Meanwhile, at the close of Sir John Moore’s holiday, he was sent off on another expedition, this time to Sweden, then an ally of England. He had over eleven thousand men under his command, all as eager as himself to help the Swedes. But the expedition was rendered abortive by the extraordinary conduct of the King of Sweden, who already began to show signs of the madness, for which he was afterwards deposed. On the arrival of the English fleet, he flatly refused permission to Sir John to land any of the troops, unless they were placed entirely under his own control, to be used how and where he chose. This, of course, Moore at once refused, and for two months, while he waited for directions from the home Government, the eleven thousand soldiers had to remain cooped up on board the vessels. Then came an attempt on the part of the crazy king to arrest Moore himself when on shore. Moore evaded the attempt, and at once set sail with his whole force for England. He wrote to his mother, “This campaign in Sweden has proved the most painful to me I ever served. It is, however, now nearly over.” Many criticisms were passed on his conduct by those who did not know the ins and outs of the whole affair. But the Duke of York expressed hearty approval, congratulating himself and the country on having sent a chief who could be firm to resist such unreasonable demands as those of the Swedish King. In the autumn of 1807, when Italy, Holland, Prussia, Austria and Russia were one and all either conquered, or at the least humiliated and helpless, Portugal next fell a victim to the rapacious conqueror, and was made a stepping-stone to the conquest of Spain. In the quaint language of one of Moore’s brothers, “being wont to eke out his martial feats with wily stratagems,” Napoleon plotted himself into a position of power there. Before the end of May, 1808, the French Army entered Madrid, declaring the whole country subject to the Emperor of the French, and proclaiming Joseph Buonaparte king. Then it was that the tide of Napoleon’s successes reached their high-water mark. From this date, it may be said, the retreat of the waters began upon land, as earlier their retreat had begun upon the ocean, at first imperceptibly, for a long while fitfully, yet with accelerating speed. Again and again the Spaniards had fought on the side of the French against the English. But now, at last, the spell seemed to be broken; now, at last; their eyes were opened. “As a man,” it was declared, Spain had risen against the Emperor, and a burst of enthusiasm, of vehement sympathy, rushed through the length and breadth of England. The Army was mad to fight.