The news of the insurrection of Madrid precipitated at Bayonne the _denoûment_ of the tragi-comedy in which for several days the illustrious actors had been playing their parts. The emperor feigned great anger, and the terror of the old Spanish sovereigns was real. "It is thou who art the cause of all this!" cried the king, Charles IV., violently apostrophizing his son. "Thou hast caused the blood of our subjects and of our allies to flow, in order to hasten by a few days the moment of bearing a crown too heavy for thee. Restore it to him who can sustain it." The prince remained taciturn and sombre, limiting himself to protesting his innocence. His mother threw herself upon him. "Thou hast always been a bad son," she cried with violence; "thou hast wished to dethrone thy father, to cause thy mother's death; and thou art standing there before us insensible, without replying either to us or to our friend the great Napoleon: speak, justify thyself, if thou canst." The emperor, who was present at this sorrowful scene, intervened: "If between this and midnight you have not recognized your father as the lawful king, and have not sent word to Madrid to that effect, you shall be treated as a rebel." This was too much for the courage of Ferdinand; he was in the hands of an irritated master, who had drawn him and his into a snare which was at this time impossible to be broken through. Weakness and cowardice in the present did not forbid far-off hopes; the prince yielded, counting on the future. "For any one who can see it, his character is depicted by a single word," Napoleon had said; "he is a sneak." The treaty was concluded the same evening, through the mediation of the Prince de la Paix. King Charles IV., recognizing that he and his family were incapable of assuring the repose of Spain, of which he was the sole lawful sovereign, surrendered the crown to the Emperor of the French, for him to dispose of it at his will. Spain and her colonies were to form an independent state. The Catholic religion was to remain dominant, to the exclusion of all others. King Charles IV. was to enjoy during life the castle and forest of Compiègne; the castle of Chambord was to belong to him in perpetuity; a civil list of 7,500,000 francs was assured to him from the French Treasury. A particular convention accorded the absolute property of the castle of Navarre to Prince Ferdinand, with a revenue of 1,000,000 francs, and 400,000 livres income for each of the Infantas. When the emperor notified to Count Mollien, then Minister of the Treasury, the tenor of the treaty, he added: "That will make 10,000,000. All these sums will be reimbursed by Spain." The Spanish nation was to pay for the fall of its dynasty and the pacific conquest upon which Napoleon counted. She reserved for him another price for his perfidious manoeuvres.