March. CHAP. new government suspended the sale of certain church property, IV. upon which the fallen minister had ventured in the plenitude of 1808. his power; and they issued an edict for destroying wolves, foxes, and other animals, which had been preserved about the royal residences to gratify Charles's passion for the chase. These measures were intended to court popular favour, and to cast a reproach upon the late reign. Some vexatious imposts were taken off; and a part of the police establishment of Madrid, which had been peculiarly odious, was abolished. The people regarded these acts as unequivocal proofs of the new Monarch's excellent intentions; and the accession of Ferdinand was considered by those who were ignorant of the difficulties by which he was beset, and of the perilous circumstances of the country, as the commencement of a Saturnian age, and as the point of time from which the regeneration of Spain would be dated. Murat enters Spain. Mar. 3. Meantime Joachim Murat, brother-in-law of Buonaparte and Grand Duke of Berg and Cleves, had arrived in Spain to take the command of all the French forces in that country. As soon as his arrival was known, Charles and Godoy dispatched an officer of artillery, by name Velarde, to congratulate him, on the part of the King, and to take care that nothing was wanting for the subsistence and accommodation of his troops. Murat reached Aranda, on the Duero, on the 17th, the day when the first disturbances broke out at Aranjuez; and there he desired Velarde would write to the court and inform them that his instructions were to march rapidly towards Cadiz; but that he should perhaps take it upon himself to stop some days at Madrid, though he had no orders to that effect: he should not, however, proceed farther than St. Augustine's without having determined with the Spanish government the number of troops which were to enter the capital, and the time, and the manner, so that they IV. March. might be no charge to the inhabitants. He added, that he was CHAP. in momentary expectation of dispatches from his master; that he should very soon be able to inform the Spanish nation what 1808. were the Emperor's views; that he could now positively announce his intention of going to Madrid, and that probably in the course of eight days he would have crossed the Pyrenees. Velarde's letter, which communicated this intelligence, was addressed to the Prince of the Peace; but it was received by the new ministers, and it increased their perplexities and alarms. They informed the people however by a proclamation, that their King had notified the happy event of his accession to the French Emperor, and assured him, that far from changing the political system of his father toward France, he would endeavour to draw closer the bonds of friendship and strict alliance, which so fortunately subsisted between the French Emperor and Spain. This communication, it was said, was made in order that the council of Madrid might act conformably to the King's sentiments, by taking measures for restoring tranquillity in the metropolis, as well as for receiving the French troops who were about to enter that city, and for administering to them every requisite assistance. They were to endeavour also to convince the people that these troops were coming as friends, and for purposes advantageous to the King and to the nation. The very fact that it was thought necessary to tell the people this, shows that they were not so besotted as to believe it. These were strange times, when a Spanish King informed the people of his measures, and, as it were, appealed to popular opinion; . . but stranger events were at hand. The people of Madrid exhorted to receive the French as friends. enter All the foreign ministers congratulated Ferdinand upon The French his accession, except Beauharnois, from whom, after the part Madrid. which he had taken concerning the expected marriage and throughout the affair of the Escurial, congratulation might first VOL. I. A A CHAP. have been expected; he withheld this act of recognition, beIV. cause he had not been furnished with the necessary instructions. 1808. Murat was now advancing toward Madrid, and the general March. anxiety was heightened by the more unexpected intelligence that Buonaparte himself, he who made and unmade princes with a breath, was on the way to Bayonne. He supposed that the royal family were at this time on the coast and on the point of embarkation, and that the people, in their fear of anarchy, would receive the French commander with open arms as their deliverer. The occurrences at Aranjuez were altogether unexpected; and as soon as he was informed of them, Murat accelerated his march. The approach of such an army, the silence of the French Ambassador, the mysteriousness of Buonaparte, and his journey to Spain, perplexed and alarmed Ferdinand. He had communicated his accession to this Emperor in the most friendly and affectionate terms; . . fear could suggest no other. Lest this should be deemed insufficient, he appointed a deputation of three grandees to proceed to Bayonne, and compliment him in his name; and another grandee was sent, in like manner, to compliment Murat, who had already reached the vicinity of Madrid. This worthy agent was fully in his master's confidence ; he assured Ferdinand that Buonaparte might be every moment expected; and he spoke publicly of his coming. Orders were therefore given for preparing apartments in the palace suitable for such a guest; and the King, whose fears made him restless, wrote again to Buonaparte, saying how much he desired to become personally acquainted with him, and to assure him, with his own lips, of his ardent wishes to strengthen more and more the alliance which subsisted between them. Murat, Mar. 23. evidently for the purpose of displaying his forces, reviewed them before the walls; then made his entrance into Madrid, preceded by the imperial horse-guards, and by his staff, and followed by all IV. March. the cavalry, and by the first division of foot under General CHAP. Mounier; two other divisions were encamped without the city, and a detachment proceeded to take possession of Toledo. Fer- 1808. dinand made his public entry on horseback the following day, amid the ringing of bells and the discharge of artillery, but with Mar. 24. no other parade than that which, under happier circumstances, would have been the most grateful of all spectacles; . . a concourse of all the people of the capital and its vicinity, rejoicing in his presence, and testifying, by their acclamations, that they expected from him the regeneration of their country. But never did poor prince succeed to such a crown of thorns. The conduct of the French Ambassador had shown what was to be expected from the French General. Murat declared that until the Emperor Napoleon had acknowledged Ferdinand VII. it was impossible for him to take any step which might appear like such an acknowledgment: he therefore must be under the necessity of treating with the royal family. But Murat was better acquainted than Beauharnois with his master's designs ; as if taking the deposed King and Queen under his protection, he sent a numerous body of troops to Aranjuez to guard them; and he caused it to be understood that the French would interpose in behalf of Godoy. Both these measures might have been taken with honourable designs; but when the French General, General Grouchy, was made governor of Madrid, a sort of military made Gogovernment established there, and patroles instituted to pre- Madrid. serve the peace, under the joint superintendence of a French officer and a Spaniard, sufficient indications were given of an intention to occupy the capital as the frontier fortresses had been occupied. A legitimate government which should have had no no other cause of disquietude, would have been perplexed at such a crisis; but the attention of Ferdinand and his ministers was distracted by personal considerations: instead of feeling like Grouchy vernor of CHAP. the sovereign of a proud and ancient people, the new King was IV. in the situation of one who had to defend a bad title, and that 1808. not by an appeal to arms, but tremblingly before a superior and 'March. a judge. Declaration .concerning A declaration concerning the affair of the Escurial was made the affair of public on the last day of the month, for the purpose of proving the Escu 31. rial, March that neither Escoiquiz, nor the Duque del Infantado, nor the other persons implicated in the charge of conspiracy, had been guilty of any misconduct. It was acknowledged that the Prince had in his own hand-writing commissioned Infantado to assume the command of the troops in New Castille, in case of his father's demise, and the alleged reason was a fear lest Godoy should continue at such a time to make an improper use of his influence and power. Such a pretext was too shallow to obtain belief in any calm or considerate mind: the King's age and state of health rendered it probable that he might live many years, and in the event of his death, no man doubted but that Godoy, who held his power only upon favouritism, must instantly become the wretch that this revolution made him. As for his aspiring to the throne himself, it is impossible that he should even for a moment have entertained so frantic a thought, and almost as impossible that they who made the charge against him should themselves have believed it. The abdi cation re a voluntary act. In the deed of abdication Charles called it his own free and presented as voluntary act, and especial care was taken by the new administration to represent it as such. He had certainly remembered the examples of Charles V. and Philip V. and a thought of imitating them had passed across his mind in moments when difficulties pressed upon him, and he was sick of the cares of government. This is certain: it is probable also that the Prince's party might not have formed the plan of sending him into retirement unless they had known that he himself had enter |