This counsel was too prudent and wise to prevail with minds at once headstrong and feeble. Ferdinand resolved to trust to the hopes that Napoleon caused to gleam before his eyes; he knew not that his retreat was cut off. "If the prince comes to Bayonne," the emperor had written to Marshal Bessières, "it is very well; if he retires to Burgos, you will have him arrested, and conducted to Bayonne. You will inform the Grand Duke of Berg of this occurrence; and you will make it known at Burgos that King Charles has protested, and that the Prince of Asturias is not king. If he refuses the interview that I propose, it is a sign of his belonging to the English party, and then there will be nothing more to arrange." On the 20th of April the prince and his suite crossed the little river of the Bidassoa. As he was leaving Vittoria, the crowd assembled in the streets became violent, and cut the traces of the horses. In order to avoid a popular riot, the squadrons of the imperial guard had to surround the carriage of the prince; he set out from his states as if already a prisoner. It was as a suppliant that he arrived at Bayonne, and the sorrowful impression he had experienced on passing the frontier increased as he drew nigh to the end of his journey. There was no one on his road to meet him or compliment him, save the three Spanish noblemen whom he had himself sent to Napoleon, and who returned to their prince troubled with the gloomiest presentiments. Marshals Duroc and Berthier received him, however, with courtesy when he arrived at Bayonne, and the emperor soon had him brought to the chateau of Marac, in which he himself was installed. Carrying out his previous declaration, Napoleon would give to his visitor no other title than that of Prince of Asturias. At the end of the day, General Savary escorted Ferdinand to his apartment; the emperor kept beside himself Canon Escoiquiz. The hour for revelations had arrived. Napoleon took the trouble to develop to the canon preceptor his reasons for depriving the house of Bourbon of the throne, and for placing upon it a prince of the Bonaparte family. "I will give Etruria to Prince Ferdinand in exchange," said he; "it is a fine country; he will be happy and tranquil. The populace will perhaps rebel on a few points, but I have on my side religion and the monks. I have had experience of it, and the countries where there are plenty of monks are easy to subjugate."