1807. CHAP. cution the whole provisions of the treaty of FontaineLII. bleau.* But though thus cautious to avoid any act which might implicate him in these transactions, Napoleon was not the less active in making every preparation for turning to the best account the dissensions of the royal family of Spain. From that moment he resolved to make them the means of overturning the whole Bourbon dynasty. Orders were immediately sent to the second army of the Gironde, under General Dupont, to cross the frontier; and at Bayonne a third was hastily formed under Moncey, to act as a reserve to the two which preceded it. At the same time forty-eight depots of battalions, mustering twenty-eight thousand combatants, were drawn from the troops on the Rhine, and ordered to move in the same direction. Meantime, the storm which threatened such serious consequences blew over in Spain, from a discovery of the party who was at the bottom of the intrigue. The Prince of Asturias, justly alarmed for his life, 26, revealed, in a private interview with his father and mother, 29. Nell. i. the letter he had written to Napoleon, proposing his hand vi. 285, 290. to one of his relations, and at the same time disclosed all 305. the parties, not excluding the French ambassador, who Oct. 30. 1 Tor. i. 5, 6. Thib. Thiers, viii. 33. the Prince Nov. 5. were privy to that proceeding.1 This disclosure operated like a charm in stilling the Pardon of fury of the faction opposed to the prince. Ignorant of of Asturias. the extent or intimacy of his relations with the French Emperor, they recoiled at the idea of driving to extremities the heir of the throne, who might possibly have engaged so powerful a protector in his cause. The matter was therefore hushed up; the prince wrote penitential letters to his father and mother, avowing "that he had failed in his duty, inasmuch as he should have taken no "What chiefly shocked the Emperor," said Talleyrand to Isquierdo on 15th November, " I was, after the treaty of 27th October, to see himself apparently implicated, in the face of Europe, in intrigues and treasons. He has expressed a natural indignation at it, because it affects his honour and probity. The Emperor desires only the strict execution of the treaty of Fontainebleau."-THIBAUDEAU, vi. 291. LII. 1807. 1808. step without their concurrence," and throwing himself CHAP. on their mercy. Upon this a decree of the King was issued, declaring, "The voice of nature has disarmed the arm of vengeance: when a guilty party solicits pardon, the heart of a father cannot refuse it to a son. My son has disclosed the authors of the horrible plan which some wretches have put into his head; I pardon him, and shall receive him to favour when he has given proofs of sincere amendment." The trial of the prince's confidants went Jan. 20, on; but terminated, three months after, in their entire acquittal, to the great joy of the nation, which had never attached any credit to this alleged conspiracy, but considered it as a got-up device of the Prince of the Peace to ruin his rival Escoiquiz. Nevertheless, that acute counsellor, as well as the Dukes of Infantado and St Carlos, with several others, were kept in confinement, or sent into 1 O'Meara, exile; and Napoleon, who in truth had not instigated this intrigue, but saw the advantage it would give him in his designs against the Peninsula, was rejoiced to see father and son thus envenomed against each other, and 187, 191. secretly resolved to dispossess them both.1* the 26,3 Nell. i. 5, 6. 285, 297. ii. 160. Tor. i. 26, 33. Thib. vi. South. i. the French Spain. It was not long before this resolution to appropriate to 34. himself a part, at least, of the Spanish dominions, with- Entrance of out the slightest regard to his recent and solemn guaran- troops into tee of their integrity in the treaty of Fontainebleau, was Nov. 22. acted upon by the French Emperor. The force of forty thousand men, which had been provided for at Bayonne by that treaty, but which was not to enter Spain except with the consent of the King of Spain, was now increased, in consequence of the orders already noticed, to sixty thousand; and without any authority from the Spanish government, and though the situation of Portugal noways called for their advance, they began to cross the frontier, and take the road, not towards Libson, but Madrid. "I never," said Napoleon, " excited the King of Spain against his son. I saw them envenomed against each other, and thence conceived the design of deriving advantage to myself, and dispossessing both.”—O’MEARA, ii. 160. 1808. Jan. 9. CHAP. Twenty-four thousand infantry and four thousand horse, LII. with forty guns, under Dupont, first passed the Bidassoa, and moved towards Valladolid, where headquarters were established in the beginning of January. A second army, under Moncey, consisting of twenty-seven thousand foot, three thousand horse, and forty pieces of artillery, soon followed; and such was the haste with which these troops were forwarded to their destination, that they were conveyed across France by post, and rapidly defiled towards the Ebro, en route to Burgos. At the same time, on the other extremity of the Pyrenees, Duhesme, with twelve thousand infantry, two thousand cavalry, and twenty cannon, entered Catalonia, and took the road to Barcelona. Nor was the Emperor less active in bringing forward additional troops, to act as a reserve to those thus pushed forward into the Peninsula. The old battalions of the Grand Army were directed towards the Rhine, from the north of Germany; the whole country beyond the Vistula was evacuated by the French troops. Davoust, with his numerous corps, the Poles and the Saxons, moved to the country between the Vistula and the Oder. Soult, with his corps, was recalled from Old Prussia to the west of that kingdom; the Imperial Guard received orders to march on Paris. But though this general move to the westward took place, the Emperor's hold of the north of Germany was not sensibly relaxed. Mortier with his corps was left in Silesia : Victor, with his corps and the reserve cavalry, 1 Foy, iii. continued to occupy Berlin: Bernadotte was in Stralsund, 72, 74. Tor. and all the fortresses on the Oder and the Elbe were still Lond. i. 55, in the hands of the French. It was not surprising that Napoleon was able in this manner to keep hold of all Europe, for he had at this time 800,000 men in arms of the French empire, besides 150,000 of the allied states.1* i. 46, 47. 56. Thiers, viii. 306, 307, and 395, * "J'ai plus de 800,000 hommes sur pied. J'ai une armée encore sur la Passarge, près du Niémen, j'en ai une à Varsovie, j'en ai une en Silésie, j'en ai une à Hambourg, j'en ai une à Berlin, j'en ai une à Boulogne, j'en ai une qui marche sur le Portugal, j'en ai une seconde que je réunis à Bayonne, j'en ai une en Italie, j'en ai une en Dalmatie que je renforce en ce moment de 6 mille hommes, LII. 1808. 35. Although the operations in Portugal afforded no sort CHAP. of reason for this formidable invasion, yet, so much were the inhabitants of the country in the habit of yielding implicit obedience to the French authorities, in conse- The Prince quence of the submissive attitude of their government does not for so long a period, that it excited very little attention either in Spain or over the rest of Europe to the greater against this part of which it was almost unknown. Public attention of the Peace venture to remonstrate invasion. followed the progress of the Emperor in Italy; and, dazzled by the splendid pageants and important changes which were there going forward, paid little regard to the progress of obscure corps on the Pyrenean frontier. Notwithstanding all their infatuation, however, the cabinet of Madrid were not without anxiety at this uncalled-for and suspicious invasion of their frontiers. But they were deceived by the repeated assurances which they received, both verbally and in writing, from the French ministers, of the determination of the Emperor to execute all the provisions of the treaty of Fontainebleau ;* and the Prince of the Peace was fearful lest, by starting ill-timed suspicions, he might put in hazard the brilliant prospects which he conceived were opening both to the Spanish monarchy and himself from the spoliation of Portugal. 1 Tor. i. 43, They were involved in the meshes of guilty ambition, and 48. Nell. i. could not extricate themselves from its toils till they had themselves become its prey.1 9, 10. South. 195. 36. in France. seizure of The time, however, was now rapidly approaching when Napoleon deemed it safe to throw off the mask. No New levy sooner had he returned from Italy to Paris than the Treacherous minister of war transmitted a message to the senate, Pampeluna. requiring the levy of eighty thousand conscripts out of Jan. 6. those who should become liable to serve in 1809-a requisition which that obsequious body forthwith voted by acclamation, though the peace of Tilsit had, to all j'en ai une à Naples. J'ai des garnisons sur toutes mes frontières de mer."- LII. 1808. Jan. 14. CHAP. appearance, closed the temple of Janus for a very long period, at least in regard to Continental wars. This warlike message, though levelled ostensibly at England, contained ambiguous expressions which pointed not unequivocally to projects of aggrandisement on the side of the Spanish peninsula.* Shortly after, the French forces began, by fraud and false pretences, to make themselves masters of the frontier fortresses of Spain; and the success with which their dishonourable stratagems were crowned was such as almost to exceed belief, and such as could not have occurred except in a monarchy debilitated by a long period of despotic misrule. Pampeluna was the first to be surprised. Early in February, General d'Armagnac directed his steps on this perfidious mission through Roncesvalles, the traditional scene of heroic achievement, now for the first time the theatre of disgraceful treachery. He first requested leave from the governor of that fortress to lodge two battalions with the Spanish troops in the citadel: and when this was refused, remained for some days in the town on the most friendly terms with the Spanish garrison, until they were so completely thrown off their guard, that he succeeded in surprising the principal gate of the citadel by means of three hundred men, admitted one by one, with arms under their cloaks, during the night, into his house, which was within 1 Tor. i. 51, the walls, while the attention of the Spanish sentinels 52. South. i. was taken off by his soldiers pelting each other in sport Lond. i. 56. with snow-balls close to the drawbridge of the citadel.1 84. Thiers, Next morning a proclamation appeared, beseeching the Feb. 9. 197, 198. Foy, iii. 81, viii. 489, 490. inhabitants to "consider this as only a trifling change, incapable of disturbing the harmony which ought to subsist "There is a necessity," said Clarke and Champagny, "of having consider able forces on all points exposed to attack, in order to be in a situation to take advantage of any favourable circumstances which may occur to carry the war into the bosom of England, to Ireland, or the Indies. Vulgar politicians conceive the Emperor should disarm; such a proceeding would be a real scourge to France. It is not enough to have an army in Portugal; Spain is in alarm for Cadiz; Ceuta is menaced; the English have disembarked many troops in the neighbourhood of Gibraltar; they have directed to that quarter |