a small town eight miles from the foot of the mountains, a very considerable work on a regular plan*, completely commanding all the surrounding country, and qualified to make a long resistance to a very numerous army. About twenty miles to the southward of Figueras stands Gerona, a considerable town, defended by respectable works, on an eminence, washed by the river Ter. From this place the country is open all the way to Gerona, ninety miles distant from the frontier. Barcelona is situate on the margin of an extensive plain, is highly cultivated, and very populous. It had been fortified in the ancient fashion, but the works, during the last century, have been much neglected. A citadel of respectable strength was added at the north east extremity of the town, ostensibly for its protection, but it was imagined at the time, with a view to repress all attempts of the town's people, and the inhabitants of the neighbouring country to throw off the yoke of the house of Bourbon; against which they had struggled with great perseverance during the war of the succession. At the opposite extremity of the town rises a detached conical hill of considerable height, over-hanging the sea, called Monjuich, crowned with an ancient castle, strengthened with additional works of later times. This position is of great natural strength, commanding the town,

the adjoining plain, and the harbour; which is formed by a bending, low neck of land, lined with a noble mole of great extent, enclosing space for a great number of vessels. The water, however, is too shallow for receiving large ships of war, the sand constantly accumulating at the entrance, as happens in all harbours destitute of a river, or other backwater to keep them open.

Barcelona contains about one hundred thousand iuhabitants. Ninety miles westward from Barcelona, on the way to Madrid, stands Lerida, on the west bank of the Segre, occupying the eastern slope, and the confined summit of a small detached hill, commanding a rich and well cultivated plain. Lerida, once a place of importance, while Spain was parcelled out among a number of princes, has long ceased to be a place of much consequence, and its ancient fortifications are now fast hastening to decay. Such are the principal points of defence of the northern frontier of Spain against attacks by land.

The French forces assembled on the borders of Spain, remained but a short time inactive. Early in the year, a corps entered Catalonia, and on the 16th of February, obtained possession of the town and citadel of Barcelona, with the impregnable position of Monjuich. It had been industriously spread through Spain, that the French troops were destined to assist in defending

fending the coast against any insult from the British army or navy. Advantage had been taken of the national feelings to lull the Spaniards into security, by asserting that one great object of their powerful allies would be the reduction of Gibraltar, and its restoration to its ancient and natural masters. Whis pers and surmises too were industriously circulated of an intended invasion of Algiers and Morocco.

The mask was, however, soon thrown aside, and the French army, which had advanced to Barcelona, pretending only to halt for a few days for refreshment, before they should proceed on their march to the southern provinces, availing themselves of the alliance between the two nations, and of the unsuspecting confidence of the inhabitants, and even of the garrison of the place, seized without bloodshed, and without difficulty, the citadel, Monjuich, and every other import ant post. The garrison of Monjuich, reported to have amounted to about six thousand men, retired, and made way for the French without a struggle; a fascination hardly credible; and indeed the whole conduct of the Spanish commanders at Barcelona remains involved in mystery and suspicion.

The fortress of St. Sebastian and Figueras were seized by the French in a similar way. At Pampeluna, however, they experienced a different reception. On the arrival of a French officer at the head of a body of troops from Bayonne, before Pampeluna, demanding admission and possession of the place, the governor, whose garrison had for different reasons been much reduced, refused to comply with this demand, until orders should ar

rive from his own government. -The French commander' then brought forward a body of three thousand men, and compelled the Spaniards, after a severe conflict, to surrender.

The French armies that had entered Spain, instead of proceeding to their pretended destination, remained inactive on the banks of the Ebro, many miles from Madrid. Messengers passing to and from that place indicated the existence of negociations, but their object was unknown. The Spanish troops recalled from Portugal, were rapidly advancing towards the capital. The court seemed in the greatest anxiety and uncertainty, the orders of one day being uniformly countermanded by those of the following. The administration of public affairs seemed to be arrested in its course.

While matters were in this state, on the 15th of March a report was disseminated that the king was pre paring to leave Aranjuez for Seville, with a view to emigrate to his American dominions, and that the troops recalled from Portugal were destined to cover his retreat; that a numerous council had been assembled on the subject, in which, though the opinions were nearly balanced, it had been decided to undertake the journey; that the queen, and the favourite, Godoy, had avowed their desire to depart, but that the prince of Asturias op posed the design. The troops quartered in Madrid, had at the same time received orders to March.

But when the public alarm was at its heighth, on the 16th of March the king issued a proclamation, thanking his subjects for the marks they had shewn of attach

ment

ment to his person, and explained the objects of the French troops, which had entered his dominions with the most friendly purposes, to assist in defending the country against the common enemy. The assembling of his guards it was stated, was solely for the purpose of protecting his person and family, and not for accompanying him on a journey, which none but evil-minded persons could suppose to have been projected. The king closed this very extraordinary publication, with directing the people to conduct themselves as they had hitherto done towards the troops of his great and good ally.

On the following day, March 17th, when the Spanish guards were to leave Madrid, the inhabitants crowded round them, beseeching them not to abandon their native country, for the purpose of securing the flight of a prince who sacrificed his subjects to private considerations.

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"Do you think," said they, have no more spirit than the peo ́ple of Lisbon ?"

Some of the ministers themselves, who opposed the king's retreat, distributed circular notices in the neighbouring villages, informing the inhabitants of what was going forward, and of the danger to which the country would consequently be exposed.

On the 18th of March, the people poured along the road to Aranjuez. Relays for the king's carriages had been provided on the way to Seville. The village of Aranjuez was crowded with troops; and the baggage of the court lay already packed up in the apartments of the palace. The preceding night had been busily spent in

preparation. The residence of the prince of the peace was protected by his proper guards, (for to such a point of dignity he had been exalted) with a peculiar countersign, while those of the palace had another. At four o'clock in the morning of the 19th, the people rushed in crowds to the favourite's hotel, but they were driven back by his guards, who in their turn were driven back by the king's body guards, that had ranged themselves on the side of the people. Godoy's doors were forced; the furniture was broken; the apartments were laid waste; the princess, his spouse, daughter of Don Antonio, and niece to the king of Spain, appear ed on the stairs, and was conveyed by the people with all the respect due to her birth and rank, to the king's palace. The favourite himself had disappeared, and his brother Don Diego Godoy, commandant of the king's body guards, was arrested by his own troops.

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Their majesties, who had not retired to rest during the night, were early in the morning visited by the French ambassador, and soon after appeared a proclamation, in which the unfortunate sovereign was made to say, that having resolved to take upon himself the command of his forces by land and sea, he had thought it proper to relieve Godoy of the duties of generalissimo, and permit him to retire to whatever place be might choose.

When this was known in Madrid, the people attacked the houses of Godoy, and of certain, ministers of state attached to his party, and destroyed the furniture without opposition, on the part of either the magistrates, or the two Swiss regiments in the Spanish service, then quartered

artered in the town. The prince the peace was at last discovered a garret, where he had been conaled for six and thirty hours, and mmitted to the closest custody in e common jail.

In the midst of these disorders te king, on the 19th of March, at ranjuez, published a declaration, gned, as usual, by himself, stating, hat on account of his constant inrmities, and of the necessity, he lt of withdrawing himself from e burthen of public affairs to a rivate life, in a climate better dapted than that of Madrid to the ate of his health; he had, after e most deliberate consideration, esolved to abdicate the crown in avour of his well beloved son and eir, the prince of Asturias. It was likewise directed, that this deree of his free and spontaneous abication should be instantly and unctually obeyed by all his subcts. Cevallos labours to shew at this abdication was, in truth, ee and unconstrained. But this as very reasonably been made a uestion.

The first act of the new king erdinand VII. was to publish a anifesto, declaring his own innoence and that of his ministers, nd stating the nature of the paers and cyphers found in his partment at the Escurial, in the onth of October last. Among is first acts also, was one confiscatg all the property of every deription, belonging to the prince of Je peace.

At the same time, he appointed e duke of Infantado, a wealthy ad popular uobleman, of the first ass, and particularly attached to he interest of the new sovereign, and f England, to the important station

of the president of the great council of Castille, the first tribunal of the kingdom. To him also he committed the command of the Spanish life guards. Many salaries and pensions, which had long remained unpaid, were instantly discharged out of the funds of the late favourite.

On the 25th of March, Ferdinand, already proclaimed king, made his public entry into Madrid, which was by this time under the power of the French.

The circumstances that induced Buonaparte to order Murat, who commanded the French forces in Spain to advance from the line of the Ebro to the capital, have already been stated in our abridged account of the exposition of Cevallos; as well as the means by which the grand project of getting possession of the royal family of Spain was effected.

-The grand duke of Berg had, March 23d, entered Madrid, at the head of his army. The cavalry and a divison of infantry were quartered within the town, whilst other divisions were encamped on the rising grounds in the neighbourhood. A corps under general Dupont was stationed at Segovia and the Escurial. This army, which amounted to 54,000 men, according to the French newspapers of that day, was received by all ranks of people with the greatest joy. "Above all things, the Spaniards admired the fine condition the French troops were in, and particularly the beauty of the regiment of cuirrassiers. The grand duke descended from his carriage at the Admiralty. The governor of Madrid, the grandees of Spain, and the troops in garrison at Madrid, presented themselves before him to

pay

While the governor and garri son of Madrid, and the grandees of Spain, submitted to this act of selfdegradation; the mass of the people felt with pain the state of humiliation into which their country had fallen. They could not rest, but moved about in groups from place to place, in dejection and anxious consternation, insomuch that the new government deemed it necessary, for preventing tumults, and preserving the tranquillity of the city, to issue orders, April 3d, to the patroles, that had been established on the 20th of March, to continue their rounds. All keepers of public houses were ordered to shut them up before eight o'clock at night. Manufacturers and com mercial people, were ordered to continue their people in their usual employment, to keep them constantly at work, and to send the names of all absentees from their usual offices to the police magis trates*. Masters of families were earnestly enjoined by their advice, and above all, by their example, to restrain their children and domestics from mixing with crowds, and join ing in any uproar.

A second decree assured the pub lic, that the recent resolution was calculated to cement and strengthen the alliance with France, and enjoining all persons to treat the French troops with the greatest re spect. Another edict expressed the utmost satisfaction at the friendly

manner in which the French troops had been received by the Spaniards, but the greatest regret and sorrow, at the conduct of certain individuals, which had a tendency to interrupt the good understanding that happily subsisted between the nations, and to excite an unjust and ridiculous distrust of the designs of the French troops in Spain. Such sentiments either expressed by words or deeds were to be severely punished.

It has been uniformly the policy of Buonaparte, to reconcile the publie mind of individual nations, and of Europe, to the execution of his projects, by preparing it to expect them, and to consider things as maters of course, and not to be avoided. The Moniteur and other French newspapers represented the Spaniards not only as over-joyed at the presence of French troops, but in letters pretended to have been received from inhabitants of Madrid, state it as the opinion of the most sensible Spaniards, that in the present situation of affairs it was the interference of the French emperor alone, (wliose speedy approach had been publicly announced by the grand duke of Berg, in general' orders to his army) that could save them.

At the desire of Buonaparte, intimated to the first secretary of state, Don Pedro Cevallos, the sword that Francis I. king of France, surrendered in the famous battle of Pavia, in the reign of the emperor Charles V. of Spain, which had been kept in the royal armoury since 1525, was by order

of