est of the French.

The following day, April seventeenth, orders were issued to Bessieres
that if the prince should continue his journey there should be no
interference; but if, however, he turned back toward Burgos, he was to
be arrested and brought by force to Bayonne. Ferdinand hesitated as he
read the insults, promises, and compliments which made up Napoleon's
letter. His Spanish counselors advised a return; Savary laughed at
such scruples, and was not only voluble in verbal commentaries on the
ambiguous text, but profuse in promises. On the twentieth Ferdinand
VII of Spain, as his supporters called him, was at the gates of
Bayonne. He was received, not with royal honors, but by his own
legates, the three grandees whom he had sent to Napoleon; and they
told him with mournful accents that the Emperor with his own lips had
declared that the Bourbons could no longer reign in Spain. It was with
dejected mien and shaky steps that the young monarch and his suite
followed Duroc and Berthier to the wretched quarters provided for
their residence. The Empress was, throughout the three months spent
at Bayonne, both gracious and conciliatory, playing her part as
hostess with grace, and alleviating with kindness the bitterness of
her compulsory guests. On the evening of Ferdinand's arrival a
handsome dinner was given at the chateau where the court was lodged,
and the visiting prince was most decorously treated. His train grew
more joyous and hopeful as the hours passed, although they noted that
the Emperor did not address his guest as king. Still, that was a
slight matter, and they returned in gaiety to their poor lodgings--all
but one: Canon Escoiquiz had been asked to remain for a short private
interview, while Savary escorted his master. It was an identical
communication which was then made in the same hour to both minister
and prince; short, terse, and brutal: to wit, the Bourbons had ceased
to reign in Spain, and Ferdinand would be indemnified by Etruria if he
would formally renounce a crown which was not even technically his,
since Charles declared that he had abdicated through fear. The
document in which this was announced had already been printed and
published at Madrid by Napoleon's command. He now summoned Charles,
Louisa, and Godoy to Bayonne.

Murat had found trouble in liberating the Prince of the Peace, for the
junta feared the populace if they should remember the object of their
hate and scorn. But he finally su