tinued his route to Bayonne, where he committed himself to the honor of Napoleon.

Before the king left Madrid, he intrusted the government to a regency, of which the Infant Don Antonio was the nominal head; but Murat was the real centre of authority, the presence of thirty thousand French troops giving him an influence that could not be resisted. Murat's first step after the king's departure, was an order for the delivery into his hands of the Prince of Peace, whom he dispatched to Bayonne, under a strong guard. He next conferred with the old king and queen; and on their reiterating to him that the late abdication was a forced procedure, he advised the ex-sovereign to repair with his queen to Bayonne, and lay their grievances at the feet of Napoleon: which he accordingly did.

As the French Emperor had now the royal family of Spain in his power, he gave Murat minute instructions for carefully and gradually undermining their influence with the inhabitants, in order to pave the way for a peaceable usurpation of the throne, with its titles and immunities. But it soon appeared that, capable as Murat had hitherto proved himself, this task was beyond his powers of dissimulation and intrigue: he was too much accustomed to the despotic rule of military force, to assume at once, and in circumstances singularly difficult, the foresight and circumspection of an experienced diplomatist. After it was known that both Ferdinand and his father had crossed the frontier, and placed themselves in the Emperor's power, the previous discontents in the capital rapidly increased; numberless rencontres ensued between the inhab itants and the troops, and Murat was irritated to declare that he would prevent all assemblages for any purpose in the streets, and punish with military severity any one who opposed his soldiers in the discharge of their duty. Both parties now became exasperated in the highest degree, and during this state of ebullition, matters were brought to a crisis by a demand from Murat that the remainder of the royal family, consisting of the queen of Etruria and the Infants Don Francisco and Don Antonio, should immediately set out for Bayonne. The regency were intimidated into compliance with this order, but the people interfered to prevent its execution. While the carriages were in waiting at the palace, an aidde-camp of Murat pushed his way through the crowd to hasten their departure, when the rumor was circulated that this officer was about to use personal violence toward the young prince. The aid-de-camp was immediately assailed, and would probably have been killed on the spot, but for the arrival of a company of French soldiers, who rescued and bore him to head-quarters.

Murat, enraged at this insult to his authority, sent a detachment of troops with two pieces of cannon, and by several discharges of grapeshot on the unarmed multitude around the palace, soon restored order. But the sound of these cannon echoed from one end of the Peninsula tc the other, and eventually shook the Empire of Napoleon to its foundation. The whole city instantly flew to arms. All considerations of consequences were forgotten in the intense fury of the moment; knives, daggers, and bayonets, were seized wherever they could be found; the gunsmiths' shops were ransacked for fire arms; and many straggling detachments of French soldiers were surrounded and put to death. Such a tumultuary effort, however, could not long prevail against the discipline and skill of regular troops, who, being ordered to charge through

the streets in great numbers, at length dispersed the populace: the loss on each side was about three hundred men.

Hitherto, neither party in this affair deserved much blame; the tumult, however deplorable in its consequences, was the effect of an unpremeditated collision; and the blood that had been shed was the result of passion and excitement on the part of the belligerents, for which, strictly speaking, Napoleon, by his infamous invasion of a friendly country, was personally and solely responsible. But after the fighting had ceased and the danger was over, Murat, instead of humanely making allowances for the circumstances of exasperation in which the Spaniards were placed, and endeavoring to improve the occurrence to his own advantage by conciliatory measures, immediately seized a large number of Spanish citizens, as they were, in various quarters of the town, walking the streets or pursuing their avocations, hurried them before a military tribunal, and condemned them to be shot. Preparations were made to carry this sentence into execution; the mournful intelligence flew through Madrid; and all who missed relations or friends, became overwhelmed with the agonizing fear that they were among these victims of French barbarity. While the people remained in this state of excitement, and the approach of night augmented the general consternation, the firing began; the regular discharges of heavy platoons at the Retiro, in the Prado, the Puerto del Sol, and the church of Señora de la Soledad, then told too plainly that the work of death was in progress. The dismal sounds froze every heart with terror; all that had been suffered during the heat of the preceding conflict in the streets, seemed as nothing compared to the horrors of that cold-blooded execution. Nor did the general grief abate, when the particulars of the massacre became known. Numbers were put to death, who had no concern whatever in the tumult; those who suffered were denied the last consolations of religion, and were slain in pairs, being tied together two and two, and dispatched by repeated discharges of musketry.

This atrocious massacre of the citizens of an independent sovereignty for no greater crime, at most, than the defence of their lawful rights against the oppression of a foreign tyrant, was equally impolitic and outrageous; and the indignation which it excited throughout Spain is indescribable. With a rapidity that could not have been anticipated in a country where but little internal communication existed, the intelligence spread from city to city, from province to province, and awakened that feeling of national resentment which, when properly directed, is the certain forerunner of great achievements. Actuated by a spirit unknown in Europe since the first revolutionary movements in France, the people in every province, without any previous concert, or any direction from the existing authorities, began to assemble and devise plans for the defence of the kingdom. Far from being intimidated by the enemy's possession of their capital and principal fortresses, they were the more roused to exertion by these untoward disadvantages. Nor was the movement one of faction or party; it animated men of all ranks, classes and professions; it was universal, unpremeditated, simultaneous; and in an inconceivably short time, Napoleon found himself involved in a bloody strife with the whole Spanish nation.

The Princes Don Francisco and Don Antonio, intimidated by the violence of Murat, and unable to resist his authority, set out for Bayonne on

the day after the tumult at Madrid, leaving the capital, without any organized native government, entirely in the hands of the French gen. erals. But, in the meantime, matters had reached a crisis between Napoleon and the royal family. When Ferdinand met the French Emperor at Bayonne, he was received with marked kindness and courtesy, and invited to dine at the Imperial head-quarters. After the repast, Ferdinand returned to his hotel, leaving Escoiquiz to confer with Napoleon: but he had hardly reached his lodgings, when Savary followed him to announce the Emperor's determination, that he must instantly resign his throne of both Spain and the Indies in favor of a prince of the Bonaparte dynasty: and hopes were held out that, should he do this amicably, he might obtain the Grand-duchy of Tuscany as an equivalent. Ferdinand, though

astounded at this tyrannical perfidy, made no decisive reply at the moment. He, however, conferred with his counsellors, and eventually refused to accede to the proposal, accompanying his refusal with a demand for his passports.

Napoleon was greatly perplexed at the firmness of Ferdinand. It did not, indeed, cause him to hesitate a moment in his design of dethroning the Bourbons, but he preferred to do this under the cover of legal forms, rather than by open violence. He therefore declined for the present to grant passports to Ferdinand, and referred to Charles IV., hoping to find in the father a more pliant instrument than the son. In this expectation he was not disappointed. After the Prince of Peace, the queen and the old king had been sufficiently wrought upon by flattery and threats, Ferdinand was summoned to an interview with them, when Charles commanded him to execute a simple and unqualified resignation of the crown, signed by himself and his brothers. He was given to understand that, in case of refusal, he and his counsellors would be prosecuted as traitors. Nevertheless, Ferdinand steadily adhered to his determination, and definitely refused to resign his claims to the crown, except in a manner so qualified as to defeat the purposes of the Emperor. But the latter easily prevailed on Charles to execute a formal abdication in his favor, on condition of maintaining the Catholic religion, of preserving entire the Spanish dominions, and of granting pensions for life to the several members of the royal family.

On the day that this convention was signed, a secret deputation reached Ferdinand from the remaining members of the regency at Madrid, inqui ring whether they might remove their place of assembly, as they were, in the capital, subject to the control of the French army; whether they should declare war against France, and endeavor to resist the further entrance of the French troops into the Peninsula; and whether, in the event of his (Ferdinand's) being unable to return, they should assemble the Cortes. Ferdinand answered, that as he was deprived of his liberty, he could take no steps to save either himself or the monarchy; that he therefore authorized the junta of the government to add new members to their department, to remove whomsoever they pleased, and to exercise all the functions of sovereignty; that they were to oppose the entrance of fresh troops, and commence hostilities as soon as he should be removed to France; and, finally, that the Cortes must be convoked to take measures for the defence of the kingdom, and for such ulterior objects as might require their attention. The decrees necessary to carry these instructions into effect, were taken to Madrid by an officer destined to future celebrity, Don Joseph Palafox.

Napoleon was soon after relieved from the embarrassment which Ferdinand's resolute opposition occasioned, by intelligence of the tumult at Madrid. He at once changed his ground, denounced the king for the conduct of his people, and ended by a significant intimation that his obstinacy would endanger his own life and that of his brothers. As nothing, now, could be gained by resistance, Ferdinand resolved to submit. On the 10th of May, he signed a treaty assenting to his father's resignation of the Spanish crown in favor of Napoleon, and receiving in return the title of Most Serene Highness, with the investiture of the palace, park and farms of Navarre, and an annuity of six hundred thousand francs from the French treasury. The same rank, with an annuity of four hundred thousand francs, was conferred on the Infants Don Carlos and Antonio. When this treaty was completed, the Emperor removed Ferdinand and his brothers to Bordeaux, where the two princes signed a renunciation of their rights to the throne, and Ferdinand was compelled to affix his name to a proclamation, counselling submission to the Spanish people. The three royal captives were afterward removed to Valençay, and they remained there during the war.

Having succeeded in dispossessing the Bourbon family, and obtaining a semblance of legal title to the Spanish throne, Napoleon resolved to create his brother Joseph king of Spain, and confer the crown of Naples, which Joseph then held, upon Murat. On the 6th of June, Joseph was accordingly proclaimed King of Spain and the Indies at Bayonne, and a proclamation, issued by Napoleon, convoked an assembly of one hundred and fifty notables, to meet at that city on the 15th of the same month, for regulating the affairs of the kingdom. Of the notables thus summoned, ninety-two, comprising some of the principal nobles and prominent men in Spain, met at Bayonne in conformity to the proclamation, and formally accepted the Constitution prepared for them by Napoleon.

This instrument provided, that the crown should be vested in Joseph Bonaparte and his heirs-male; whom failing, the Emperor and his heirsmale; and in default of both, to the other brothers of the Imperial family in their order of seniority, but on condition that the crown should not be united with any other crown in the person of one sovereign. A Legisla ture was created, to consist of eighty members, nominated by the king. A Cortes was also decreed, to consist of a hundred and seventy-two members, thus composed: twenty-five archbishops and bishops and twenty-five grandees, on the first bench; sixty-two deputies of the provinces of Spain and the Indies and thirty from the principal towns, on the second; and fifteen from the merchants and manufacturers and fifteen from the departments of arts and sciences, on the third. The first fifty of these, comprising the peers, were appointed by the king but could not be displaced by him; the second class of ninety-two was elected by the provinces and munici palities; and the third was appointed by the king from lists presented to him by the tribunals of commerce and the universities. The delibera. tions of the Cortes were to be private, and the publication of any of its proceedings was denounced under the penalties of high treason. Its duties were to arrange the national finances and expenditures for three years at one sitting. The colonies were to have a deputation of twentytwo persons constantly at the seat of government to superintend their interests; all exclusive exemptions from taxes were abolished; entails permitted only to the amount of twenty thousand piastres, and with the

consent of the king; an alliance offensive and defensive was concluded with France, and a promise given for the establishment of the liberty of the press within two years after the acceptance of the new Constitution. On the 9th of July, King Joseph set out for the capital of his dominions, with a splendid cortège and amid the roar of artillery. Napoleon returned to St. Cloud, having refused to visit Ferdinand on his route, although personally requested to do so by the dethroned sovereign. Charles IV., after testifying his entire satisfaction at the Emperor's proceedings, solicited permission to remove to Marseilles, where, in ease and obscurity, he lingered out the remainder of his inglorious life.

The ministry appointed by Joseph before his departure from Bayonne, were taken chiefly from the counsellors of Ferdinand; and this selection, together with their ready acceptance of their new dignities, throws a deep shade of doubt over the fidelity with which they had served the Prince of Asturias during his brief possession of the Spanish throne. Don Luis de Urquijo, was made Secretary of State; Don Pedro Cevallos, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Don Sebastian de Pinnela, Minister of Justice; Don Gonzalo O'Farrel, Minister at War; and Mazaredo, Minister of the Marine. Even Escoiquiz wrote to Joseph, protesting his devotion, and declaring that he and the rest of Ferdinand's household "were willing blindly to obey his will to the most minute particular." The Duke del Infantado and the Prince of Castel-Franco were appointed, severally, to the command of the Spanish and Walloon guards. Thus, the new king entered Madrid, where he arrived on the 20th of July, surrounded by the highest grandees and most illustrious titles of Spain. Nevertheless, his reception at the capital was gloomy in the extreme. The orders issued for the decoration of the houses, were disregarded; a crowd assembled to see the cortège, but no shouts welcomed its approach; the bells of the churches rang a dismal peal, and every countenance was full of sorrow.

CHAPTER XXIX.

CAMPAIGN OF 1808 IN SPAIN AND POrtugal.

THE Spanish Peninsula, in which a bloody war was now commencing, and where the armies of France and England found, at last, a permanent theatre of conflict, differs in many important particulars from every other country on the Continent. Physically considered, it belongs as much to Africa as to Europe: the same burning sun parches the mountains and dries up the valleys of both. Vegetation, in general, spreads only where irrigation can be obtained; and with that powerful auxiliary, the steepest acclivities of Catalonia and Arragon are clothed in luxuriant green; while, without it, vast districts in Leon and the Castiles are almost destitute of cultivation and inhabitants. The desert tracts of Spain are so extensive that the country, viewed from the high ridges which intersect the interior provinces, exhibits only a confused group of barren elevated plains and lofty naked peaks, relieved by a few glittering streams, having on their margins crops, flocks, and the traces