January twenty-fourth explained
that these acts were necessitated by plans of the English to land at
Cadiz. Six days afterward the Emperor estimated that he had eight
hundred thousand men under arms, and that he would soon have eighty
thousand more. In the presence of such facts the Prince of the Peace
was prostrated, while terror overpowered the feeble King and his
wicked consort. Nor was their panic diminished when a second letter
arrived from Napoleon, dated February twenty-fifth, which plainly
showed a determination to quarrel. "Your Majesty asked the hand of a
French princess for the Prince of Asturias; I replied on January tenth
that I consented. Your Majesty speaks no more of this marriage. All
this leaves in the dark many objects important for the welfare of my
peoples." In a few weeks Izquierdo arrived from Paris and reluctantly
explained the appalling truth: that the gossamer bonds of the treaty
he had negotiated at Fontainebleau were blown away, and that Portugal
was to be given entire to one of the Bonapartes. This was the
explanation of the appalling armaments in northern Spain, beyond the
Ebro. Godoy returned an answer refusing all proposals tending to such
a conclusion. Izquierdo carried back this reply, and toward the close
of March Talleyrand was appointed to negotiate with him under the
pretense of finding some compromise.

Talleyrand was heartily sick of his inactivity, and eagerly seized the
opportunity to reassert his importance. Abandoning utterly the
position of semi-resistance to Napoleon which he had held for some
time past, he now used his adroit and clever gift to further the
Emperor's schemes. The document which was finally drawn up by him gave
the French equal rights in the Spanish colonies with Spanish subjects,
and proposed an exchange for Portugal of the great march north of the
Ebro, which had once been held by Charles the Great and was now held
by Napoleon. When Izquierdo heard the hard stipulations he cried out
in dismay, but to every remonstrance came the cool reply that such was
the Emperor's will. Early in March Bessieres entered Spain with
thirty-five thousand men. This raised the total number in the
scattered divisions of the French troops now south of the Pyrenees to
about a hundred thousand. The Spaniards were at last thoroughly awake
to the fact of their humiliation. Excitement became more and more
intense, until an eruption of popular violence was imminent.

At this crisis N