36] 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1814. 



by the way of Catalonia. The 

 letter, upon motion, was brought 

 to the Cortes and read. After 

 acknowledging the letter from the 

 Regencj', and expressing his sa- 

 tisfaction with the nation's wishes 

 for his return, which was no less 

 his desire, in order to promote the 

 felicity of his subjects, he men- 

 tioned his intention of proceeding 

 as above stated, and concluded, 

 " with regard to the re-establish- 

 ment of the Cortes, of which the 

 Regency speak to me in their 

 letter, as well as every thing that 

 may have been done in my ab- 

 sence usefully to the kingdom, it 

 will always merit m}' approbation, 

 as conformable to my royal inten- 

 tions." The letter was received 

 with great applause; but during 

 the reading, at the word subjects, 

 in Spanish vasallos, a voice inter- 

 rupted the secretary, saying, " we 

 are not vassals !" A kind of apo- 

 logy was made for the use of this 

 term, as proceeding from the 

 king's ignorance of the constitu- 

 tion, by Senor Arispe, who made 

 a motion for inviting the Regency 

 to adopt the necessary measures 

 for the king's taking the oath to 

 the constitution, which was ap, 

 proved. 



At length, on March 24th, 

 Ferdinand arrived at Gerona, 

 whence he sent a letter to the 

 Regency, written with his own 

 hand. It contained a general as- 

 surance of his wishes to do every 

 thing that might conduce tn the 

 welfare of his subjects, and an 

 expression of his happiness on 

 finding himself on his own terri- 

 tory, amidst a nation and an army 

 which had displayed so generous 

 a fidelity towards him. A letter 

 from general Copons, the com- 



mander in chief of Catalonia-, 

 mentioned that his Majesty had 

 been escorted to the left bank of 

 the river Fluvia, by marshal 

 Suchet with a detachment of 

 French troops, and that having 

 crossed the river with a suite of 

 Spaniards only, he had been at- 

 tended to Gerona by the general. 

 The following circumstance was 

 communicated to the Cortes by 

 order of the Regency. Marshal 

 Suchet had wished to stipulate 

 with gen, Copons, that the pos- 

 session of the king's person should 

 serve as a guaranty for the deli- 

 vering up to the marshal of the 

 French garrisons of the fortresses 

 not yet in the hands of the Spa 

 niards, as well as those of Lerida, 

 Monzon, and Mequinenza ; but 

 as this proposal might have added 

 20,000 men to the French armies 

 opposed to lord Wellington, the 

 General had eluded it, and ob- 

 tained the person of Ferdinand 

 without acceding to such a de- 

 mand. The thanks of the Cortes 

 were in consequence voted to him. 

 In Madrid the greatest rejoicings 

 were made on the intelligence of 

 the king's return, in which all 

 ranks and parties appeared to con- 

 cur. His entrance into Saragossa 

 on April 6th, was attended with 

 the same manifestations of general 

 joy. He proceeded on the 11th 

 for Valentia, accompanied by the 

 Infant Don Carlos ; and nothing 

 as yet appeared externally to dis- 

 turb the feelings of national satis- 

 faction in his extraordinary resto- 

 ration. 



Another renovation of the an- 

 cient order of things effected by 

 the prevalence of the allied arms, 

 was that of the replacement of the 

 head of the Roman Catholic Church 



