The new sovereign had entered Madrid without being greeted with any signal demonstrations of enthusiasm. In accordance with the established etiquette of the realm, he was received at the foot of the grand stairs of the palace by the nobility of the country, and was proclaimed king in the public squares and principal streets of Madrid with the accustomed ceremonies upon the advent of a new sovereign. Intensely occupied with the cares of his new government, Joseph did not, for some time, fully comprehend the perils which menaced him. Step by step he was led on, as he quelled here and there a popular insurrection, until he found himself involved in a stern war with the great mass of the Spanish peasantry, with all the priesthood fanning the flames of opposition, and the British Government energetically co-operating with purse and sword. It would require volumes to describe, with any degree of minuteness, the tremendous struggle. Napier has performed that task in his immortal work upon the Peninsular War. Joseph soon awoke to a full realization of the peril of his position. On the 13th of July he wrote to the Emperor from Burgos at three o'clock in the morning, "It seems to me that no person has been willing to tell the exact truth to your Majesty. I ought not to conceal it. The task undertaken is very great. To accomplish it with honor will require immense resources. Fear does not make me see double. "In leaving Naples, I have indeed yielded my life to the most hazardous events. My life is of but little consequence. I surrender it to you. But in order not to live with the shame attached to failure, great resources are requisite in men and money. I am not alarmed, in view of my position. But it is unique in history. I have not here a single partisan." Again, on the 19th, he wrote, "It is evident that we have not the soil, since all the provinces are in insurrection or occupied by considerable armies of the enemy." On the 28th of July he wrote, "I have no need to inform your Majesty that one hundred thousand men are necessary to conquer Spain. I repeat it, that we have not a partisan, and the entire nation is exasperated, and decided to sustain with arms the part which it has embraced. "All my Spanish officers except five or six have abandoned me. The disposition of the nation is unanimous against that which has been done at Bayonne." On the 6th of August he wrote, "Your Majesty recommends me to be happy. Never have I been so tranquil and so well, and so indefatigable; and if I have occasion to envy in your Majesty a superior genius which has always enabled him to command victory, I have that in common with all the world. But I have no need to envy any person for composure and tranquillity of soul. And I must avow that I find that adversity enables me to experience a sentiment which is not without a certain charm; it is to be above adversity."