338

LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

of France—with no intervening sea. Accordingly, Napo-leon had obtained possession of several strong places inSpain , and at this juncture King Charles and his hopefulson Ferdinand, agreed to refer their differences to theEmperor of the French , and Bayonne was appointed as theplace of rendezvous.

Charles, weak in character and disgusted with the queen,with Godoi, and more so with his son, in open rebellionagainst him, resigned his crown, not in favour of liiswretched offspring, but of the Emperor Napoleon . Theweak Ferdinand and his brother consented ; and, as a mat-ter of precaution, were sent to reside in the imperial palaceof Compiegne. The king, with his Messalina queen, ac-companied by Godoi, retired to Rome , where I often sawthem in 1811 and 1812. Napoleon , not caring for theweight of any more crowns upon his own head, waived hisclaim in favour of his brother Joseph, then king of Naples,and the crown of Naples was given to Joachim Murat .

But before Murat could think of proceeding to take pos-session of his delightful kingdom, more labours were pre-pared for him in Spain. Napoleon had hoped that theroyal family of Spain , imitating the recent example of thatof Portugal , would have crossed the Atlantic and securedto themselves a peaceful and secure reign in some one orother of their vast and rich possessions in America . Thisplan had, in fact, been conceived and intended by the King,Queen, and Prince de la Paz, but an insurrection of thepeople prevented its execution. A deputation of the Su-preme Council of Castile invited Murat, who was com-mander-in-chief of the French armies in Spain , to enterMadrid without delay, as parties were in such a state as tothreaten dreadful catastrophes. Murat refused to stir fromhis quarters of Sant Agust.ino, unless the Spanish govern-ment, collectively, would consent to act in perfect concert