From another and well-informed source, Mme. de Rémusat, we learn that Talleyrand and Napoleon were discussing the Spanish situation in a friendly way. “You consult me as if we were not on bad terms,” said Talleyrand. “Circumstances, circumstances,” replied the Emperor; “let us leave the past and the future and come to the present.” “Very well,” said Talleyrand, “you have no choice. You have made a mistake, and you must say so, and, as far as possible, say it with dignity.” He advised the Emperor to declare that his object had been “to free the Spanish people from the yoke of a detested minister,” and that he was now willing to restore the dynasty and withdraw his troops. The tone of the conversation, as given in Mme. Rémusat, is quite inconsistent with the notion that Talleyrand had urged the invasion of Spain. The Duc de Bassano (Maret) declares that he persuaded the Emperor to make Ferdinand’s return conditional on the consent of the Spanish Regency, and so delayed the return for some months, and threw away the Emperor’s chance of peace. We must remember how Maret had smarted under Talleyrand’s criticisms. “I never saw a greater donkey than Maret—unless it was the Duc de Bassano,” he once said. We know from a private letter to the Duchess of Courland that Talleyrand foresaw and forewarned Napoleon of the reluctance of the Regency. We also know from Roederer that he urged in December the unconditional return of Ferdinand to Spain. Napoleon wanted to release his armies from the Peninsula, but at the same time to keep the English from passing on to France. It was his own vacillation between his hopes and fears that prevented him from making definite terms. Over and over again at this period he falls back on Talleyrand’s advice, a month or so after the situation has changed against him, and the Allies will no longer entertain it[50]. The Spanish princes left Valençay on March 3rd. Castellane says that there was not a piece of furniture or china intact in the chateau after their six years’ stay. They left a memorial in the shape of their medieval chariot, which declined to move towards its ancestral home, and was long exhibited at Valençay. Talleyrand writes a singularly bitter passage on the English in describing Ferdinand’s return. He complains that, while they boasted of being “the saviours of Spain,” they failed to secure proper guarantees that the unamiable Ferdinand should not abuse his power on returning. “They only hate tyranny abroad when, as under Napoleon, it threatens their existence, and they love to make the subjection of peoples turn to the profit of their pride and their prosperity.” One would like to know the state of his health when he wrote this very exceptional sentence.