LON 
atid, having embraced him again, led him by the hand to 
the apartment provided for him. 
Although the hiltory of all abfolute monarchies pre- 
fents many inftances of fttdden and furprifing elevations 
to great power and wealth, and as fudden and unexpected 
falls, there is perhaps none fo Unking as that of Don 
Manuel Godoy. His llory is not unlike that of Don Ro- 
derigo Calderona, the favourite of the duke of Lerma, 
prime minifter to Philip III. Godoy was called The 
Prince of the Peace, and was accounted by far the weal- 
thieft and molt powerful fubject in Europe. Indeed he 
had all the power, and in a great meafure all the wealth, 
of the Spanifli monarchy at his command. While feveral 
of the old imports had come to be alienated from the 
crown, and were impropriated by certain great families, 
through the improvident and profligate favour of the 
court, the people were opprefled with new and arbitrary 
taxes, burthenfome in themfelves, and rendered more fo 
by the mode of their collection. But the odium of the 
common people againft the prime minifter and favourite 
would never have wrought his fall, if there had not been 
a very general combination againft him among the nobi¬ 
lity, whom he fo greatly eclipfed in fplendour, patron¬ 
age, and favour, and to whom a predominant favourite 
at court is a greater nuifance, perhaps, than to the nobles 
of any other country in Europe. He had been difgraced 
a fhort time before the king refigned the crown to his fon ; 
and the joy that was excited in all the provinces of Spain, 
by the imprifonment of this prime minifter, with his 
principal officers, is not to be defcribed. At Salamanca, 
and feveral other towns, the hells of the churches were 
rung; and at Salamanca fix hundred monks, and as many 
licentiates, danced in the market-place; young women, 
married women, and old men, mixed with the monks in 
this extravagant demonftration of their joyful tranfports. 
The Spanifli newfpapers, which had begun to affume a 
tone of great freedom, liyled Don Manuel the Prince of 
Injuftice, the Generaliffimo of Infamy, and the Grand Ad¬ 
miral of Treafon. Don Manuel, in his retreat, was ac¬ 
companied by an efcort of two hundred horfemen, which 
appeared neceflary for his proteftion from the fury of the 
people. He arrived at Bayonne on the 26th of April. A 
caftle in the environs of Bayonne was appointed for his 
refidence ; and he was in all refpeCts treated by Bona¬ 
parte as a perfon of diftinftion and confequence. 
The determined interference of Bonaparte for the libe¬ 
ration of Godoy, was owing to the refolution of the king 
and queen not to quit Spain for France, though called thi¬ 
ther by Bonaparte, unlels the favourite fhould be permit¬ 
ted to do fo alfo, and to proceed on his journey before 
them. King Charles IV. and his queen Louila arrived 
on the 27th of April at Burgos, and on the 28th at Vit- 
toria. A detachment of the body-guards who had ac¬ 
companied the prince of Afturias to Bayonne, happening 
to be in this town, placed themfelves, according to cui- 
tom, in the palace to be occupied by their majelties. But, 
when the old king fet his eyes on them, with a degree of 
energy that furprifed every one, he ordered them to be 
gone: “You betrayed your trull at Aranjuez ; I want 
none of your fervices, and I will have none.” The guards 
were obliged to retire. On the 29th of April, their raa- 
jellies remained all night at Tolofa; on the 30th they 
came, about noon, to Irun, where they received letters 
from Bonaparte ; and two hours after entered the walls 
of Bayonne, where they were received with ail public re- 
fpecl and honour. 
When the roaring of cannon announced the arrival of 
the old king and queen of "Spain, Ferdinand, with his 
brother, Don Carlos, went to meet them. All the Spa¬ 
niards that were at Bayonne alfo waited on their majefties, 
and went through the ceremony of kneeling and killing 
hands. It was a fcene of ccnilraint and awkwardnefs on 
both fides; the king feemea as much diflatisfied with them 
as be had beer, with his body-guards at Vittoria. He did 
not fpeak a word to any one but count PignateHi de F»- 
VOh. XIII. No. 898. 
DON. 172 
entes, an unprincipled and fupplc courtier, whom Bona¬ 
parte had appointed to inlinuate himfelf into the confi- 
dence of the prince of Afturias., for the purpofe of watch¬ 
ing and betraying him. When the ceremony of killing 
hands was over, their old majefties, being fatigued, re¬ 
tired to their apartments; the prince of Afturias was go¬ 
ing to follow them; but the king flopped him, faying, 
“ Prince, have you not yet fufficiently outraged my grey 
hairs?” The prince, and the Spaniards who had accom¬ 
panied him to Bayonne, at thefe. words were -thunder- 
liruck, and withdrew in great perturbation. At five 
o’clock, their majefties were vilited by the emperor Napo¬ 
leon, who remained with them a long time. The con- 
verfation turned on the injuries that had been done to 
the king and queen, the perils in which they had been 
involved, the ingratitude of men on whom they had 
lavilhed favours, and above all on the ingratitude and 
rebellion, as they faid, of their fon. The officers of kino- 
Charles’s houfehold were appointed by Bonaparte ; all of 
them were Frenchmen. 
Another engine was now fet to work. The abdication 
of Charles IV. in favour of his fon and heir Ferdinand, 
was publilhed and abufed in all the French newfpapers, 
as uncontented to, and even compulfory ; and thus the 
crown of Spain, holding neither to the hand of the old 
king nor to that of the new one, feemed as it were in 
abeyance, till a ltronger power fhould feize upon it. The 
confequence of this neceflarily followed from the pre- 
mifes. Like the lawyer in the fable, who fettled the'dif- 
pute between two travellers about an oyfter, by fwallow- 
ing it, and giving a ffiell to each of the parties ; Bona¬ 
parte loon infilled upon Ferdinaud VII. and all his family- 
renouncing the crown of Spain and of the Indies. Una¬ 
ble to refill, the father yielded firft; Ferdinand lliowed 
fymptoms of relidance ; but he was foon made fenfible 
that he was in a Hate of arreft, and therefore obliged to 
fubmit to the iron hand of neceffity. Meanwhile the 
queen gave to the world the moft wretched example of 
feminine palfion and wickednefs, by baltardizing her own 
fon in the pretence of Bonaparte and her own hulband ; 
Notumque furens quid femina poffit. 
_ The fcene in which this horrid and degrading declara¬ 
tion took place, deferves to be exhibited. Alter a con¬ 
ference which was continued above an hour, Ferdinand 
was called in; and the queen, in a tranfport of palfion, 
faid to him ; “Traitor, you have for years meditated the 
death of the king: but, thanks to the vigilance, zeal, and 
loyalty, of the prince of the peace, you have not been 
able to efieft your purpofe ; neither you, nor any of the 
infamous traitors who have co-pperated with you for the 
accomplilhment of your defigns. I tell you to your face, 
that you are my J'on, but not the Jon of the king ; and yet, 
without having any other rights to the crown than thofe 
of your mother, you have fought to tear it from us by 
force. But I agree and demand, that the emperor Na¬ 
poleon lhall be umpire between us ; Napoleon, to whom 
we cede and transfer our rights, to the exclulion of our 
own family. I call on him to punilh you and your afib- 
ciates, as fo many traitors; and abandon to him the whole 
Spanifli nation.” 
This fcene of the queen baftardizing her own legiti¬ 
mate fon in the prefence of the king, his legitimate fa¬ 
ther, and proclaiming her own infamy before her hulband, 
is fomething fo new, fo furprifing, and fo lingular, that it 
would not have gained univerfal and undoubted credit, 
as it has done, if it had not been attelled by many wit- 
neffes. It has been fuppofed, on no improbable grounds, 
not to have been merely an tffulion of palfion, but to have 
been preconcerted between the queer, and Bonaparte. 
The queen w-as raving in fuch a fit of mad'nefs, that 
there teemed to be no end to her reproaches and abufe • 
when, enjoying fecretly, like Satan in Eden, the mifehief 
he had done, Napoleon interrupted her, by layino-, “No! 
I give 10 Ferdinand the crown of Naples; and to Carlos 
that of Etruria 5 with one of my nieCcs in mama°e to 
£ * Vck 
