Doyle’s bills having been negotiated, the troops were put in motion, and 40,000 fresh levies were enrolled, but the foresight and activity of Napoleon in disarming the country had been so effectual, that only 3,200 firelocks could be procured. A curious expedient then presented itself to the imagination of the duke of Infantado, and other leading persons in Madrid: colonel Doyle, at their desire, wrote to sir Hew Dalrymple in the name of the supreme council, to request that _the firelocks of Junot’s army, and the arms of the Portuguese people_, might be forwarded to the frontier, and from thence carried by post to Madrid; a novel proposition, and made at a time when England had already transmitted to Spain 160,000 muskets; a supply considerably exceeding the whole number of men organized throughout the country; 50,000 of these arms had been sent to Seville, but the junta shut them up in the arsenals, and left the armies defenceless; for to neglect or misuse real resources, and to fasten with avidity upon the most extravagant projects, is peculiarly Spanish. No other people could have thought of asking for a neighbouring nation’s arms at such a conjuncture; no other than Spanish rulers could have imagined the absurdity of supplying their levies (momentarily required to fight upon the Ebro) with the arms of a French army still unconquered in Portugal. But this project was only one among many proofs afforded at the time, that Cervantes was as profound an observer as he was a witty reprover of the extravagance of his countrymen. CHAPTER II. INTERNAL POLITICAL TRANSACTIONS. [Sidenote: Mr. Stuart’s Letters. Parliamentary Papers.] [Sidenote: Ibid.] [Sidenote: Mr. Stuart’s Letters. MS.] [Sidenote: Ibid.]