♦His act of renunciation.♦

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 his family and education were likely to produce, imprisonment, and death, by some dark agency, were all he could expect from farther opposition. Thus intimidated, he authorized 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. ♦May 10.♦ The preamble declared, that the Emperor of the French and the Prince of 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 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 prince-dignitaries 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. Four hundred thousand livres of appanage 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 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 Fontainebleau, was to have been made King of Northern Lusitania. Involved in the common ruin of their house, they also had been escorted to Bayonne; and the whole of this unhappy family, now that the mockery of negotiation was at an end, were sent into the interior of France.

CHAPTER V.

INSURRECTION AND MILITARY MURDERS AT MADRID. SUBMISSION OF THE CONSTITUTED AUTHORITIES TO THE PLEASURE OF BUONAPARTE. ASSEMBLY OF NOTABLES CONVOKED BY HIM AT BAYONNE.

♦1808.
April.♦

Thus had Buonaparte succeeded in dispossessing the Bourbon dynasty of the throne of Spain. Having, under pretence of a treaty, secured the passes of the Pyrenees, seized the three strong places upon the frontier, and the important city of Barcelona, marched his armies into the heart of the kingdom, and occupied the capital itself, he had now drawn the royal family within his reach, serpent-like, by the fascination of fear, and compelled them to sign the act of their abdication and disgrace. The train of perfidy whereby he had thus far accomplished his purpose is unexampled even in the worst ages of history. The whole transaction was a business of pure unmingled treachery, unprovoked, unextenuated, equally detestable in its motive, its means, and its end. The pretext that there existed an English party in Spain was notoriously false. Those Spaniards who felt and lamented the decline of their country had rested their hopes of its regeneration upon him. There was not any possible way by which he could so surely have confirmed the alliance between France and Spain, secured the affection of the Spanish people, and strengthened his own immediate individual interest (if the vulgarest ambition had not blinded him), as by connecting his own family with the royal house in marriage, in conformity with Ferdinand’s desire, and directing him and his ministers how to bring about those reforms which would restore to health and strength a country that was still sound at heart. No other mortal has ever in any crisis of the world had it in his power to produce such great and extensive good as this opportunity invited, without risk, effort, evil, 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 the Spanish Indies, while he, like a presiding deity, might have looked on, and have received the blessings of both countries for his benignant influence.

♦Conduct of Murat towards the Junta of government.♦

The artifices which he had employed were of the basest kind. Never perhaps had any plot of perfidious ambition been so coarsely planned. His scheme was to use falsehood and violence without remorse; to repeat protestations enough for deceiving the Prince, and employ force enough for intimidating the people. The former object had been accomplished ... and Murat, perceiving a spirit in the Spaniards which neither he nor his master had expected, was looking for an opportunity[29] to effect the latter. His measures, as soon as he entered Madrid, were intended to make them understand that they were no longer an independent nation, but that they must learn obedience to a military yoke. A French governor of the city had been appointed, a French patrole established, and notice was given that every house would be called upon to contribute great coats for the French troops, their own not having arrived. The Junta of government were made to feel the misery of their degrading and helpless situation; a situation in which they were compelled to witness and sanction the most grievous injuries and the most intolerable insults to their country. While Ferdinand was at Vittoria, Murat sent for the war-minister O’Farrill, to complain to him that some of the French soldiers had been[30]murdered, that the people of Madrid openly manifested their dislike of the French, that the guards displayed a similar disposition, that an hundred thousand muskets had been collected in Aragon, and that Solano had not received the promised instructions to put himself under Junot’s command. O’Farrill vindicated the Junta from these accusations, some of which were groundless, and others arose from causes over which they had no control; but Murat cut him short, told him he had received orders from the Emperor to acknowledge no other sovereign in Spain than Charles IV. and put into his hands a proclamation in the name of that King, declaring that his abdication had been compulsory, and requiring again from his subjects that obedience which they owed to him as their lawful monarch. O’Farrill replied, that none of the constituted authorities would obey the proclamation, and still less would the nation: then, said Murat, the cannon and the bayonet shall make them. But he appeared to hesitate in his resolution of immediately publishing and enforcing it, when the Spanish minister represented to him that the fate of Spain did not necessarily depend upon that of Madrid, nor the Spanish monarchy upon that of Spain; and that it never could be good policy for the Emperor to act in a manner so suitable to the wishes of the English. The result of the conference was, that the Junta agreed to receive King Charles’s reclamation, to forward it to Ferdinand from whom they held their authority, and await his answer. Before that answer could arrive, Charles and the Queen were summoned to Bayonne.

♦The Junta apply to Ferdinand for instructions as to resisting the French.♦