The king called several councils on the occasion, and resolved on crushing all hopes of a revolution in Portugal, by immediately summoning the duke of Braganza to Madrid, as the only chief of a party to be dreaded in that country. The count-duke, therefore, sent off a courier to that prince, informing him that his majesty required his presence, being desirous of learning from his own mouth the precise state of the troops and fortresses in Portugal; adding, that his friends were anxious to see him at court, where he might be assured he would be received with every distinction due to his birth and merit. A thunder-bolt could not have more dreadfully dismayed the duke than this intelligence. The earnest intreaties and different pretences which had hitherto been employed to entice him from his native country, confirmed him in the idea that he was obnoxious to the government, and his destruction certain. But now the case was still more desperate; proffered employments, and feigned caresses were now changed to absolute orders, which, if disobeyed, would be enforced by violence. Apprehensions of his designs having been betrayed took possession of his mind; and as all those who form great projects believe the whole world employed in watching their motions, and diving into the secret recesses of their hearts, this able, though in some respects timid and suspicious prince, believed himself involved in the greatest of all possible calamities. He, however, wishing to gain time, dispatched, by the advice of the duchess, an intelligent and faithful gentleman belonging to his household, to assure the prime minister of his immediate attendance on his majesty, giving him at the same time secret orders to endeavour as much as possible to invent different excuses for the arrival of his master being so long delayed; the duke hoping by these means to avert the storm hanging over his head, and to accelerate the success of the conspiracy. Immediately on the gentleman's reaching Madrid, he acquainted the king and prime minister that he only preceded his master, who would instantly follow him; and hiring a large hotel, he furnished it magnificently, engaged a great train of domestics, whose liveries he had already provided, lived at a considerable expence, in short, neglected nothing to prove that the duke's arrival was hourly expected, and that he intended appearing at court with a splendour suitable to the dignity of his birth.