♦Persons implicated in the charge.♦
The persons chiefly implicated in this accusation were the Duke del Infantado and D. Juan Escoiquiz, formerly tutor to the Prince, and author of an heroic poem upon the conquest of Mexico: the latter had acted as Ferdinand’s agent with the French Ambassador; and the former had received from him an appointment with a blank date and a black seal, authorizing him to take the command of the troops in New Castille upon the event of the King’s death. Six days after the first proclamation another was issued, in which two letters from the Prince were contained. The first was in these terms, addressed to the King: ♦Ferdinand confesses himself faulty, and entreats forgiveness.♦ “Sire and father, I am guilty of failing in my duty to your majesty; I have failed in obedience to my father and king. I ought to do nothing without your majesty’s consent, but I have been surprised. I have denounced the guilty, and beg your majesty to suffer your repentant son to kiss your feet.” The other was to the Queen, asking pardon for the great fault which he had committed, as well as for his obstinacy in denying the truth; and he requested her mediation in his favour. In consequence of these letters, the King said, and of the Queen’s entreaty, he forgave him, “for the voice of nature unnerved the hand of vengeance.” The Prince, he added, had declared who were the authors of this horrible plot, and had laid open every thing in legal form, consistent with the proofs which the law demanded in such cases. The Judges therefore were required to continue the process, and submit their sentence to the King, which was to be proportioned to the magnitude of the offence, and the quality of the offenders. Meantime, at the request of his Council, he ordered a public thanksgiving for the interposition of Divine Providence in his behalf.
♦Disgraceful to all parties.♦
This mysterious affair has never been clearly elucidated: it has been believed to be partly the work of Godoy, partly the intrigue of French agents: but there seems to be no ground for the latter supposition; and whatever part Godoy may have taken in it, he was clearly acting on the defensive. It is one of those transactions in which some disgrace attaches to all the parties concerned. The King cannot be acquitted of extreme rashness in so precipitately accusing his son, and bringing so perilous a subject before the public; nor of extreme credulity in advancing the shocking and most improbable charge of having attempted his mother’s life. On the other hand, the fact that Ferdinand so soon afterwards actually did dethrone his father, renders it very difficult to exculpate him from having attempted it at this time: if he did not, it was only because the opportunity did not invite him, not from any sense of duty. In the lame justification which he afterwards published of himself and his partizans, it is said that the letter by which he requested pardon of his father was brought to him by Godoy for signature; and that he signed it because he would not refuse that new proof of filial respect to his august parents. But the letter was more than a mark of filial respect; it professed repentance, it implored forgiveness, and it impeached his friends.
♦Not instigated by Buonaparte.♦
Buonaparte stood in no need of an intrigue of this kind, with its plot and counter-plot; his plan had already been formed and his means prepared: and Godoy was at that time held in such close dependence upon Buonaparte by his hopes and fears, that he would not have ventured upon so bold a measure without his concurrence, likely too as it was to draw down his displeasure. The secret denunciation may probably have come from the Queen, who realized in her feelings toward her son all that has ever been feigned in tragedy of unnatural mothers. There is a point at which any evil passion becomes madness, and it was afterwards evinced that her passion had reached that height. Fearing and hating her son, it may well be supposed that she would narrowly watch his conduct; enough might be discovered to excite a well-founded suspicion of his intentions; and the more atrocious part of the accusation might be prompted by her wickedness or her fears. If Buonaparte had instigated the proceedings against Ferdinand, they would have been carried to greater lengths; he was not a man to have drawn back in deference to popular opinion, even if at that time there had been any channel by which the popular feeling of the Spaniards could have been expressed. ♦His conduct.♦ But on this occasion he acted as a friendly sovereign would have done. Without any appearance of interfering publicly, he instructed the Ambassador, Beauharnois, to mediate in favour of the Prince, and put a stop to proceedings which could only bring disgrace upon the royal family: thus keeping aloof from all parties, he made them all look to him with trembling dependence, while he steadily pursued his plans for the destruction of all. He did not however neglect to take advantage of the circumstance for furthering those nefarious plans; but on the receival of the dispatches, affecting the most violent anger that a suspicion of his ambassador should have been entertained, ordered 40,000 men to Spain, to be prepared, as he afterwards said, for every event, and to support the army of Portugal, and to counteract the policy of England, by which he pretended to believe these intrigues were put in motion.
♦Anxiety of Godoy.♦
Meantime Junot took possession of Lisbon. One part of the secret treaty having been thus fulfilled, Godoy was anxiously expecting to be installed in his new kingdom of the Algarves, where he flattered himself with the thought of being secure from Ferdinand’s resentment, to which in his present situation he would otherwise be exposed upon the King’s death. He relied upon the good offices of Joachim Murat, Grand Duke of Berg, who had married one of Buonaparte’s sisters, the widow of General Le Clerc. With him he communicated through D. Eugenio Izquierdo, his agent at Paris; and if money to any amount should be necessary to expedite his wishes, the treasure which he had amassed during his administration enabled him to disburse it at command. Murat however informed him that the business was now become very delicate, owing to the extraordinary attachment which the Spaniards manifested toward the Prince of Asturias, the consideration due to a princess of the royal family, and the part taken by her relation, the Ambassador Beauharnois. Godoy now fully believed that the projected marriage was agreeable to Buonaparte, and ♦1807. December.♦ yielding to every new circumstance with the facility of weakness, persuaded Charles to write and solicit an alliance which he had so lately dreaded. But Buonaparte assumed an air of displeasure towards Izquierdo, and kept him at a distance, in order to cut off the direct mode of communication; and he set off for Italy, giving to his journey an affected importance, which excited the expectation of all Europe. There carrying into execution those parts of the secret treaty which were to his own advantage, ♦The Q. of Etruria expelled from Tuscany.♦ he expelled from Tuscany the widow Queen of Etruria and her children; and seized the public funds of a court who were ignorant of the very existence of the compact by virtue of which they were called upon to surrender not only what he had given them, but those dominions which they had possessed before he and his family were banished from Corsica. It was in vain for this poor Queen to demand time for dispatching a courier to her father’s court, or to plead that no communication had been made to her upon a subject in which the rights and interests of her son were vitally concerned; she was desired in reply to hasten her departure from a country which was no longer hers, and to find consolation in the bosom of her family. On the journey they informed her that she was to receive a part of Portugal as a compensation. This only increased her affliction, for she neither wished for, she says, nor would accept of dominion over a state belonging to any other sovereign, ♦Memoir of the Q. of Etruria, p. 20.♦ still less over one which belonged to a sister and a near relation of her own. ♦1807 December.♦ To this trial the Queen of Etruria was not exposed: upon reaching her parents and inquiring respecting the treaty, she was told that they also had been deceived, and that no such treaty was in existence!
♦Buonaparte writes to the King of Spain.♦
From Italy Buonaparte answered the King of Spain’s letters; assured him that he had never received any communication from the Prince of Asturias, nor had had the slightest information of the circumstances respecting him which those letters imparted; nevertheless, he said, he consented to the proposed intermarriage. In a letter afterwards written to Ferdinand himself, he acknowledged the receipt of that letter which he now denied. Holding out these hopes to the Prince, and yet, at the same time, by his long silence and his reserve towards Izquierdo, keeping him, his father, and the favourite, equally in suspense and alarm, he was, meantime, marching ♦Troops marched into Spain.♦ his armies into Spain. That they should enter it had been stipulated by the secret treaty of Fontainebleau; and the court was not in a state to insist upon the condition that the two contracting powers were to come to a previous agreement upon that point. It was essential to his views that he should make himself master of the principal fortresses; and his generals were instructed to obtain possession of them in whatever manner they could. The wretched court, fearing they knew not what, were now punished by their own offences; the treaty into which they had entered for the destruction of Portugal was turned against themselves; ♦1808.♦ and they had neither sense nor courage to take those measures for their own security which the people would so eagerly have seconded; on the contrary they gave the most positive orders that the French should be received every where, and treated even more favourably than the Spanish troops. Thus were the gates of Pamplona, St. Sebastian, Figuieras, and Barcelona thrown open to them.