1808] terms of the convention warranted, a variety of reports relative to the ultimate intentions of the French emperor had been propagated; at one time Gibraltar was to be besieged, and officers were despatched to examine the Mediterranean coasts of Spain and Barbary; at another, Portugal was to become the theatre of great events; and a mysterious importance was attached to all the movements of the French armies, with a view to deceive a court that fear and sloth disposed to the belief of anything but the truth, and to impose upon a people whose unsuspicious ignorance was at first mistaken for tameness.

In the mean time, active agents were employed to form a French party at the capital; and, as the insurrections of Aranjuez and Madrid discovered the fierceness of the Spanish character, Napoleon enjoined more caution and prudence upon his lieutenant than the latter was disposed to practise. In fact, Murat's precipitation was the cause of hastening the discovery of his master's real views before they were ripe for execution. For Dupont's first division and cavalry had crossed the Duero as early as the 14th of March, and upon the 10th of April had occupied Aranjuez, while his second and third divisions took post at the Escurial and at Segovia, thus encircling the capital, which was soon occupied by Moncey's corps. It was then evident that Murat designed to control the provisional government left by Ferdinand; and the riot at Toledo, although promptly quelled by the interference of the French troops, indicated the state of the public mind, before the explosion at Madrid had placed the parties in a state of direct hostility. Murat seems to have been intrusted with only a half confidence, and as his natural impetuosity urged him to play a rash rather than a timid part, he appeared with the air of a conqueror before a ground of quarrel was laid. His policy was too coarse and open for such difficult affairs, yet he was not entirely without grounds for his proceeding; a letter addressed to him about this time by Napoleon contained these expressions : “The duke of Infantado has a party in Madrid; it will attack you; dissipate it, and seize the government.

دو

At Bayonne the political events kept pace with those of Madrid. Charles IV., having reclaimed his rights in presence of Napoleon, commanded the infant, Don Antonio, to relinquish the presidency of the governing junta to Murat, who, at the same time, received the title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom. This appointment, and the restoration of Charles to the regal dignity, were proclaimed in Madrid, with the acquiescence of the council of Castille, on the 10th of May; but five days previous to that period, the old monarch had again ceded his authority to Napoleon, and Ferdinand and himself were consigned, with large pensions, to the tranquillity of private life. The throne of Spain being thus rendered vacant, the right to fill it was assumed by the French emperor in virtue of the cession made by Charles IV., and he

desired that a king might be chosen from his own family. After some hesitation, the council of Castille, in concert with the municipality of Madrid and the governing junta, declared that their choice had fallen upon Joseph Bonaparte, who was then king of Naples; and cardinal Bourbon, primate of Spain, first cousin of Charles IV., and archbishop of Toledo, not only acceded to this arrangement, but actually wrote to Napoleon a letter testifying his adhesion to the new order of things. As it was easy to foretell the result of the election, the king of Naples was already journeying towards Bayonne, where he arrived on the 7th of June. The principal men of Spain had been previously invited to meet in that town upon the 15th, with a view to obtain their assent to a constitution prepared by Napoleon; and at this meeting, called "the Assembly of Notables," ninety-one Spaniards of eminence appeared. They accepted Joseph as their king, proceeded to discuss the constitution in detail, and after several sittings adopted it, and swore to maintain its provisions. Thus finished the first part of this eventful drama.

The new constitution was calculated to draw forth all the resources of Spain; compared to the old system it was a blessing, and it would have been received as such under different circumstances, but now arms were to decide its fate, for in every province the cry of war had been raised. In Catalonia, in Valencia, in Andalusia, Estramadura, Gallicia, and the Asturias, the people were gathering, and fiercely declaring their determination to resist French intrusion. Nevertheless Joseph, apparently contented with the acquiescence of the ninety-one notables, and trusting to the powerful support of his brother, crossed the frontier on the 9th of July; and on the 12th arrived at Vittoria. The inhabitants still remembering the journey to Bayonne, seemed disposed to hinder his entrance; but their opposition did not break out into actual violence, and the next morning he continued his progress by Miranda del Ebro, Briviesca, Burgos, and Buitrago. The 20th of July he entered Madrid, and on the 24th he was proclaimed king of Spain and the Indies, with all the solemnities usual upon such occasions, thus making himself the enemy of eleven millions of people, the object of a nation's hatred ! With a strange accent, and from the midst of foreign bands, he called upon a fierce and haughty race to accept of a constitution which they did not understand, and which few of them had ever heard of, his only hope of success resting on the strength of his brother's arms, his claims upon the consent of an imbecile monarch, and the weakness of a few pusillanimous nobles, in contempt of the rights of millions now arming to oppose him. This was the unhallowed part of the enterprise; this it was that rendered his offered constitution odious, covered it with a leprous skin, and drove the noble-minded far from the pollution of its touch!

CHAPTER III.

Council of Castille refuses to take the oath of allegiance- Supreme junta established at Seville-Marquis of Solano murdered at Cadiz, and the conde d'Aguilar at SevilleIntercourse between Castaños and sir Hew Dalrymple-General Spencer and admiral Purvis offer to co-operate with the Spaniards-Admiral Rossily's squadron surrenders to Morla-General insurrection-Massacre at Valencia-Horrible murder of Filanghieri.

JOSEPH being proclaimed king, required the council of Castille to take the oath of allegiance prescribed by the constitution; but, with unexpected boldness, that body, hitherto obsequious, met his orders with a remonstrance, for war, virtually declared on the 2d of May, was at this time raging in all parts of the Peninsula, and the council was secretly apprized that a great misfortune had befallen the French arms. It was

no longer a question between Joseph and some reluctant public bodies; it was an awful struggle between great nations; and how the spirit of insurrection, breaking forth simultaneously in every province, was nourished in each, until it acquired the consistence of regular warfare, I will now relate.

Just before the tumult of Aranjuez, the marquis of Solano y Socoro, commanding the Spanish auxiliary force in the Alemtejo, had received an order from Godoy to withdraw his division, and post in on the frontier of Andalusia, to cover the projected journey of Charles IV. Napoleon was aware of this order, but would not interrupt its execution, wherefore Solano quitted Portugal without difficulty, and in the latter end of May, observing the general agitation, repaired to his government of Cadiz, in the harbour of which place five French sail of the line and a frigate, under admiral Rossily, had just before taken refuge from the English fleet. Seville was in a great ferment, and Solano, in passing through, was required to put himself at the head of an insurrection in favour of Ferdinand VII.; he refused, and passed on to his own government; but there also the people were ripe for a declaration against the French. A local government was established at Seville, which assuming

1 Memoir of O'Farril and Azanza.

the title of "Supreme Junta of Spain and the Indies," declared war in form against the intrusive monarch, commanded all men between the ages of sixteen and forty-five to take arms, called upon the troops of the camp of San Roque to acknowledge their authority, and ordered Solano to attack the French squadron. That unfortunate man would not acknowledge the authority of this self-constituted government, and as he hesitated to commit his country in war against a power whose strength he knew better than he did the temper of his own countrymen, he was murdered. His ability, his courage, his amiable and unblemished character, have never been denied, and yet there is too much reason to believe that the junta of Seville sent an agent to Cadiz for the express purpose of procuring his assassination. This foul stain upon the cause was enlarged by the perpetration of similar, or worse deeds, in every part of the kingdom. At Seville the conde d'Aguilar was dragged from his carriage, and without even the imputation of guilt, inhumanly butchered; and here again it is said that the mob were instigated by a leading member of the junta, count Gusman de Tilly, a man described as "capable of dishonouring a whole nation by his crimes," while his victim was universally admitted to be virtuous and accomplished.

As early as April, general Castaños, then commanding the camp of San Roque, had entered into communication with sir Hew Dalrymple, the governor of Gibraltar. He was resolved to seize any opportunity that offered to resist the French, and he appears to have been the first Spaniard who united patriotism with prudent calculation; readily acknowledging the authority of the junta of Seville, and stifling the workings of self-interest, with a virtue by no means common to his countrymen at that period. When the insurrection first broke out, admiral Purvis commanded the British squadron off Cadiz, and in concert with general Spencer, who happened to be in that part of the world with five thousand men, offered to co-operate with Solano, in an attack upon the French ships of war in the harbour. Upon the death of that unfortunate man, this offer was renewed and pressed upon Don Thomas Morla, his successor; but he, for reasons hereafter to be mentioned, refused all assistance, and reduced the hostile ships himself. Castaños, however, united himself closely with the British commanders, and obtained from them supplies of arms, ammunition, and money; and at the instance of sir Hew Dalrymple, the merchants of Gibraltar advanced a loan of forty-two thousand dollars for the service of the Spanish patriots.

I

Meanwhile the assassinations at Cadiz and Seville were imitated in every part of Spain; hardly can a town be named in which some innocent and worthy persons were not slain. Grenada had its murders; Carthagena rivalled Cadiz in ruthless cruelty, and Valencia reeked with blood.

Sir Hew Dalrymple's correspondence. 2 Moniteur Azanza and O'Farril, Nellertę.

Don Miguel de Saavedra, the governor of that city, was killed, not in the first fury of commotion, which he escaped, but, having returned, was deliberately sacrificed. Balthazar Calvo, a canon of the church of San Isidro, at Madrid, came down to Valencia, and having collected a band of fanatics, commenced a massacre of the French residents; and this ruthless villain continued his slaughters unchecked, until French victims failing, his raging thirst for murder urged him to menace the junta, who with the exception of the English consul Mr. Tupper, had given way to his previous violence, but now readily found the means to crush his power. The canon, while in the act of braving their authority, was seized by stratagem, and soon afterwards strangled, together with two hundred of his band. The conde de Serbelloni, captain-general of the province, then proceeded to organize an army; the old count Florida Blancha placed himself at the head of the Murcian insurrection, and his force acted in unison with that of Valencia.

In Catalonia the occupation of Barcelona repressed the popular effervescence, but the feeling was the same, and an insurrection, breaking out at the town of Manresa, soon spread to all the unfettered parts of the province.

In Aragon the arrival of Don Joseph Palafox kindled the fire of patriotism. He had escaped from Bayonne, and his family were greatly esteemed in a country where it was of the noblest among a people absurdly vain of their ancient descent. The captain-general, fearful of a tumult, ordered Palafox to quit the province; but this circumstance, joined to some appearance of mystery in his escape from Bayonne, increased the passions of the multitude; a crowd surrounded his abode, and forced him to assume the command, the captain-general was confined, some persons were murdered, and a junta was formed. Palafox was considered by his companions as a man of slender capacity and great vanity, and there is nothing in his exploits to create a doubt of the justness of this opinion; it was not Palafox that upheld the glory of Aragon, it was the spirit of the people, which he had not excited, and could so little direct, that for a long time after the commencement of the first siege, he was kept a sort of prisoner in Zaragoza, his courage and fidelity being distrusted by the population which he is supposed to have ruled.

The example of Aragon aroused the Navarrese, and Logroño became the focus of an insurrection which extended along most of the valleys of that kingdom. In the northern and western provinces, the spirit of independence was equally fierce and as decidedly pronounced, accompanied also by the same excesses. In Badajoz the conde de la Torre del Frenio was butchered by the populace, and his mangled carcass dragged through the streets in triumph. At Talavera de la Reyna, the corregidor with difficulty escaped a similar fate by a hasty flight; Leon presented a wide, unbroken scene of anarchy, and, generally speaking, in all the