Chapter IX: Glory and Conquest (1805-1808) (4)

On arriving at the gate of the chateau of Marac the old king, Charles IV., fell weeping into the arms of Napoleon. "Lean upon me," said the emperor; "I have strength enough for both." "I know it well!" replied Charles: it was the genuine expression of his thoughts. The Prince de la Paix was not long in coming to the conclusion that all hope of his master's restoration was lost. Repose, with an ample competency, was promised to him; Napoleon also enabled him to get a taste of the pleasure of vengeance. Charles IV. had given command to his son, requiring from him a pure and simple renunciation of the crown which he had usurped: the prince peremptorily refused. The old king rose up with difficulty, brandishing his cane above his head: "I will have you treated like the rebel emigrants," cried he, "as an unnatural son who wished to snatch away my life and my crown." They had to restrict themselves to written communications. A letter from Charles IV. reclaimed the crown, and presented to his son's notice a mournful picture of his proceedings. "I have had recourse to the Emperor of the French," said he, "no longer as a king, at the head of his army and surrounded with the splendor of a throne, but as an unfortunate and forsaken monarch. I have found protection and refuge in the midst of his camp. I owe him my life and that of my queen and of my First Minister. All now depends on the mediation and protection of this great prince. I have reigned for the happiness of my subjects; I do not wish to bequeath them civil war, rebellions, and the popular assemblies of revolution. Everything ought to be done for the people, and nothing for one's self. All my life I have sacrificed myself for my people; and it is not at the age at which I have now arrived that I should do anything contrary to their religion, their tranquillity, and their happiness. When I shall be assured that the religion of Spain, the integrity of my provinces, their independence and their privileges, will be maintained, I shall descend into the tomb pardoning you the bitterness of my last years."

The king had already invested Murat with supreme power in the capacity of Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom. Ferdinand continually resisted-- proposing, indeed, to make an act of renunciation, but only at Madrid, in presence of the Cortes, and under the condition that the king, Charles IV., should himself resume possession of the throne. The preliminary negotiations became each day more bitter. Napoleon pursued his aim without disturbing himself at the refusals of the prince, who, however, provoked in him some ill-humor. He had by a single stroke destroyed the illusions and hopes of Murat by writing to him on the 2nd of May, "I intend the King of Naples to reign at Madrid. I wish to give you the kingdom of Naples, or that of Portugal. Answer me immediately what you think of it, for it is necessary for this to be done in a day." The very day on which Napoleon thus inflicted on his brother-in-law a stroke for which Murat never consoled himself, the insurrection which broke out at Madrid rendered impossible the elevation to the throne of Spain of the man whose duty it was so roughly to repress it. For a fortnight the excitement in the capital had been intense, carefully kept up by the reports which Ferdinand and his friends found the means of freely spreading amongst the population. An order had been sent to Murat to make all those princes of the royal house who were still at Madrid set out for Bayonne; when the Junta had been induced with great difficulty to give its consent to this measure, the populace opposed the departure. A certain number of soldiers were massacred, an aide-de-camp of Murat escaping by a miracle from the popular anger. The troops had for a long time been posted as a precaution against an insurrection, and all the streets were soon swept by charges of cavalry; cannon resounded in all directions. The Spanish troops, consigned to their quarters, only took part in the struggle at one point; a company of artillery gave up its pieces to the people. When the insurrection was suppressed a hundred insurgents were shot without any form of trial.

This was, in the capital, the last and feeble effort of a resistance which had not yet had time to become a patriotic passion. Henceforth Murat felt himself master of Madrid; he became President of the Junta. Don Antonio had accompanied to Bayonne his nephew, François de Paule, and his niece, the Queen of Etruria.

"Your Majesty has nothing more to do than to designate the king whom you destine for Spain," mournfully wrote the lieutenant-general on the morning of the 3rd; "this king will reign without obstacle." But lately he had repeated this proposal, heard on several occasions amongst the inhabitants of Madrid: "Let us run to the house of the Grand Duc de Berg, and proclaim him king."

The news of the insurrection of Madrid precipitated at Bayonne the _denoûment_ of the tragi-comedy in which for several days the illustrious actors had been playing their parts. The emperor feigned great anger, and the terror of the old Spanish sovereigns was real.

"It is thou who art the cause of all this!" cried the king, Charles IV., violently apostrophizing his son. "Thou hast caused the blood of our subjects and of our allies to flow, in order to hasten by a few days the moment of bearing a crown too heavy for thee. Restore it to him who can sustain it." The prince remained taciturn and sombre, limiting himself to protesting his innocence. His mother threw herself upon him. "Thou hast always been a bad son," she cried with violence; "thou hast wished to dethrone thy father, to cause thy mother's death; and thou art standing there before us insensible, without replying either to us or to our friend the great Napoleon: speak, justify thyself, if thou canst." The emperor, who was present at this sorrowful scene, intervened: "If between this and midnight you have not recognized your father as the lawful king, and have not sent word to Madrid to that effect, you shall be treated as a rebel."

This was too much for the courage of Ferdinand; he was in the hands of an irritated master, who had drawn him and his into a snare which was at this time impossible to be broken through. Weakness and cowardice in the present did not forbid far-off hopes; the prince yielded, counting on the future. "For any one who can see it, his character is depicted by a single word," Napoleon had said; "he is a sneak."

The treaty was concluded the same evening, through the mediation of the Prince de la Paix. King Charles IV., recognizing that he and his family were incapable of assuring the repose of Spain, of which he was the sole lawful sovereign, surrendered the crown to the Emperor of the French, for him to dispose of it at his will. Spain and her colonies were to form an independent state. The Catholic religion was to remain dominant, to the exclusion of all others. King Charles IV. was to enjoy during life the castle and forest of Compiègne; the castle of Chambord was to belong to him in perpetuity; a civil list of 7,500,000 francs was assured to him from the French Treasury. A particular convention accorded the absolute property of the castle of Navarre to Prince Ferdinand, with a revenue of 1,000,000 francs, and 400,000 livres income for each of the Infantas. When the emperor notified to Count Mollien, then Minister of the Treasury, the tenor of the treaty, he added: "That will make 10,000,000. All these sums will be reimbursed by Spain." The Spanish nation was to pay for the fall of its dynasty and the pacific conquest upon which Napoleon counted. She reserved for him another price for his perfidious manoeuvres.

Already the Spanish princes were on the way to their retreats. Compiègne and Navarre not being ready for their reception, the old king was to inhabit Fontainebleau provisionally. The emperor ordered Talleyrand to receive the Infantas at Valençay, thus confiding to his vice-grand-elector the honorable functions of a jailer. "I desire," he wrote to him on the 9th of May, "that the princes may be received with no external ceremony, but with respect and care, and that you do everything possible to amuse them. Be on Monday evening at Valençay. If you have a theatre there, and could get a few comedians to come, it would not be a bad idea; you might bring Madame de Talleyrand there, with four or five ladies. I have the greatest interest in the Prince of Asturias being prevented from taking any false steps. I desire, then, that he may be amused and occupied. Harsh policy would lead one to put him in the Bicêtre, or in some strong castle; but as he has thrown himself into my arms, and has promised me to do nothing without my orders, and as all goes on in Spain as I desire, I have decided to send him into a country place, surrounding him at the same time with pleasures and keeping him under strict surveillance. Let this last during the month of May and part of June; the affairs of Spain will have taken a turn, and I shall then see what part I shall take.

"As to you, your mission is honorable enough; to receive at your house these three illustrious personages, in order to amuse them, is altogether worthy of the nation and of your rank."

The captivity of the Spanish princes was to be much longer and less cheerful than the Emperor Napoleon was depicting it beforehand. He had already provided for the government of Spain. Sorrowfully and with great difficulty, Murat had prevailed upon the Grand Council of Castile and the Indies to indicate a preference for the King of Naples. The Junta had absolutely refused to take part in any manifestations of this nature. On the 10th of May, Napoleon wrote to King Joseph, "King Charles, by the treaty I have made with him, cedes to me all the rights of the crown of Spain. The nation, through the medium of the Supreme Council of Castile, asks from me a king. It is for you that I destine this crown. Spain is not like the kingdom of Naples: it has 11,000,000 of inhabitants, more than a hundred and fifty millions of revenue, without counting the immense revenues and possessions of all the Americas. It is, besides, a crown which places you at Madrid, within three days of France, which entirely covers one of its frontiers. At Madrid you are in France; Naples is at the end of the world. I desire, then, that immediately you have received this letter you should confide the regency to whoever you will, and the command of the troops to Marshal Jourdan, and that you should set out for Bayonne by way of Turin, Mont Cenis, and Lyons. You will receive this letter on the 19th, you will set out on the 20th, and you will be here on the 1st of June. Withal, keep the matter secret; people will perhaps suspect something, but you can say that you have to go to Upper Italy in order to confer with me on important affairs."

Napoleon had said, the moment when he concluded the treaty which deprived the house of Bourbon of its last throne, "What I am doing is not well in a certain point of view, I know. But policy demands that I should not leave in my rear, so near Paris, a dynasty inimical to my own."

Justice and right possess lights of which the cleverest framers of human politics are at times ignorant. The Emperor Napoleon descended several steps towards his fall when he abused his power as regards Pope Pius VII., and used odious means to dethrone the feeble and ignorant princes who were ruling over Spain. Very slippery are the roads of universal power; in the steps of its master, France was rushing to disaster.