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dies, having only had in view, he said, during his whole life, the happiness of his subjects, and constantly adhering to the principle, that all the acts of the sovereign ought solely to attend to that object. This cession was represented as the only means which could re-establish order; and it was covenanted, 1. That it took place only on condition that the integrity of the Spanish kingdom should be maintained; that the prince whom it might please the emperor to place on the throne should be independent; and that the limits of Spain were to undergo no alteration. 2. The Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion, should be the only one in Spain; no reformed religion should be tolerated, still less should infidelity: these things were to be prevented or punished according to the established usage. 3. All property confiscated since the revolution at Aranjuez should be restored; and all decrees which had been passed against the friends of Charles were declared null and void. 4. Charles having thus secured the prosperity, the integrity, and the independence of his kingdom, (such was the monstrous language of this convention,) the emperor engaged to grant an asylum in his states to him, the queen, the Prince de la Paz, and such of their servants as should chuse to follow them, and who should enjoy in France a rank equivalent to that which they possessed in Spain. 5, 6, 7, 8. The palace of Compeigne, with its parks and forests, should be at the disposal of King Charles during his life, and a civil list of 80,000,000 reals, should be paid him in monthly payments: after his

death the queen should have a revenue of 2,000,000, for her dowry. An annual rent of 400,000 livres should be granted to each of the infantes, in perpetuity, reverting from one branch to another, in case of the extinction of one, according to the civil law, and to the crown of France, in case of the extinction of all the branches. It was to be understood that this civil list and these rents were to be looked for exclusively from the treasury of France. The infantes were, however, by a subsequent article, to continue to enjoy the revenues of their commanderies in Spain. 9, 10. The castle of Chambord, with its parks, forests, and farms, were given by the emperor to King Charles, in full property, being in exchange for all the allodial and particular property appertaining · to the crown of Spain, but possessed personally.*This convention was signed by General Duroc, grand marshal of the palace, on the part of Buonaparte, and on the part of Charles by Godoy, under his titles, Spanish and Portugueze, of Prince de la Paz, and Count of Evora-monte. Thus did this man, the last and worst of that succession of favourites who have been the curse of Spain, consummate his own crimes, and, as far as in him lay, the total degradation of his country; rejoicing probably in the revenge which he was taking upon a nation, by whom he was so righteously abhorred. Having done his work, he passed on into France, there to pass the remainder of his days, neglected and despised, and to leave behind him a name more infamous than any in Spanish history. One proclamation more was issued

* Appendix, No. XXI.

in the name of Charles, calling upon all his former subjects to concur in carrying into effect the dispositions of his "dear friend the Emperor Napolcon," and exhorting them to avoid popular commotions, the effect of which could only be havoc, the destruction of families, and the ruin of all.*

Ferdinand had hitherto renounced his right in reference to his father only. A farther renunciation was demanded from him: it was not tamely yielded; and in his last conference with him upon the subject, Buonaparte bade him chuse between cession and death. Prince, il faut opter entre la cession et la mort. This is the statement of Cevallos, and it is so probable, and so consistent with the Corsican's character, that it can not reasonably be doubted. That tyrant long represented the resignation as voluntary on Ferdinand's part; he has, however, at length admitted that force was used, endeavouring, at the same time, to shew that the prince was left at freedom. A proposal, it is said, in this curious statement of the nefarious transaction, was made to him to return to Spain, and he was offered a convoy of French soldiers to escort him to any part of the peninsula which he might chuse. But it was announced to him, that France would immediately make war upon him, and never suffer him to reign; for it was the duty of the emperor to make war for the maintenance of the rights of his crown, and those which had been ceded to him by Charles, and to destroy the projects of the partizans of England. Ferdinand, it is said, would have returned, but not without a promise that the French armies should be withdrawn, or pla

*

ced under his orders, and this being refused, he preferred securing to himself a peaceful life. This statement has evidently been published to lessen the abhorrence which the plain and faithful narrative of Cevallos has excited wherever it has reached; but force is admitted, even in this statement itself; and if it were true, the atrocity of Buonaparte's conduct would not in the slightest degree be extenuated. The whole system of treachery, from the secret treaty of Fontainbleau, under cover of which troops were introduced into the heart of Spain, to the artifices and repeated falsehoods by which Ferdinand was decoyed into his power, remains the same.

That Ferdinand should at length have yielded, is not to be severely condemned; it is rather to be admired that he should have resisted so long. Even had he been of a more heroic frame, than, from his family and education, there is any reason to suppose, imprisonment, and death, by some dark agency, were all he could expect from farther opposition.— Thus intimidated, he authorised his former tutor, Escoiquiz, to treat with Duroc for the surrender of his own rights, and those of his brothers and his uncle Don Antonio, who had now been sent from Madrid, rather as prisoners, than in any other character. The preamble declared, that the Emperor of the French and the Prince of the Asturias having differences to regulate, had agreed to these terms:-1. That Ferdinand acceded to the cession made by his father, and renounced, as far as might be necessary, the rights accruing to him as Prince of Asturias. 2. The Appendix, No. XXII.

May 10.

title of royal highness, with all the honours and prerogatives which the Princes of the Blood enjoyed, should be granted to him in France: his descendants should inherit the titles of Prince and Serene Highness, and hold the same rank as the princedignitaries of the empire. 3, 4. The palaces, parks, and farms of Navarre, with 50,000 acres of the woods dependent on them, should be given to him, free from incumbrance, in full property for ever; and pass, in default of his heirs, to those of his brother and uncle, in succession: and the title of prince should be conferred, by letters patent and particular, upon the collateral heir to whom this property might revert.5, 6. 400,000 livres of appanage rent on the treasury of France, payable in equal monthly portions, should be settled on him, with reversion, in like manner, to the Infantes, and their posterity; and a life-rent of 600,000 should be given the prince, the

half remaining to the princess, his consort, if he left one to survive him. 7. The same rank and titles should be assigned to the Infantes and their descendants as to the prince; they should continue to enjoy the revenues of their commanderies in Spain, (as had been agreed in the convention with Charles,) and an appanage rent of 400,000 livres, (as also there stipulated,) should be settled on them in perpetuity, with reversion to the issue of Ferdinand.* No mention was made in the treaty of the Queen of Etruria and her son, a boy of eight years old, who, by the doubly-villanous treaty of Fontainbleau, was to have been made king of Northern Lusitania. Involved in what may truly be called the common destruction of their house, they were seized with the Infantes at Madrid, and escorted to Bayonne; and the whole of this unhappy family, now that the mockery of negociation was at an end, were sent into the interior of France.

* Appendix, No. XXIII.

CHAP. XIV.

Insurrection at Madrid, and Military Murders afterward.-Base Conduct of the Junta of Government, of the Council of Castile, and of the Inquisition. Address, in the name of Ferdinand, and the Infantes commanding the Spaniards, to submit to Buonaparte's pleasure.—Assembly of Notables convoked at Bayonne, and Joseph Buonaparte nominated by his Brother King of Spain and the Indies.-General Insurrection of the Spaniards. •Formation of the Provincial Juntas; the Junta of Seville takes the lead. Their Proclamations, and the Measures which they recommend.

THUS had Buonaparte succeeded in dispossessing the house of Bourbon of the throne of Spain. The whole of that family (with the exception of the Infante Don Pedro,* nephew to Charles IV., who had fortunately been adopted by the Portugueze court, and accompanied them to Brazil,) were in his power as prisoners; and, in the character of an ally, he had secured for himself the passes of the Pyrenees, seized the important city of Barcelona, and the strongest places upon the frontier, marched his armies into the very heart of the kingdom, and obtained possession of the capital. The train of perfidy by which he had thus far accomplished his purpose, is unexampled even in the worst ages of history. The whole transaction was, on his part, a

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business of pure, unmingled wickedness, unprovoked, unextenuated, equally detestable in its motive, its means, and its end.

The Corsican had now displayed himself in his true character. For the mere, selfish, vulgar ambition, of aggrandizing his own family, by transferring his brother Joseph from the throne of Naples to that of Madrid, he had committed an act of usurpation, as impolitic, as it was iniquitous. Spain had been the faithful ally of France,-let Trafalgar witness how fatally for herself! Her fleets were at the disposal of Buonaparte; her armies were 'occupied in his service in Portugal, and upon the Baltic; her treasures were at his demand, as completely as if Charles had been a tributary king. France

*Son to the late Infante Don Gabriel, whose translation of Sallust is well known, as one of the most magnificent specimens of modern typography. Don Pedro was born in 1786.

then could gain nothing by this change of dynasty; and the loss of all the advantages which she derived from Spanish America, was hazarded by it, even if Spain herself should passively submit to the insolent intrusion of a stranger, a low-born, low-minded adventurer, base and bloody, who had renewed at Naples an exhibition of those tortures which make the judge as much to be abhorred as the criminal, however great the crime; a wretch, elevated for the mere accident of consanguinity, in an age when all the adventurers by whom he was surrounded, had raised themselves by some species of talent, either in the cabinet or the field: his only merit was, that he was the brother of Napoleon Buonaparte, and sufficiently unprincipled, mean, and cruel, to

be his tool and executioner.

As for the pretext, that there existed an English party in Spain, it was notoriously false. If nations who were groaning under the manifold miseries which a bad government occasions, could have looked to England for assistance in their hopes of reform, the continent of Europe would not at this day have been under the iron yoke of France, and half the unhappy men who are forced into the tyrant's armies, slaves themselves, to become the instruments of enslaving others, would have been fighting in their own righteous cause against him. Those Spaniards who felt and lamented the degradation of Spain, founded their hopes of effecting its regeneration upon Buonaparte. There was not any possible way by which he could so effectually have attached the Spaniards to their alliance with France, secured their affections, and strengthened his own immediate and individual interests, (if the vulgarest ambition

had not blinded him,) as by connecting his own family with the royal house of Spain, by the projected marriage with Ferdinand, and suffering him and his ministers to make those reforms which would soon have restored to health and strength, a country that was still sound at heart. Buonaparte has never had it in his power to produce such great and extensive good as this opportunity invited, without risk, effort, or any contingent inconvenience. He had only to say, let these things be, and the work of progressive reformation would have begun in Spain and in Spanish America, while he, like a presiding God, might have looked on, and have received the blessings of both countries for his benignant influence.— But no thought of good seems ever to have entered into this tyrant's heart. Like an incarnation of the evil principle, whatever he does originates and ends in evil.

The artifices by which he had thus far accomplished his purpose were of the basest kind. Never, perhaps, was any plot of perfidious ambition so coarsely planned. The term of policy cannot be applied to it; even cunning implies more exertion of talent than was displayed in this whole infamous transaction. Nothing more was required than to employ falsehood and violence equally without remorse; to repeat professions and protestations enough to deceive the prince; and to shed blood enough to intimidate the people. The former object had been effected; and Murat, perceiving a spirit of patriotism in the Spaniards, which neither he nor his master had expected, was eager to give the word for slaughter. He seems, as soon as he entered Madrid, resolved

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