The King of Spain did not confine himself to verbal complaints.  He, or rather the Prince of the Peace, acting in his name, arrested the warmest partisans of the Prince of the Asturias.  The latter, understanding the sentiments of his father, wrote to Napoleon, soliciting his support.  Thus the father and son, at open war, were appealing one against another for the support of him who wished only to get rid of them both, and to put one of his brothers in their place, that he might have one junior more in the college of European kings:  but, as I have already mentioned, this new ambition was not premeditated; and if he gave the throne of Spain to his brother Joseph it was only on the refusal of his brother Louis (King of Holland) to accept it.

The Emperor had promised to support Charles iv against his son; and, not wishing to take part in these family quarrels, he had not answered the first letters of the Prince of the Asturias.  But finding that the intrigues of Madrid were taking a serious turn, he commenced provisionally by sending troops to Spain.  This gave offence to the people, who were averse to the interference of France.  In the provinces through which the French troops passed it was asked what was the object:  of the invasion.  Some attributed it to the Prince of the Peace, others to the Prince of the Asturias; but it excited general indignation, and troubles broke out at Madrid accompanied by all the violence peculiar to the Spanish character.

In these fearful circumstances Godoy proposed that Charles iv. should remove to Seville, where he would be the better enabled to visit the factious with punishment.  A proposition from Godoy to his master was, in fact, a command, and Charles iv. accordingly resolved to depart.  The people now looked upon Godoy as a traitor.  An insurrection broke out, the palace was, surrounded, and the, Prince of the Peace was on the point of being massacred in an upper apartment, where he had taken refuge.

—­[French troops had appeared in again some months before, on their way to Portugal, the conquest of which country by Junot was to be aided by Godoy and a Spanish force of 27,000 men, according to a treaty (more disgraceful to the Court of Spain than to Bonaparte) which had been ratified at Fontainebleau on the 27th of October 1807.  Charles iv. was little better than an idiot, and Godoy and the French made him believe that Bonaparte world give part, or the whole of Portugal, to Spain.  At the time of Junot’s march on Lisbon a reserve of 40,000 French troops were assembled at Bayonne—­ a pretty clear indication, though the factious infatuated Court of Madrid would not see it, that Bonaparte intended to seize the whole of the Peninsula.—­Editor of 1838 edition.]—­

One of the mob had the presence of mind to invoke in his favour the name of the Prince of the Asturias:  this saved his life.