f
power, while time should weaken the promptings of ambition and
revenge. In a few days Charles, Louisa, and Godoy were comfortably
installed at Compiegne, while Ferdinand, with his brother, went
sullenly away to "visit" at Valencay. The prisoner's character was
soon displayed. The day of his arrival at his destination he wrote a
cringing letter to Napoleon, and soon after not only congratulated the
Emperor on the accession of the King of Naples to the throne he had
claimed for his own, but even felicitated Joseph himself on his
coronation as Catholic Majesty.

[Footnote 23: Originals will be found in Oman, Vol. I, pp.
616-18.]

Napoleon knew the mysterious power throughout Europe of that charmed
word "legitimacy." He despised the concept that it expressed, while he
meant to make the most of its power. Having misunderstood the strength
of Spanish patriotism, he now made the blunder of supposing that the
Spaniards would receive as a legitimate prince whomsoever he chose to
appoint as heir to the "legitimacy" which the Spanish Bourbons had
just put into his hands. Louis, moreover, had but recently illustrated
the force of a new environment under the notion of legitimacy.
Replying to Napoleon's letter of March twenty-fifth, he had flatly
refused the Spanish crown, on the ground that he had sworn a solemn
oath to the Dutch. Joseph was immediately restored to favor and
ordered to Bayonne. He came with apparent alacrity, due, as he
claimed, to his desire to free his beloved brother Napoleon from
embarrassment. Soon all was apparently ready for his inauguration.

The treaty of Fontainebleau had produced unexpected complications and
disastrous results on its political side; the apparently insignificant
military clauses had so far been successfully executed. One Spanish
army was far away on the Baltic, held under curb by Bernadotte;
another had been despatched to western Spain, and had remained there;
in the mean while the north and the center of the country were
occupied by the French. General Solano had made some movement to lead
back his troops into the occupied territory, but was checked in his
advance by instructions from the ministers of Charles IV at Madrid.
Uncertain as to their powers in a revolutionary crisis, he rendered
only a half-obedience; but it was sufficient for Napoleon's object,
and there was no body of Spanish troops within striking distance of
the capital. Accordingly, when the Spanish