upon the necessity of observing these instructions, glad that they were thus instructed to do nothing, where they were incapable of perceiving what they ought to do. ♦AGITATION OF THE PEOPLE OF MADRID. MAY 1.♦ The courier who was expected on that evening did not arrive. Great multitudes assembled the next day at the Puerta del Sol, and in the streets near the post-office, anxiously waiting for the news which he would bring. During the whole day it was apparent that some dreadful crisis was coming on. The French made an ostentatious display of their troops and their artillery, and on the part of the Spaniards the ordinary duties and diversions of the Sabbath seemed to be suspended in the general agitation that prevailed. Nothing was concerted among them; no one knew what was to be done, nor what was to be hoped, but that some great calamity might be looked for; and every man read in the manner and countenance of others an apprehension and a feeling of indignation like his own. Murat appeared in the streets at noon, and was received with hisses and outcries. Evening came, and the courier was not arrived. The French garrison were under arms all that night, and their commanders, “cool spectators of these things,” according to their own relation, saw the crisis approaching, and saw it with pleasure. ♦MAY 2.♦ ♦DEPARTURE OF THE QUEEN AND THE INFANTE.♦ The following morning had been fixed for the departure of the Queen of Etruria and the Infante D. Francisco de Paula, and many persons, chiefly women, collected before the Palace to see them set off. Among the many rumours, true and false, with which the city was filled, it was reported that the Infante D. Antonio had been ordered by Murat to join his brother and nephew at Bayonne, and leave him to act as regent during his absence; that the Infante had refused to obey, and that in consequence of his refusal Murat had recalled some troops to Madrid which had been ordered to a different station, intending to seize the Infante, and assume the government. Enough had transpired to make this report probable: one of the carriages which drove up to the gate was said to be for D. Antonio; and some of the populace being determined that the last of the royal family should not be taken from them without resistance, and that one especially who had been left to represent the King, cut the traces, and forced it back into the yard. Being however assured that D. Antonio was not to leave Madrid, they permitted it again to be yoked and brought out. This occasioned so much stir that Murat sent an aide-de-camp to inquire into the cause; the people were disposed to treat him roughly, but some Spanish officers interfered and rescued him from their hands. The carriages, with the Queen of Etruria and her children, and her brother D. Francisco, then set out; the latter, a lad of fourteen, is said to have wept bitterly, and to have manifested the fear and reluctance with which he undertook the journey.