Legends -- Pyrenees; Pyrenees -- Description and travel; Pyrenees -- History
The Infante, the Prince Ferdinand, was also feeble-minded. He was the
rallying point of the faction opposed to Godoy. Ferdinand appealed
by letter to Napoleon (11 October, 1807), and the Emperor at once,
through his agent Savary at Madrid, pressed him to throw himself on
his protection by coming to Bayonne, “where,” said Savary, “you will
hear him salute you as Ferdinand VII, King of Spain and the Indies.”
The stupid Bourbon prince walked into the trap. On 16 April, 1808,
he crossed the frontier. “Ha! is the fool actually come!” exclaimed
Napoleon, who was at Bayonne. “I could hardly have thought it possible.”
Napoleon received him graciously, but instead of hailing him as king,
endeavoured to induce him voluntarily to resign his pretensions to the
throne. But Ferdinand, though stupid, was stubborn, and he refused.
It was accordingly necessary for the Emperor to ensnare the old king
as well. He wrote to him and to the Queen, inviting them to Bayonne
so that he might settle the dispute between him and the Infante, in
order to place the throne of Charles beyond danger of usurpation by
Ferdinand. The King was also dull enough to walk into the snare.
On 30 April a huge, lumbering coach drawn by eight Biscayan mules
rolled over the drawbridge of Bayonne. It contained the monarch,
his queen, his youngest son, and some attendants. Two other
antiquated chariots discharged their cargoes of chamberlains
and ladies-in-waiting. Godoy, who had preceded the royal party,
welcomed it, and assured his sovereign that the intentions of the
Emperor towards him were most generous. This assurance was speedily
corroborated by Napoleon, who appeared in person. The childish king
threw himself, weeping, into the arms of Napoleon, and called him his
best friend and truest support.
As the infirm old man was unable to walk unassisted, Napoleon took him
under the arm to help him up the steps. Charles turned to the Queen and
said, “See, Louisa, he is sustaining me!”
The resentment of the old couple against their son had increased.
Ferdinand was summoned to their presence before Napoleon, and then
ensued a scene to which the Emperor afterwards looked back with
disgust. The King loaded his son with bitter reproaches, the Queen
broke out into invectives. Losing all command over herself, this royal
virago foamed at the mouth, called on her good friend the Emperor to
send him to the guillotine, and had the indecency to protest that this
son, though borne by her, had not the King for his father. Then the
old king, crippled with rheumatism, raised his shaking hand over the
prince and threatened him with his cane.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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