and should be executed, proceeded to shoot them in the Prado. Forty were thus slain before Murat could cause his orders to be effectually obeyed. The next day some of the Spanish authorities having discovered that

* Memoir of Azanza and O'Farril.