170 



FERDINAND VII. FERDUSI. 



to form of them but one party. He professed to be 

 perfectly satisfied with the arrangements that had 

 been adopted respecting his approach to the capital, 

 and the restrictions imposed upon his conduct ; nor 

 did he exercise a single act of sovereignty while he 

 remained in Catalonia. Taking into view the liberal 

 professions made by Ferdinand at that time, with his 

 subsequent conduct, it is difficult to ascribe his pro- 

 ceedings then to any other motives than those of the 

 basest hypocrisy. Instead of taking the road pre- 

 scribed by the cortes, through Valencia, the king 

 went by Saragossa, alleging, as the reason of this 

 change, his anxiety to view the ruins of that cele- 

 brated city, and thus pay a compliment to its brave 

 inhabitants. At length, however, he proceeded to 

 Valencia, where he fixed his abode, avoiding Madrid, 

 and maintaining the most alarming silence on the 

 subject of the constitution, which he had been re- 

 quested and required to accept. The cardinal of 

 Bourbon went to obtain his signature and oath ; but, 

 on being admitted to an audience, the king insisted 

 on his conforming to the ceremony of ancient usage, 

 that of kissing his hand as a token of vassalage. 

 This act was forbidden by the cortes. The cardinal 

 kissed his hand, and was, nevertheless, exiled, with 

 the loss of a great part of his ecclesiastical emolu- 

 ments. At length, Ferdinand judged himself strong 

 enough, and his decree of Valencia, dated May 4, 

 was issued. The cortes were denounced as an illegal 

 body. The decree, among other things, says, " But 

 concerning the labours of the present assembly, I de- 

 clare, that my royal intention is, not only not to swear 

 or accede to the said constitution, or to any decree 

 of the general and extraordinary cortes, and of the 

 ordinary at the present sitting, those, to wit, which 

 derogate from the rights and prerogatives of my 

 sovereignty, established by the constitution and the 

 jaws under which the nation has lived in times past ; 

 but to pronounce that constitution and such decrees 

 null and of no effect, now or at any other time, as if 

 such decrees and acts had never passed, and that they 

 are entirely abrogated, and without any obligation 

 on my people and subjects, of whatever class or con- 

 dition, to fulfil or observe them." This perfidious 

 decree ended by declaring that the session of the 

 cortes had ceased, and that whoever should oppose 

 this royal decree should be held guilty of high trea- 

 son, and punished with an infamous death. 



From the promulgation of the decrees of May 4, 

 may be dated what has not unappropriately been de- 

 nominated the reign of terror. Ferdinand, supported 

 by traitors to their oaths, pursued the most despotical 

 course from 1814 till 1820. During those six years, 

 a vast number of patriots perished on the scaffold ; 

 the possessions on the coast of Africa were thronged 

 with the most virtuous Spaniards. The foreign 

 ministers did not make the least attempt to save the 

 numerous victims of this most cruel despotism. The 

 duke of Wellington came from Paris, May 24, to 

 compliment the king on his restoration to the throne, 

 and to his rights ! Riego raised the cry of liberty, 

 and order began to be restored. Ferdinand accepted 

 the constitution with cheerfulness on the night of 

 March 8, 1820, and issued his first decree, with the 

 same appearance of good-will as he had done the 

 memorable one of July 21, 1814, re-establishing the 

 inquisition. During the time of the constitution, he 

 was constantly plotting its destruction, as several 

 chiefs of the royalists (called the serviles), who were 

 punished, and others who were not, declared on their 

 trials. When the armies of France entered Spain, in 

 1823, under the command of the duke of Angouleme, 

 lie left Madrid for Seville, where he remained for a 

 few months, and where he issued his touching appeal 

 tx> all classes of Spaniards, young and old, to take up 



arms, and defend the country and its liberties. The 

 approach of the French to Seville made the removal 

 of the government to Cadiz, the cradle of Spanish 

 liberty, necessary. His majesty refused to depart 

 for this place, under the plea that his conscience did 

 not permit him so to aggravate the evils of his 

 people ; however, he was willing to go as a simple 

 individual. A regency was formed according to the 

 terms of the constitution, and the king went to Cadiz. 

 While there, he entered into a correspondence with 

 the French at Puerto de Santa Maria, by means of 

 kites. This correspondence was continued for some 

 time, till the authorities put an end to it by sending 

 up other kites ; the inhabitants also raised them in 

 great numbers. It is to be observed, that the king 

 was restored to his dignity as soon as he arrived at 

 the city. The time of the capitulation having ar- 

 rived, his majesty departed from Cadiz to meet his 

 cousin of Angouleme, at Puerto de Santa Maria. He 

 issued a decree at Cadiz, September 30, which was 

 annulled by the decree of Puerto de Santo Maria, of 

 October 1. Since that epoch, to the death of Ferdi- 

 nand in 1834, Spain was subjected to a terrible des- 

 potism. 



Ferdinand was a man totally without character, 

 and, without being naturally bad, did more injury 

 to the unhappy nation which he governed, than if 

 he had been a Nero or a Caligula. His face was 

 marked with the general features of a Bourbon ; 

 his nose was aquiline, and almost covered his mouth, 

 threatening to come in contact with his chin ; his 

 height was about five feet five or six inches. One 

 of his principal favourites was a low-born man, once 

 the sweeper of the palace stairs, called Pedro Collado, 

 but generally known by t,he nickname of Chamorro. 

 This man's good-will was the surest road to the 

 graces of the king. 



FERDUSI, or FERDOUSI, Tshak Ben Scheriff- 

 schah, the greatest epic poet of the Persians, was 

 bom at Thus, and flourished about 1020 A.D. His 

 curiosity was excited and gratified by the ancient 

 history of Persia, and he determined to adorn it with 

 the charms of verse. On account of some difficulties, 

 he went to Ghizne (Ghazne), where the sultan 

 Mahmoud then held his court, and attracted and 

 collected the poets and learned men by his patron- 

 age. He entered the gardens of the royal palace, 

 and found Anasari, the poet of the sultan, in one of 

 the arbours, with two of his disciples, engaged in 

 making extempore verses. Ferdusi approached them, 

 and joined them in their occupation. Anasari, 

 astonished to hear a stranger, in peasant's clothing, 

 express himself with so much elegance, entered into 

 conversation with him, discovered the purpose of his 

 visit, and informed the sultan. Mahmoud afterwards 

 ordered him to finish the Persian work, the ancient 

 Shanameh or Bastanameh (literally, The Old Book), 

 which contains the history of Persia, and which had 

 been begun by Dakiki, and continued a century 

 later by Ansseri, promising him a piece of gold for 

 each verse. Ferdusi devoted ten years of the latter 

 part of his life to this work, and produced an histori- 

 cal poem of 60,000 verses, entitled Shanameh (Book 

 of the Kings), containing the history of the Persians 

 from Nourshirvan to Yezdegerd, and consisting, 

 properly, of a succession of historical epics. The 

 achievements of the hero Rustan, the Persian Her- 

 cules, form one of the finest episodes. Ferdusi 

 presented his poem to the sultan, whose favour had 

 been alienated by the calumnies of the enemies of the 

 poet, and who gave him only a piece of silver for each 

 verse. Indignant at this treatment, Ferdusi struck 

 out a number of verses, in praise of Malimoud, which 

 he had inserted in his poem, and composed a bitter 

 1 satire on the sultan (to be f6und in Jones's Poeseot 



