The situation in which Palafox was placed was equally conspicuous and perilous. To have escaped from Bayonne, and taken upon himself the command of one of the kingdoms of Spain in opposition to the usurpation, marked him in a peculiar manner for the vengeance of a tyrant who was not to be offended with impunity. The capital of Aragon was an important position, and at this time exposed to danger on all sides. The adjoining province of Navarre was in possession of the French, and it was not yet known that any resistance to them had been manifested in Catalonia. The passes of the Pyrenees, leading directly into Aragon, were open, and the main body of the French army was on the other side in and about Madrid. Thus surrounded by the enemy, and in a city which in military language would have been called defenceless, (the walls and gates of Zaragoza having for many generations been of no other use than to facilitate the collection of the customs,) Palafox declared war against the French. The proclamation which he issued was in a style which accorded with the temper of the people. He declared that the Emperor of the French, the individuals of his family, and every French general and officer, should be held personally responsible for the safety of King Ferdinand, his brothers, and his uncle: that should the French commit any robberies, devastations, and murders, either in Madrid or any other place, no quarter should be given them: that all the acts of the existing government were illegal, and that the renunciations at Bayonne were null and void, having been extorted by oppression: that whatever might be done hereafter by the royal family in their state of duresse, should for the same reason be accounted of no authority; and that all who took an active part in these transactions should be deemed traitors to their country. And if any violence were attempted against the lives of the Royal Family, he declared that in that case the nation would make use of their elective right in favour of the Archduke Charles.