the frigate receiving
strict injunctions not even to approach the Spanish coast.

Proceeding to Portsmouth, where he was to embark, he there, to his
inexpressible joy, met his only and dearly beloved sister, from whom
he had so long been separated. This virtuous, amiable, but unhappy
princess, had long been striving to join her wandering brothers and
share their fate. Thus far she had been baffled in every endeavor,
and two of them had sadly gone down into the grave, unsustained by
those consolations which a sister's love and attentions might have
afforded them. The princess had finally succeeded in tracing her only
surviving brother from Sicily to Gibraltar, and from Gibraltar to
England. She had thus providentially met him just as he was embarking
for Malta.

The brother and sister sailed together, and landed at the port of
Valetta, in Malta, in February, 1809. Thence the duke dispatched a
private messenger, the Chevalier de Brovul, to seek an interview with
his mother, to explain to her the impossibility of their going to
Minorca, and to entreat her to join them, if possible, in Malta.

"The duke's agent," writes the English historian, Rev. G. N. Wright,
"was faithful, intelligent, and active. But the impediments which
were placed in his path rendered his progress in negotiation slow,
and at length completely obstructed them."

The Spaniards did not love the English, and the English made no
efforts to disguise their contempt of the Spaniards. There was no
cordial co-operation of action. There was a strong party in Spain in
favor of the regeneration of their country by the enlightened and
liberal views which Joseph Bonaparte was introducing. There was
another powerful party opposed to France, and equally opposed to
British domination.

"The greatest anarchy," says Mr. Wright, "prevailed in every part of
the Peninsula. The Spaniards were divided in their allegiance, and a
Bonapartist party was formed in the heart of the country. The
national resources were exhausted; and their co-operation with the
English wanted that cordiality to which her noble efforts had
entitled her, and which Spanish policy ought to have extended to
them.

"Brovul, who had been dispatched to convey a mere affectionate
expression of regard and love from her children to the venerable
duchess, became, on his route, transformed into a political envoy. It
was now distinctly and emphatically proposed, by several of the most
distinguished men