Thus, six weeks had sufficed to dissipate the Spanish armies; the glittering bubble bursted, and a terrible reality remained. From St. Sebastian to the Asturias, from the Asturias to Talavera de la Reina, from Talavera to the gates of the noble city of Zaragoza, all was submission, and beyond that boundary all was apathy or dread. Ten thousand French soldiers could safely (as far as regarded the Spaniards) have marched from one extremity of the Peninsula to the other. After the fall of Madrid, king Joseph remained at Burgos, issuing proclamations, and carrying on a sort of underplot, through the medium of his native ministers. The views of the latter being naturally turned towards the Spanish interests as distinct from the French, a source of infinite mischief to Joseph’s cause was opened; for that monarch, anxious to please and conciliate his subjects, ceased to be a Frenchman without becoming a Spaniard. At this time Napoleon assumed and exercised all the rights of conquest; and it is evident, from the tenor of his speeches, proclamations, and decrees, that some ulterior project, in which the king’s personal interests were not concerned, was contemplated by him. It appeared as if he wished the Spaniards to offer the crown to himself a second time, that he might obtain a plausible excuse for adopting a new line of policy by which to attract the people, or at least to soften their pride, which was now the main obstacle to his success. [Sidenote: Moniteur.] An assemblage of the nobles, the clergy, the corporations, and the tribunals of Madrid, waited upon him at Chamartin, and presented an address, in which they expressed their desire to have Joseph among them again. The emperor’s reply was an exposition of the principles upon which Spain was to be governed, and offers a fine field for reflection upon the violence of those passions which induce men to resist positive good, and eagerly seek for danger, misery, and death, rather than resign their prejudices. “I accept,” said he, “the sentiments of the town of Madrid. I regret the misfortunes that have befallen it, and I hold it as a particular good fortune that I am enabled, under the circumstances of the moment, to spare that city, and to save it from yet greater misfortunes. “I have hastened to take measures fit to tranquillize all classes of citizens, knowing well that to all people, and to all men, uncertainty is intolerable. “I have preserved the religious orders; but I have restrained the number of monks. No sane person can doubt that they are too numerous. Those who are truly called to this vocation by the grace of God will remain in their convents; those who have lightly adopted their vocation, or from worldly motives, will have their existence secured among the secular ecclesiastics, from the surplus of the convents. I have provided for the wants of the most interesting and useful of the clergy, the parish priests.