V. May. and being distinguished for its love of its sovereigns and its CHAP. obedience to them, could not omit joining its homage to that of the Supreme Junta and of the Council, and requested his High- 1808. ness would notify the same to the Emperor. The city also availed itself of that opportunity to assure him of its respect and submission." Graves could hardly yet have been dug for those who were massacred, and the places of execution were still covered with flakes of blood, when the existing authorities thus fawned upon Murat, and praised his moderation: and this address was presented in the name of the city, where mothers, widows, and orphans, were cursing him and the tyrant his master in every street, and well nigh in every house! A letter May 22. was also obtained from the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo, the last of the Bourbons who remained in Spain. “The resignation of Charles," he said, " and the confirmation of that act, by the Prince and the Infantes, imposed upon him, according to God's will, the pleasing duty of laying at the Emperor's feet the assurance of his homage, fidelity, and reverence. May your Imperial and Royal Majesty (he added) be graciously pleased to look upon me as one of your most dutiful subjects, and instruct me concerning your high purposes, that I may be furnished with the means of manifesting my unfeigned and zealous submission." Notables Bayonne. 'The next demand of Murat was that the Council of Castille Assembly of should send a deputation of its members to repeat what their convoked at address had expressed, and renew their petition that the Emperor would deign to nominate the King of Naples, Joseph Napoleon, to the throne of Spain. This also was obeyed, the Council, like the Junta of Government, being now in a state of habitual submission to his supreme commands. An Assembly of May 25. Notables was then, first by a circular decree from Murat, and May. tion of to the Spa CHAP. afterwards by Buonaparte himself, in virtue of the right which V. had been ceded to him, convoked to meet at Bayonne on the 1808. 15th of June, charged with the wishes, the demands, and wants and complaints of those whom they represented, that they might fix the bases of the new constitution by which the monarchy was thenceforth to be governed. Till that should be effected Murat was to continue in the exercise of his power as Lieutenant-general of the kingdom; the course of justice was to proceed as usual, and the existing ministers, the council of Castille, and all other authorities, religious, civil, and military, were confirmed for as long a time as might be necessary. This edict was accomProclama panied by a proclamation in that peculiar style which BuoBuonaparte naparte affected: "To all who shall see these presents, health! niards. Spaniards, after a long agony your nation was perishing. I saw your evils. I am about to remedy them. Your greatness, your power, are part of mine. Your Princes have ceded to me all their rights to the crown of the Spains. I will not reign over your provinces, but I will acquire an eternal title to the love and gratitude of your posterity. Your monarchy is old; my mission is to rejuvenize it. I will improve all your institutions, and I will make you enjoy, if you will second me, the benefits of a reformation without destruction, without disorder, without convulsions. Spaniards, I have convoked a general assembly of deputies from your provinces and towns. I myself well know your wishes and your wants. Then I will lay down all my rights, and will place your glorious crown upon the head of one who is my other self, guaranteeing to you a constitution which conciliates the sacred and salutary authority of the Sovereign, with the liberties and the privileges of the people. Spaniards, remember what your fathers were; behold what you yourselves are become! The fault is not yours, but that of the bad ad ministration which has governed you. Be full of hope and of CHAP. confidence in the existing circumstances, for it is my wish that V. your latest descendants shall preserve my memory, and say of 1808. me, he was the regenerator of our country." But these vain promises and hypocritical professions were too late. May. CHAPTER VI. GENERAL INSURRECTION. PROCEEDINGS IN ASTURIAS AND MASSACRE GALLICIA. JUNTAS FORMED IN THE PROVINCES. JUNTA PROCLAMATIONS OF THE MOVEMENTS OF THE FRENCH AGAINST THEM. 1808. May. surrection. THE seizure of the fortresses, and the advance of the French troops, had roused the spirit of the Spaniards; their hopes had General in been excited to the highest pitch by the downfal of Godoy and the elevation of Ferdinand; and in that state of public feeling, the slaughter at Madrid, and the transactions at Bayonne, were no sooner known, than the people, as if by an instantaneous impulse over the whole kingdom, manifested a determination to resist the insolent usurpation. Abandoned as they were by one part of the Royal Family, deprived of the rest; forsaken too by those nobles and statesmen, whose names carried authority, and on whose talents and patriotism they had hitherto relied;.. betrayed by their government, and now exhorted to submission by all the constituted authorities civil and religious which they had been accustomed to revere and to obey;.. their strong places and frontier passes in possession of the enemy; the flower of their own troops some in Italy, others in the north of Europe; and a numerous army of the French, accustomed to victory, and now flushed with Spanish slaughter, in their capital and in the heart of the country; under these complicated disadvantages and VI. May. dangers, they rose in general and simultaneous insurrection CHAP. against the mightiest military power which had ever till that time existed; a force not more tremendous for its magnitude than for 1808. its perfect organization, wielded always with consummate skill, and directed with consummate wickedness. A spirit of patriotism burst forth which astonished Europe, and equalled the warmest hopes of those who were best acquainted with the Spanish nation for those persons who knew the character of that noble people, . . who were familiar with their past history, and their present state; who had heard the peasantry talk of their old heroes, of Hernan Cortes and of the Cid; . . who had witnessed the passionate transfiguration which a Spaniard underwent when recurring from the remembrance of those times to his own ; .. his brave impatience, his generous sense of humiliation, and the feeling with which his soul seemed to shake off the yoke of these inglorious days, and take sanctuary among the tombs of his ancestors,.. they knew that the spirit of Spain was still alive, and had looked on to this resurrection of the dry bones. As no foresight could have apprehended the kind of injury with which the nation had been outraged, nor have provided against the magnitude of the danger, so by no possible concert could so wide and unanimous a movement have been effected. The holiest and deepest feelings of the Spanish heart were roused, and the impulse was felt throughout the Peninsula like some convulsion of the earth or elements. 1 The firing on the 2d of May was heard at Mostoles, a little town about ten miles south of Madrid, and the Alcalde, who knew the situation of the capital, dispatched a bulletin to the south, in these words: "The country is in danger; Madrid is perishing through the perfidy of the French. All Spaniards, come to deliver it!" No other summons was sent abroad than this, which came from an obscure and unauthorized individual, VOL. I. M M |