The young King Ferdinand immediately dispatched the Duke of Pargue to convey assurances of friendship to Murat, and to sound his intentions. At the same time he sent three of the grandees of Spain to announce his accession to the throne to Napoleon, and to give him renewed pledges of his friendship and devotion. On the 23d of April Murat took military possession of Madrid. The next day Ferdinand made his triumphal entrance into the metropolis. He was received with boundless exultation, so greatly were the people rejoiced to be delivered from the detestable Godoy. Thus far Napoleon did not recognize the accession of Ferdinand. He however sent the Duke of Rovigo to Madrid to ascertain the circumstances of the abdication. In the mean time the old King, who had retired with the Queen to Aranjuez, wrote a letter to the Emperor, in which he said that he had been forced to abdicate in favor of his son by the clamors of the people and the insurrection of the soldiers, threatening him with instant death if he refused. "I protest and declare," he said, "that my decree of the 19th of March, in which I abdicated the crown in favor of my son, is an act to which I have been forced to prevent the greatest misfortunes and the effusion of the blood of my well-beloved subjects. It ought consequently to be regarded as of no value." The Queen also wrote to Murat, entreating him, in the most supplicating terms, to rescue her paramour Godoy from prison, and stating that they had abdicated only to save their lives. While Charles IV. and Caroline were making these secret protestations to Napoleon and Murat, the abdicated King, to lull the suspicions of Ferdinand, was reiterating the public declaration that the abdication was free and unconstrained, and that never in his life had he performed an act more agreeable to his inclinations.