The six months which had now elapsed since the treaty of Fontainebleau had been the most eventful in Spanish history. On the 30th of October, a few days after the signature of that treaty, and a few weeks after Prince Ferdinand had written to Buonaparte, a proclamation was issued from the Escurial, in which the King of Spain accused his eldest son of conspiring to dethrone him. ♦FERDINAND ACCUSED OF PLOTTING TO DETHRONE HIS FATHER, AND ATTEMPTING HIS MOTHER’S LIFE.♦ “God,” said he, in this extraordinary paper, “who watches over his creatures, does not permit the consummation of atrocious deeds when the intended victims are innocent; thus his omnipotence has saved me from the most unheard-of catastrophe. An unknown hand has discovered a conspiracy carried on in my own palace against my person. My life was too long in the eyes of my successor, who, infatuated by prejudice, and alienated from every principle of Christianity that my parental care had taught him, had entered into a project for dethroning me. Being informed of this, I surprised him in my room, and found in his possession the cipher of his correspondence and of the instructions he ♦1807. NOVEMBER.♦ had received from the vile conspirators. The result has been the detection of several malefactors, whose imprisonment I have ordered, as also the arrest of my son.” In a letter to Buonaparte, written the day before this proclamation was published, the King made a more horrible charge against the Prince, whom he accused of having attempted the life of his mother. “An attempt so frightful,” said he, “ought to be punished with the most exemplary rigour of the laws. The law which calls him to the succession must be revoked: one of his brothers will be more worthy to replace him on my throne and in my heart ... I thought that all the plots of the Queen of Naples would have been buried with her daughter!” This alluded to an opinion that the Prince’s late wife had first instigated him to cabal against his father. She doubtless detested Godoy and her infamous mother-in-law, and they therefore would not fail to indispose the King toward her. ♦PERSONS IMPLICATED IN THE CHARGE.♦