Ferdinand expressed himself to the same effect in a letter, which on the morrow he delivered into Laforest’s hands. “I am still under the protection of your Imperial Majesty,” he added, “and still profess the same love and respect of which you have had so many proofs. If your Majesty’s system of policy, and the actual circumstances of your empire, will not allow of your conforming to this course, I shall then remain quietly and willingly at Valençay, where I have now passed five years and a half, and where I shall remain for the rest of my life, if God has so appointed it. It is painful to me, Sire, to speak in this manner to your Majesty, but conscience compels me to it. I have as much interest for the English as for the French, but, nevertheless, I must prefer the interest and happiness of my own nation to every thing. Your Imperial and Royal Majesty will see, I hope, in this nothing more than a new proof of my ingenuous sincerity, and of the affection which I bear towards you. If I should promise any thing to your Majesty, and afterwards be obliged to act in opposition to it, what would you think of me? you would say that I am inconstant, and you would despise me, and dishonour me with all Europe.”

When Laforest received this letter from Ferdinand, he observed, that his Royal Highness desired nothing but what was very just; but he asked whether he designed to treat with the Emperor before he had consulted with the Regency, or after? if after, it would occasion much delay; if before, when the business was once concluded with the Emperor, the Regency would instantly do whatever he thought fit. But if his intention in returning to Spain was to continue the war with France, the Emperor would choose rather to keep him in his power, and carry on the war upon its present footing. Ferdinand replied, that surely either the ambassador had not understood him, or he himself must have failed in expressing himself with sufficient clearness. “My declarations,” he pursued, “amount to this, that I marry myself to neither power. If the interest of Spain requires that I should be the friend of the French, I will be so; but if it requires that I should be the friend of the English, their friend I shall be; and, finally, if this should not suit the Emperor, the Infantes and I will remain well pleased where we are at Valençay. In acting thus I do no otherwise ♦Escoiquiz, Idea Sencilla, &c., pp. 83, 100.♦ than the Emperor himself would do were he in my place3.” From this resolution Ferdinand was not to be dissuaded, and Laforest accordingly returned with this reply.

Upon his return, Buonaparte dispatched the Duque de S. Carlos to Valençay to negotiate, on Ferdinand’s part, with Laforest; and a treaty was easily concluded to this effect, that the Emperor of the French recognized Ferdinand and his successors as Kings of Spain and of the Indies, according to the order established by the fundamental laws of Spain; and that he recognized the integrity of the Spanish territory as it existed before the war, and would deliver up to the Spaniards such provinces and fortified places as the French still occupied in Spain: Ferdinand obliging himself, on his part, to maintain the same integrity, and that also of the adjacent isles and fortified places, and especially Minorca and Ceuta; and to make the English evacuate those provinces and places, the evacuation by the French and English being to be made simultaneously. The two contracting powers bound themselves to maintain the independence of their maritime rights, as had been stipulated in the treaty of Utrecht, and observed till the year 1792. All Spaniards who had adhered to King Joseph were to re-enter upon the honours, rights, and privileges which they had enjoyed, and all the property of which they might have been deprived should be restored to them; and to such as might choose to live out of Spain, ten years should be allowed for disposing of their possessions. Prisoners on both sides were to be sent home, and also the garrison of Pamplona, and the prisoners at Cadiz, Coruña, the Mediterranean islands, or any other depôt which might have been delivered to the English, ... whether they were in Spain, or had been sent to America or to England. Ferdinand bound himself to pay an annual sum of thirty millions of reales to Charles IV., his father, and, in case of his death, an annuity of two millions to the Queen, his widow. Finally, a treaty of commerce was to be formed between the two nations, and till this could be done, their commercial relations were to be placed upon the same footing as before the war of 1792.

The next step was to notify this treaty to the actual government of Spain. Accordingly Ferdinand addressed a letter to the Regency, being the first communication which he had been permitted to hold with his own country since his entrapment. “Divine Providence,” he said, “which in its inscrutable wisdom had permitted him to pass from the palace of Madrid to that of Valençay, had granted to him the blessings of health and strength, and the consolation of never having been for a moment separated from his beloved brother and uncle, the Infantes, Don Carlos and Don Antonio. They had experienced in that palace a noble hospitality; their way of life had been as agreeable as it could be under such circumstances; and he had employed his time in the manner most suitable to his new condition. The only intelligence which he had heard of his beloved Spain was what the French gazettes supplied; these had given him some knowledge of the sacrifices which the nation had made for him; of the magnanimous and unalterable constancy manifested by his faithful vassals, of the persevering assistance of England, the admirable conduct of its general-in-chief, Lord Wellington, and of the Spanish and allied generals who had distinguished themselves. The English ministry had publicly declared their readiness to admit propositions of peace, founded upon his restitution; nevertheless, the miseries of his kingdom still continued. He was in this state of passive but vigilant observation, when the Emperor of the French spontaneously made proposals to him, founded upon his restitution, and the integrity and independence of his dominions, without any clause which would not be compatible with the honour and glory and interest of the Spanish nation. Being persuaded that Spain could not, after the most successful and protracted war, conclude a more advantageous peace, he had authorized the Duque de S. Carlos to negotiate in his name with the Comte de Laforest, whom the Emperor Napoleon had nominated as plenipotentiary on the part of France; and he had now appointed the Duque to carry this treaty to the Regency, in proof of the confidence which he reposed in them, that they might ratify it in their usual manner, and send it back to him after this necessary form without loss of time. How satisfactory,” he concluded, “is it for me to stop the effusion of blood, and to see the end of so many evils! and how do I long to return and live among a people, who have given the universe an example of the purest loyalty, and of the noblest and most generous character!”

This letter seemed to leave the Regency no power of deliberation, but simply to require that they should ratify the treaty. But in fact, Ferdinand, if he had any such wish, had no such expectation; and he had penetration enough to see that the course of events which had compelled Buonaparte to treat with him upon such terms, must in their consequences restore him to his kingdom; even though the Regency should, as he supposed, refuse to ratify it, because of their engagement with the allied powers. He gave the Duque, therefore, ♦Secret instructions from Ferdinand.♦ secret verbal instructions to inquire into the spirit of the Regency and the Cortes; and if he should find them loyal and well affected to his royal person, ... not, as he suspected, tainted with infidelity and Jacobinism, ... he was then to let the Regency know, but in the greatest confidence, his royal intention that the treaty should be ratified, if it could be done without injury to the good faith which Spain owed to the allied powers, or to the public weal; but that he was far from requiring this if it were otherwise. Should the Regency be of opinion, that without compromising these points, the treaty might be ratified, upon an understanding with England temporarily, and until his return to Spain should in consequence be effected, upon the supposition that he, without whose free approbation it could not be complete, would not ratify it when at liberty, but would declare it to have been constrained and null, and moreover as being injurious to the nation; in that case he wished them so to ratify it, because the French could not reasonably reproach him, if, having acquired information concerning the state of Spain, which had been withheld from him in his captivity, he should refuse to confirm it. But if the Duque should discover that the spirit of Jacobinism prevailed in the Regency and the Cortes, he was then simply to require that the treaty should be ratified; for this would ♦Escoiquiz, 108–10.♦ not prevent the King from continuing the war after his return, if the interest and good faith of the nation should so require. This intention, however, was to be kept profoundly secret, lest, through any treachery, it should be made known to the French government.

With these instructions the Duque departed, travelling under the assumed name of Ducós, that his mission might not be suspected. Laforest remained at Valençay, still under a false name, and keeping out of sight, in the same part of the castle which Ferdinand and the Infantes inhabited; and before the Duque’s departure, Don Pedro de Macanaz was sent thither by Buonaparte to continue the conferences with this diplomatist. However much the Regency, or rather the Cortes (for the Regency was now the mere organ of its pleasure) might be surprised when the treaty was communicated to them, they were not unprovided ♦Jan. 8.♦ for such an event. The Regency accordingly expressed in reply their joy upon seeing the King’s signature, and being assured of his good health, and of that of the Infantes, and of the noble sentiments which he cherished for his dear Spain. “If,” they said, “they could but ill express their own satisfaction, still less could they the joy of that noble and magnanimous people who had sworn fidelity to him; nor the sacrifices which they had made, were making, and still would make, till they should see him placed upon the throne of love and justice which they had prepared for him: they must content themselves with declaring to his Majesty that he was the beloved and the desired of the whole nation. It was their duty to put him in possession of a decree passed by the Cortes on the 1st of January, 1811; so doing, they were excused from making the slightest observation upon the treaty, in which his Majesty had the most authentic proof that the sacrifices made by the Spaniards for the recovery of his royal person had not been made in vain. And they congratulated him upon seeing that the day was now near when they should enjoy the inexpressible happiness of delivering up to him the royal authority which they had preserved for him in faithful deposit during his captivity.” The decree which accompanied this letter was that by which the Cortes enacted that no treaty which the King might conclude during his restraint and captivity should be recognized by Spain.

Some delay had taken place in the Duque de S. Carlos’s journey, owing to the removal of the Cortes from Cadiz to Madrid just at that time. In the interim, Buonaparte, who was now as desirous to withdraw his troops from the Peninsula as, in evil hour for himself, he had once been of introducing them there, sought to accelerate that object. He released Zayas and Palafox, who had been kept close prisoners at Vincennes, and sent them to Valençay. Escoiquiz soon followed them; and Laforest proposed that orders should be given by the Regency, immediately after the ratification, for a general suspension of hostilities, humanity requiring that all useless expenditure of blood should be avoided. The Emperor, he said, had appointed Marshal Suchet his commissioner for executing that part of the treaty which related to evacuating the fortresses; and it now depended upon the Spanish government alone to expedite this business, and effect the release of prisoners; the generals and officers should proceed by post to their own country, and the soldiers be delivered upon the frontier as fast as they arrived there. This being assented to by Macanaz and Escoiquiz, ♦Palafox sent to the Regency. Dec. 23.♦ on Ferdinand’s part, it was determined that Palafox should be sent to communicate it to the Regency, bearing with him a duplicate of the Duque’s commission, in case any accident might have happened to him upon the way; and also a letter in which Ferdinand expressed his persuasion that the Regency had by this time ratified the treaty. But Palafox had secret instructions to see the English ambassador at Madrid, express to him how grateful the King felt for the exertions of the British government in his favour, and communicate to him, in secrecy, the King’s real intention in thus negotiating with Buonaparte, in order that that government, far from resenting such a proceeding, should contribute to its fulfilment. The ♦Reply of the Spanish government. 1814.
Jan. 28.♦ Regency replied to this second communication by referring to their former reply; they added, that “an ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary had now been named, on his Majesty’s part, for a congress in which the allies were about to give peace to Europe. In that congress, they said, the treaty would be concluded; and it would be ratified not by the Regency, but by his Majesty himself, in his own royal palace of Madrid, whither he would be restored to occupy, in the most absolute liberty, a throne rendered illustrious by the heroic sacrifices of the Spaniards, and by his own sublime virtues. And they expressed their satisfaction in the thought that they should soon deliver up to his Majesty the authority wherewith they were intrusted, ... a charge of such weight that it could rest only upon the robust shoulders of a monarch who, by re-establishing the Cortes, had restored to freedom an enslaved people, and driven the ferocious monster, Despotism, from the throne of Spain.”

The Spanish government would have acted thus far prudently in its communication with Ferdinand, if it had abstained from this empty language: but the Liberales, as the ruling party called themselves, were, some, vain of their talents, others confident in the uprightness of their intentions, and all alike ignorant of their weakness. If the abler leaders of this party had not proceeded so far as they desired and perhaps designed, they were yet conscious that they had proceeded farther than their functions warranted and than Ferdinand would sanction. They held, therefore, a secret sitting of the Cortes, and deliberated upon the measures to be taken in case the King should pass the frontiers. It was proposed, by a commission appointed to report upon this emergency, that he should not be considered as being free, nor should obedience be rendered him, until he should have sworn to the Constitution in the bosom of the Cortes; that the Generals on the frontiers should send expresses to the government with all speed, as soon as they obtained any tidings of his probable coming; that if he were accompanied by any armed force, that force should be repulsed, according to the laws of war; should it consist of Spaniards, they were to lay down their arms, and those who had been carried prisoners into France licensed to return each to his home; whatever General might have the honour of receiving the King being to supply him with a guard suitable to his royal dignity and person. No foreigner should be allowed to accompany him, not even as a domestic or servant; no Spaniard who had filled any office, received any pension, or accepted any honour from Buonaparte or from the Intruder. The Regency should be charged to fix the route by which the King should proceed to Madrid; and the President of the Regency, as soon as he arrived in Spain, should set out to meet and accompany him with a proper retinue, and present him with a copy of the Constitution, that so his Majesty, having made himself acquainted therewith, might, upon full deliberation and with entire consent, take the oath which it prescribed. Having reached the capital, he should proceed straight to the Cortes, there to take the said oath, with all the ceremonies and solemnities enjoined: this done, thirty Members of that assembly should attend him to the palace, where the Regency should resign the government into his hands; on the same day the Cortes should prepare a decree for making known to the nation the solemn act by which, and in virtue of the oath which he should then have sworn, the King had been constitutionally placed upon the throne; and this decree should be presented to the King by a deputation, that it might be published with all due formalities. The opinion of the Council of State upon this proposition was required within four-and-twenty hours.

The Council was of opinion that the King ought not to exercise any authority till he should have taken the oath before the Cortes. They thought that a deputation should be appointed to meet him, and inform him concerning the state of affairs and of public opinion, both as to the eternal and sworn hatred of Napoleon, and the observance of the Constitution. One member of the Council advised that the deputation should consist of members of the Cortes, two of whom in rotation should accompany the King in his coach till he arrived at the palace; and also that all the soldiers who had been prisoners in France should be detained upon the frontier, and all the King’s attendants also, till they should have taken the oath. “It must be believed,” said the Council, “that if Napoleon sends Ferdinand to Spain, it can only be for the purpose of laying a new snare for us, and making him the instrument of his iniquitous schemes, and rendering him, perhaps, odious to a nation which now longs for his presence, ... it must be with the design of fomenting a civil war, in which he may be entrapped, seduced, and compelled to take a part; that the attention of the allies may thus be distracted, and the progress of their operations be delayed. Now, therefore, more than ever Spain stands in need of that energy which hitherto she has displayed against the common enemy; now it is that she must manifest to the King how much she has done for his sake, and how much she loves him; but at the same time how much she loves the Constitution, and abhors the tyrannical disturber of the world. And, therefore, it is now more than ever of importance that efforts should be redoubled for maintaining our armies upon a good footing, and co-operating more effectually for the destruction of that monster.”

In this transaction Buonaparte acted towards Ferdinand with good faith, because he had no interest in acting otherwise; so he could extricate his garrisons he cared not now what might become of Spain. Ferdinand conducted himself with as much prudence and as little duplicity as could be expected in his situation. The Liberales miscalculated their strength; their measures implied a distrust of the King; and if he inferred from their language, that, under all its professions of respectful and affectionate loyalty, a defiance was couched there in case he should hesitate to recognise the new order of things, he was not mistaken in its purport and intent.