“Your Highness is not free from faults; the letter you have written me is sufficient to show that, and I have always wished to forget it. Being a King, you know how sacred are the rights of the throne; any step of an hereditary Prince towards a foreign Sovereign is criminal. I consider the marriage of a French Princess with Your Royal Highness would be conformable to the interests of my people, and, above all, as a circumstance which will unite me by fresh bonds to a house which I have had every wish to honour ever since I ascended the throne. “Your Royal Highness ought to beware of the consequences of popular insurrections; you might be able to make an assault on my scattered soldiers, but it would only lead to the ruin of Spain. “I have seen with regret some letters from the Captain-General of Catalonia which tried to rouse the people. “Your Royal Highness knows all the depth of my heart; you will observe that I am full of many ideas which require consideration; but you can be sure that in any case I shall behave to you as I have to the King your father. “Your Royal Highness must be assured of my desire to conciliate matters, and to find occasions of giving you proofs of my affection and perfect esteem. “May God have you in His holy and worthy keeping! “NAPOLEON.”[8] [8] From the “Memorias” of Nellerto and the “Manifestation” of Don Pedro Ceballos. The King, oblivious of the veiled insult of the Emperor, that he had no right to the throne beyond that transmitted by his mother, still cringed to the Frenchman, and wrote: “VITTORIA, “_April 18, 1808_. “SEÑOR, MY BROTHER, “I have received with great satisfaction your letter of the 16th, sent by General Savary. The confidence with which Your Majesty inspires me, and my desire to show you that my father’s abdication was the consequence of his own impulse, have decided me to go immediately to Bayonne. I hope therefore to leave to-morrow for Irun, proceeding thence to the country-seat of Marrae, where Your Majesty is. “I am, my good Brother, with the highest esteem and sincerest affection, “FERDINAND.”