declared constitutional emperor of Brazil on October 12, and was crowned as such shortly afterward at Rio Janeiro. [Sidenote: Discontent in Spain] [Sidenote: Foreign aid invoked] The South American colonies had now in great part secured independence. Spain was thereby robbed of her best resources. As financial distress became more widespread, the spirit of discontent rose. The King's plottings with the extreme Royalists of France lost him the confidence of his subjects. In the south the triumphant party of the so-called Exaltados refused obedience to the central administration. The municipal governments of Cadiz, Cartagena and Seville took the tone of independent republics. In the north, the Serviles, instigated by French agitators and their money, broke into open rebellion. After the adjournment of the Cortes, Ferdinand attempted to make a stroke for himself. The Royal Guards were ordered to march from Aranjuez to Madrid to place themselves under the King's personal command. The people took alarm, and several regiments of disaffected soldiers were induced to head off the guards. A fight ensued in the streets of Madrid. The guards were scattered. The King found himself a prisoner in his own palace. He wrote to Louis XVIII. that his crown was in peril. The Bourbon sympathizers in the north at once seized the town of Seo d'Urgel, and set up a provisional government. Civil war spread over Spain. Napoleon's final prophecy that Bourbon rule would end in the ruin of Spain, and the loss of all the best colonies was near fulfilment. It was then that the Continental powers of Europe proposed to interfere on behalf of the Spanish monarchy. The death of old Minister Hardenberg in Berlin did not loosen Metternich's hold on Prussia. Emperor Alexander hoped to conciliate his army, burning to fall upon the Turk, by treating them to a light campaign in Spain. In France, the Spanish war party likewise had the upper hand. [Sidenote: Monroe Doctrine]