again summoned; and the answer being still defiance, the batteries began to open.  In the course of the day the Retiro was stormed, and the immense palace of the Dukes of Medina Celi, which commands one side of the town, seized also.  Terror now began to prevail within; and shortly after the city was summoned, for the third time, Don Thomas Morla, the governor, came out to demand a suspension of arms.  Napoleon received him with anger, and rebuked him for the violation of the capitulation at Baylen.  “Injustice and bad faith,” said he, “always recoil on those who are guilty of them.”  Many an honester Spaniard was obliged to listen in silence to such words from the negotiator of Fontainebleau and Bayonne.

Morla was a coward, and there is no doubt a traitor also.  On returning to the town he urged the necessity of instantly capitulating; and most of those in authority took a similar part, except Castellas, the commander of the regular troops.  The peasantry and citizens kept firing on the French outposts during the night; but Castellas, perceiving that the civil rulers were all against further resistance, withdrew his troops and sixteen cannon in safety.  At eight in the morning of the 4th, Madrid surrendered.  The Spaniards were disarmed, and the town filled with the French army.  Napoleon took up his residence at Chamartin, a country house four miles off.  In a few days tranquillity seemed completely re-established.  The French soldiery observed excellent discipline:  the shops were re-opened, and the theatres frequented as usual.  Such is in most cases the enthusiasm of a great city!

Napoleon now exercised all the rights of a conqueror.  He issued edicts abolishing the Inquisition, all feudal rights, and all particular jurisdictions; regulating the number of monks; increasing, at the expense of the monastic establishments, the stipends of the parochial clergy; and proclaiming a general amnesty, with only ten exceptions.  He received a deputation of the chief inhabitants, who came to signify their desire to see Joseph among them again.  His answer was, that Spain was his own by right of conquest; that he could easily rule it by viceroys; but that if they chose to assemble in their churches, priests and people, and swear allegiance to Joseph, he was not indisposed to listen to their request.

This was a secondary matter:  meantime the Emperor was making his dispositions for the completion of his conquest.  His plan was to invade forthwith Andalusia, Valencia and Galicia, by his lieutenants, and to march in person to Lisbon.  Nor was this vast plan beyond his means; for he had at that moment 255,000 men, 50,000 horses, and 100 pieces of field artillery, actually ready for immediate service in Spain:  while 80,000 men and 100 cannon, besides, were in reserve, all on the south side of the Pyrenees.  To oppose this gigantic force there were a few poor defeated corps of Spaniards, widely separated from each other, and flying already before mere detachments: