The troops that were to enter Spain were ready, and the first movement of Napoleon was to march them forward immediately. The trouble existing in the royal house afforded a ready excuse for an intervention entreated at once by both father and son. The King of Spain himself invoked assistance. The army of the Gironde was immediately reinforced and provisioned. A second corps was already preparing, but the Prince de la Paix discovered in the correspondence of Ferdinand the proof of his relations with Beauharnais. He did not wish to compromise his principality of Algarve by exciting the anger of Napoleon: the Prince of Asturias was exempted from the law, and his pardon solemnly proclaimed in an official decree by Charles IV. Only his accomplices were prosecuted, but the tribunals acquitted them. Meanwhile the army of the Gironde, under General Dupont, had entered Spain. The corps for watching the sea coasts, commanded by Marshal Moncey, followed in the same direction. Other detachments seized upon the fortresses of the frontiers. "On arriving at Pampeluna, General Duhesme will take possession of the town," wrote the emperor to General Clarke, Minister of War (January 28th, 1808), "and without making any show he will occupy the citadel and the fortifications, treating the commandants and the inhabitants with the greatest courtesy, making no movement, and saying that he is expecting further orders." The orders were not long in arriving; 100,000 men of the grand army were effecting a backward movement, approaching France, and consequently Spain. At the same time, Joachim Murat, the living hero of hazardous and doubtful enterprises, had just been appointed general-in-chief of the armies in Spain. His instructions were all military. "Do not disturb in any manner the division of Duhesme," wrote the emperor to his lieutenant, on the 16th of March, 1808; "leave that where it is. It guards Barcelona and holds that province, and fulfils its purpose sufficiently. When the 3000 men of the reinforcement who are about to rejoin this division, and who will be at Barcelona towards the 5th or 6th of April, shall have arrived, it will be another thing. Then he will have an army capable of carrying him anywhere. At the moment when you receive this letter, the head of General Verdier's corps will touch the borders of Spain, and General Merle ought to find himself at Burgos. Continue to speak smooth words. Reassure the king, the Prince de la Paix, the Prince of Asturias, and the queen. The great thing is to arrive at Madrid, and there let your troops rest, and replenish their stores of provisions. Say that I am soon coming in order to reconcile and arrange matters; above all, do not commit any hostilities, if it can possibly be helped. I hope that everything may be arranged, and it would be dangerous to scare these folks too much."