would have been
massacred by the mob but for the interference of the Spanish regulars.
Napoleon waited until his infantry and artillery came up in the evening,
and then the place was invested on one side. "The night was clear and
bright" (says Napier); "the French camp was silent and watchful; but the
noise of tumult was heard from every quarter of the city, as if some
mighty beast was struggling and howling in the toils." At midnight the
city was again summoned; and the answer being still defiance, the
batteries began to open. In the course of the day the Retiro was
stormed, and the immense palace of the Dukes of Medina Celi, which
commands one side of the town, seized also. Terror now began to prevail
within; and shortly after the city was summoned, for the third time, Don
Thomas Morla, the governor, came out to demand a suspension of arms.
Napoleon received him with anger, and rebuked him for the violation of
the capitulation at Baylen. "Injustice and bad faith," said he, "always
recoil on those who are guilty of them." Many an honester Spaniard was
obliged to listen in silence to such words from the negotiator of
Fontainebleau and Bayonne.

Morla was a coward, and there is no doubt a traitor also. On returning
to the town he urged the necessity of instantly capitulating; and most
of those in authority took a similar part, except Castellas, the
commander of the regular troops. The peasantry and citizens kept firing
on the French outposts during the night; but Castellas, perceiving that
the civil rulers were all against further resistance, withdrew his
troops and sixteen cannon in safety. At eight in the morning of the 4th,
Madrid surrendered. The Spaniards were disarmed, and the town filled
with the French army. Napoleon took up his residence at Chamartin, a
country house four miles off. In a few days tranquillity seemed
completely re-established. The French soldiery observed excellent
discipline: the shops were re-opened, and the theatres frequented as
usual. Such is in most cases the enthusiasm of a great city!

Napoleon now exercised all the rights of a conqueror. He issued edicts
abolishing the Inquisition, all feudal rights, and all particular
jurisdictions; regulating the number of monks; increasing, at the
expense of the monastic establishments, the stipends of the parochial
clergy; and proclaiming a general amnesty, with only _ten_ exceptions.
He received a deputation of the chief inhabitants, who came to s