s of
Murat, who had ere then concluded his treaty with Francis, and was
advancing into the north of Italy, in the view of co-operating in the
campaign against Beauharnois, with the Austrians on the one side, and on
the other, with an English force recently landed at Leghorn, under Lord
William Bentinck.

He also unlocked the gates of Valencay on Ferdinand of Spain; and,
without doubt, the letter, in which he announced this intention to his
injured victim, will ever be recorded among the prime instances of his
audacity. He informed Ferdinand that the English were spreading _jacobin
principles_ in Spain, and attacking the foundations of the throne, the
aristocracy, and the church; and that he, therefore, was anxious to see
him at the head of affairs in the kingdom, provided he would expel the
English, and re-establish its relations with France, on the footing of
the peace which gave Godoy his title. Ferdinand durst not execute any
treaty without consulting the Cortes. They disdained to treat at all
with Napoleon. He then liberated the King unconditionally; and after
five years' captivity, Ferdinand re-entered Spain, amidst the all but
universal acclamations of a nation, who had bled at every pore in his
cause, and whom his government was destined ere long to satisfy that
they had bled in vain. Napoleon, no doubt, understood well what sort of
a present he was conferring on the Spaniards when he restored Ferdinand,
and probably calculated that his arrival would fill the country with
civil tumults, sufficient to paralyse its arm for foreign war. And--had
the King returned but a year earlier--such, in all likelihood, would
have been the consequence. Once more Napoleon was too late in doing good
that evil might follow.

For some time, thanks to the slavery of the Parisian press, the
population of the capital remained in ignorance as to the proceedings of
the Allies on the Rhine. Indeed--such was still the influence of the
Emperor's military reputation--the inhabitants of the French provinces
on that frontier, continued to believe it impossible that any foreign
army should dare to invade their soil, until they that had ears to hear,
and eyes to see, were perforce undeceived. Schwartzenberg, with the
_Grand Army_, at length crossed the Rhine, between Basle and
Schaffhausen, on the 20th of December, and disregarding the claim of the
Swiss to preserve neutrality, advanced through that territory unopposed,
and began to show thems