ame date Bessieres was instructed to treat
the old King and Queen with distinction if they should pass his way.
Publicly it was to be made known in Madrid that the long-talked-of
visit by the Emperor would not be further postponed. Such was
Napoleon's confidence in the quick apprehension of his subordinates
that henceforward he regarded the whole royal household of Spain as
his prisoners.

There is in existence what purports to be a letter from Napoleon to
Murat, dated March twenty-ninth.[22] It is undoubtedly by Napoleon,
but it was either written at the time, for public effect, and not
sent, or it was a later fabrication intended to mislead posterity,
because its formal style is not used elsewhere in the correspondence.
It explains to "His Imperial Highness" what was not known until ten
years later, namely, that the Spaniards were a people with violent
political passions, capable of indefinite warfare; that the nation
could and must be regenerated only by careful management; and that
nothing must be done precipitately. At the same time it gives the
Protector, as Murat is designated, his own option in regard to a
recognition of Ferdinand, expresses disapproval of the precipitate
seizure of Madrid, and warns him that he must not create an
irrepressible opposition. Whether the letter be authentic or not,
whether it was sent or not, really matters but little as regards our
judgment of the facts. The disorganization of Spain had been its own
work; the court intrigues were already burning before they were fanned
by Napoleon's agents in the hope that, like the royal house of
Portugal, the incapable Spanish Bourbons would fly to America. The
revolution of Aranjuez was a bitter disappointment to the great
schemer, and disconcerted his plans. But Murat's conduct and
Ferdinand's character rendered difficult, if not impossible, any
course which would combine the consummation of his fixed designs with
even the slightest degree of popular good will in Spain. Nothing was
to be gained at such a supreme moment by the ordinary brutal abuse
which the Emperor was accustomed to heap on his brother-in-law for
commonplace offenses; moreover, in view of the disappointing
revolution, Murat's course was perhaps as good as any other. He must,
however, bear whatever responsibility attached to it, and that
responsibility would have been his even without the supposititious
letter which he never received. The contempt of the people for the
boy-so