"There you have in very few words, the complete historical sketch of the affair of Spain; whatever may be said, or written on it must amount to that; and you see that there could be no occasion for me to have recourse to paltry tricks, to falsehoods, to breaches of faith, or violation of engagements. In order to establish my guilt, it would be necessary to shew my inclination to degrade myself gratuitously; but of that propensity I have never furnished an instance.
"For the rest, the instant my decision was known, the crowd of intriguers who swarm in every court, and even those among them who had been the most active in producing the misfortunes of their country, strove to curry favour with Joseph, as they had done with Charles IV. and Ferdinand VII. They watched, with extraordinary diligence, the progress of events, and changed sides at a later period, in proportion as difficulties encreased, and our disasters approached. They pursued the plan so successfully, that they are the persons, who, at this moment, govern Ferdinand. And, what is truly horrible, the better to secure their influence, they did not hesitate to impute whatever was odious and criminal in past calamities, to the mass of simpletons, whom they proscribed and banished;—of those men naturally well-disposed, and who, in principle, decidedly blamed Ferdinand’s journey. Of this latter class, several who opposed the journey afterwards took the oath of allegiance to Joseph, who seemed then to be identified with the happiness and tranquillity of their country, and continued faithful to him, until the grand catastrophe that drove him from the throne.
“It would be difficult to accumulate a greater mass of impudence and baseness than that exhibited by all those intriguers, the principal performers in that grand scene, which, by the way, extenuates the degradation to which similar acts of vileness have reduced France[France] in the eyes of Europe. It is evident, that they do not belong to her exclusively. Intriguing, ambitious, rapacious men, are every where to be found, and are every where the same. Individuals alone are guilty; nations cannot incur the responsibility. Their only disadvantage arises from their being forced to witness these misdeeds. Unhappy the country which becomes the scene of them!”
At present, the affair of Spain is perfectly known, thanks to the writings of the principal actors, the canon Escoiquiz, the minister Cevallos, and others, but above all, to those of the worthy and respectable M. Llorente, who, under the anagrammatic signature of Nellerto, has published the Memoirs of that time, sanctioned by all the official documents. The opposite contradictions of the two first, their mutual disputes, the assertions and denials of their contemporaries, have reduced their writings to their real value, by stripping them of whatever was erroneous, false, or even fabricated. The result is, that in the opinion of every cool and impartial judge, they all concur, even involuntarily, in confirming the justificatory assertions advanced by Napoleon; not but that they display that difference which must inevitably arise from the diversity of party-interests; but solely because neither of them actually establishes the grounds of positive crimination, nor furnishes any official document by which it can be proved, while all those which exist attest and establish the contrary.
It may also be remarked in the history of those transactions, which must now be considered as genuine, that England herself was altogether a stranger to them, at least with respect to their origin, a fact which was far from Napoleon’s way of thinking, who charged the English at the time with being the first cause of all the intrigues, and who still persevered in the accusation at St. Helena: so accustomed was he to discover them at the bottom of every plot formed against him.
With respect to this affair of Spain, I have further to notice a letter from the Emperor, which throws more light upon the subject than volumes. It is admirable, and the events which followed stamp it as a masterpiece. It exhibits the rapidity, the eagle-eyed view, with which Napoleon formed his opinion of men and things.
Unfortunately, it also shews how much the execution of the inferiors, employed during the greater part of the time, destroyed the finest and most exalted conceptions; and in that point of view this letter remains a very precious document for history. Its date renders it prophetic.
“29th March, 1808.
“Monsieur le Grand Duc de Berg—I am afraid lest you should deceive me with respect to the situation of Spain, and lest you should also deceive yourself. Events have been singularly complicated by the transaction of the 20th of March. I find myself very much perplexed.
“Do not believe that you are about to attack a disarmed nation, and that you can, by a mere parade of your troops, effect the subjugation of Spain. The revolution of the 20th of March proves, that the Spaniards possess energy. You have to contend with a new people; it has all the courage, and will display all the enthusiasm shewn by men, who are not worn out by political passions.