The bombardment of the capital began on the 2nd of September, 1807. All the advanced positions were occupied by the English troops, and on the 7th a capitulation was signed. The entire Danish navy fell into the hands of the English. It was the purpose of one of the secret articles of the treaty of Tilsit to place it at the service of Napoleon. The anger of the French was great, and the news of commercial reprisals, decreed at London, by order of the Council (November 11th, 1807), increased it. France, and the countries subject to her, were declared in a state of blockade, and all ships engaged in commerce with them, were subject to the right of seizure. A new decree of Napoleon, dated at Milan, the 17th of December, 1807, extended this imprudent and violent measure to all the English possessions upon the surface of the globe. The United States of America, the only maritime power remaining neutral, had the embargo also laid on her, and henceforward the commerce of the world was suddenly destroyed or condemned to the perilous condition of piracy. All rights and all interests were for a time disregarded. It is sometimes the glory of a feeble and courageous people, to accept tyranny for a time. Charles IV., King of Spain, had bowed to the yoke of revolutionary and absolute France. The Spanish nation, however, was weary of bearing the burdens and fighting the battles of a foreign master, under the name of its legitimate sovereign. On the 17th of March, 1808, a popular insurrection dethroned the feeble monarch and his servile favorite, Godoy, as they were preparing to flee to America. Prince Ferdinand, drawn to the opposition by his hatred of the Prince of Peace (Godoy), was proclaimed king, after the abdication of his father. The army of General Junot already occupied Portugal, and Murat had established himself at Burgos, as lieutenant of the emperor; he marched upon Madrid, of which he soon became master, deceiving and abusing, in turn, both the father and the son, the dethroned sovereign and the new monarch. {423} General Savary came to second Murat in his diplomatic mission. His address and his promises drew Ferdinand to Bayonne. The emperor was already there. The Prince expected to be recognized as King of Spain, but instead found himself a prisoner, carefully guarded. The demands of Napoleon were peremptory: it was necessary, he said, to be assured of the co-operation of Spain, and in consequence he had decided to place upon the throne a prince of his own blood. Ferdinand's renunciation of the throne was the price of his liberty. He resisted. The intrigues of the Prince of Peace, who had been delivered from prison by order of Napoleon, brought to Bayonne the old King Charles IV. who protested against his own abdication and the coronation of his son; at the same time he ceded the crown of Spain and the Indies to his faithful ally, the emperor of the French, to be disposed of at his convenience, with the only conditions, that the same