The Emperor, having finished his dispatches at Valladolid, mounted his horse, and set out for Paris. Mr. J. T. Headley thus describes this marvellous ride: "In the first five hours he rode the astonishing distance of eighty-five miles, or seventeen miles the hour. This wild gallop was long remembered by the inhabitants of the towns through which the smoking cavalcade of the Emperor passed. Relays of horses had been provided on the road; and no sooner did he arrive at one post, than he flung himself on a fresh horse, and, sinking his spurs in his flanks, dashed away in headlong speed. Few who saw that short figure, surmounted with a plain chapeau, sweep by on that day, ever forgot it. His pale face was calm as marble, but his lips were compressed, and his brow knit like iron; while his flashing eye, as he leaned forward, still jerking impatiently at the bridle as if to accelerate his speed, seemed to devour the distance. No one spoke, but the whole suite strained forward in the breathless race. The gallant chasseurs had never had so long and so wild a ride before." Napoleon had acted a very noble part toward his brother. The masses of the Spanish people were very ignorant and fanatical. The priests, wielding over them supernatural terrors, controlled them at will. There were certain reforms which were essential to the regeneration of Spain. But these reforms would exasperate the priests, and, through them, the people. Napoleon, anxious to save his brother from the odium of these necessary measures, took the responsibility of them upon himself. He issued a series of decrees when he entered Madrid as a conqueror, and by virtue of the acknowledged rights of conquest, in which, after proclaiming pardon for all political offenses, he introduced the following reforms. The execrable institution of the Inquisition was abolished. The number of convents, which had been thronged with indolent monks, was reduced one-half. One-half of the property of these abolished convents was appropriated to the payment of the salary of the laboring clergy. The other half was set apart to the payment of the public debt. The custom-houses between the several provinces of the kingdom, which had been a great source of national embarrassment, were removed, and imposts were collected only on the frontiers. All feudal privileges were annulled.