accumulated was pointed to as palpable evidence of
his corruptness and dishonesty.

Yet the prince did not advise his father to expose
this enormous criminal to the vengeance of the law.
No, in order to spare the feelings of his relatives, to
save the face of the king who had so long trusted and
honoured him, and because this evil man had so
many friends in high places, it would be better simply
to dismiss him from all his offices and leave his innu-
merable offences buried in oblivion. In conclusion,
the prince desired his father to meet him at one of his
hunting-lodges, when he would substantiate all these
charges. Whether this advice were heeded or not,
his majesty was implored to keep it secret if he did
not wish to hasten his own death and the writer's.

His refusal to marry Godoy's sister-in-law Ferdi-
nand justified in a singularly coarse and stupidly
conceived document, supposed to embody the advice
of a holy friar. More suspicious was the cipher used
in correspondence with Escoiquiz ; and, most alarm-
ing to the king, the decree in which Ferdinand ap-
pointed the duke del Infantado captain-general of New
Castile, to be used, as the writer averred, only in the
event of his majesty's sudden death.

This explanation may very possibly have been true,
and is accepted as such by all the historians hostile
to the favourite. Thus, by one account, Godoy took
precautions to secure his position at the king's death,
and his brother Diego endeavoured to enlist the
services of Don Luis de Viguri and Tomas de Jaurequi,
colonel of the Pavia regiment. These officers re-
vealed his proposal to the duke del Infantado, who



The Conspiracy of the Escurial 235

at once communicated it to Escoiquiz. The prince's
friends then concerted a plan of operations to be put
in action at the instant of Charles's death. The duke
was to assume office as captain-general of the province
in which Madrid is situated, the count of Montarco
was to be appointed president of the Council of
Castille, the duke of San Carlos master of the house-
hold, Floridablanca first secretary of State. The
patents were drawn up, only the dates being left
blank. Yes ; but they would have been as readily
available on the deposition as on the death of the
actual sovereign.

The proclamation had been only freshly pasted on
the walls of the capital when, in response to frantic
entreaties from his master, Godoy rose from his bed
and appeared, still in the grip of fever, in the bleak
palace of Philip II. He found the king at once
furious and exultant. Three days' solitary confine-
ment had been sufficient to wear down the obstinacy
of the prince whom the people of Spain regarded
as a hero. Persistently harassed by Caballero,
fearing perhaps the traditional fate of Philip's son,
Ferdinand had blurted out the names of Escoiquiz
as well as of Infantado, and threatened his enemies
with the wrath of the great Napoleon, with whom
he declared he was in correspondence. Godoy had
suspected as much. His task now was to soothe the
irate father and to divert his wrath from the prince
to his accomplices. Orders were given to arrest the
duke and the archdeacon. Meanwhile the favourite
paced the dreary halls of the Escurial, his fever for-
gotten in his anxiety. French troops were pouring
into Spain; he had never trusted the emperor . . .



236 Godoy: the Queen^s Favourite

and now, what mischief was hatching between him
and this sinister Bourbon prince ?

With the connivance of the queen, the detested
favourite paid Ferdinand a visit in his prison. The
accused prince, he tells us, welcomed him as a de-
liverer and embraced him weeping. Such weakness
is quite consistent with his royal highness's subsequent
behaviour. Godoy also shed tears (they came readily
to men's eyes a hundred years ago) and groaned over
his enemy as a father over the prodigal son. Ferdi-
nand bewailed his weakness in having been misled by
designing men, and implored the intervention of his
dear Manuel. Charles was not, however, easily bent,
and was moved rather by appeals to his statecraft
than to his clemency. It was clear, Godoy pointed
out, that relations of some sort existed between the
culprit and the emperor. The intercession of his
imperial majesty could not be rejected, and it was
wise, therefore, to forestall it. After nine days'
confinement, Ferdinand was once more brought
before his father. He admitted his participation in a
disloyal intrigue, he named his accomplices, he sued
abjectly for forgiveness.

On November 5 the people's apprehensions for
their unworthy favourite were relieved by the publica-
tion of a royal decree which, beginning with the
words, " The voice of nature disarms vengeance,"
announced that the king had pardoned his son.
Ferdinand's confession of guilt was published at the
same time. To his father he wrote : " I have been
guilty of offending against your majesty, against my
father and my king. I repent of it, and I promise
your majesty the most humble obedience. I ought



The Conspiracy of the Escurial 237

to do nothing without your consent, but I was sur-
prised and taken advantage of by evil-minded persons.
I have denounced these, and I beseech your majesty
to forgive me and to permit your grateful son to kiss
your feet."

Before Maria Luisa the prince was not less humble.
" Madame, my mother, I deeply repent of the great
fault I have committed against the king and against
you, my father and mother. I therefore implore
your pardon with the greatest submission, as well
as for my obstinacy in denying the truth to you the
other night. I therefore beseech your majesty, from
the bottom of my heart, to deign to interpose your
mediation with my father, that he will be pleased to
permit me, his grateful son, to kiss his majesty's feet."

The prince grovelled at his parents' feet. If
Godoy had craved revenge, here was a surfeit. He
has been blamed for publishing these letters. Of
course it was the king who did so, and it is hard to
see how he could have done otherwise. To have
pardoned his son without any stated motive for such
clemency would have caused his subjects to suppose
that he had no just grounds for complaint and would
have made a prosecution of his highness's accom-
plices impossible. It is odd that the historians who
blame Godoy for making the letters known all go
to the trouble of reproducing them.

The prince would not have escaped, says Toreno,
but through the fear into which the name of Napoleon
plunged the court of the Escurial. Godoy admits
that the introduction of the emperor into this obscure
domestic intrigue filled him with dread. To what
extent had the prince compromised himself with his



238 Godoy: the Queen's Favourite

country's nominal ally and most dangerous neigh-
bour ? What measure of support had Beauharnais
received from his own court ?

For the ambassador, according to his own account,
a snare was laid by the enemies of Ferdinand. At
dead of night one of the royal carriages halted at the
door of the embassy. A mysterious cloaked personage
alighted. He had, he explained, a private message
from the prince of Asturias which he could deliver
only to the ambassador in person. Beauharnais,
suspecting a trap, sent his secretary to inform the
stranger that he was not authorised to enter into
communication with his royal highness. Entreaties
and arguments proving futile, the cloaked personage
withdrew leaving a billet behind him. It was signed
" Ferdinand," and contained an urgent request that
his excellency would hand the bearer the letter he
had addressed to the emperor, or the copy if this had
already been despatched. After all, the request may
very well have been made by Ferdinand himself, in
the desire to appease his father's wrath.

At the instigation of Godoy the offended sove-
reign wrote, on November 3, a second letter to his
imperial ally, asking if his son had really been in
negotiation with him and complaining of the improper
conduct of Beauharnais. To test the extent of the
emperor's sympathy with the prince, there was no
hint or promise of the pardon which on that day
the writer had determined to grant. The letter was
delivered by the prince of Masserano and produced a
violent explosion of wrath. His imperial majesty
considered himself insulted ; he denied all knowledge
of the prince's letter, which he had in his pocket,



The Conspiracy of the Escurial 239

but declared that henceforward he would take him
under his protection. The insult, he knew, proceeded
not from his excellent all)^ Charles, but from Godoy.
Had Masserano received any message from that
villain ? — no, but Izquierdo had. The letter was
shown to Duroc next day. It contained a very brief
narrative of the events at the Escurial. The plot
was stated to have been supported by Beauharnais.
" Madrid," continued Godoy, " is much excited ;
every one awaits the results ; it is reported that the
ambassador has said that the French troops will
make Madrid their headquarters. I am at the royal
residence. All my attention is required, with so
many enemies ; but the cannon will reduce them."

Strangely enough, this letter, so much more threaten-
ing than that of the king's, appeared to mollify the
emperor. He had had time for reflection, and he
had remembered that the treaty of Fontainebleau
was not yet ratified. Junot's small army of 23,000
men was just then at Salamanca, liable to be taken
between the Portuguese in its front and the Spaniards
in its rear. The all-devouring conqueror had not
yet made up his mind with regard to Spain. He
decided to temporise. Through Duroc he assured
Izquierdo that he was entirely ignorant of the
alleged intrigues of his ambassador ; through Cham-
pagny he warned the Spaniard that he would regard
any attempt to introduce his or his representative's
name into the prosecution as an unfriendly act and
would avenge it accordingly.

To Charles he wrote : " I have received your
majesty's letters of October 29 and November 3.
I have never received any letter from the prince of



240 Godoy: the Queen*s Favourite

Asturias. I have never heard him spoken of, directly
or indirectly, so that it would be true to say that I
do not even know that he exists. The treaty, which
your majesty will have perused will show you that,
while admitting that my troops might be commanded
by you or the Prince of the Peace, I never entertained
the idea of allowing them to be commanded by the
prince of Asturias. However painful may be these
domestic discords, they are incapable of affecting
large issues of State. ..."

They did not delay the execution of the treaty
of Fontainebleau, which had been ratified before
Napoleon wrote, on November 8, by Ceballos and
Beauharnais. Moreover, to heal the breach created
by his first letter, Charles IV. decided to put forward
the very proposal which had been the cause of all
the mischief. Without knowing, of course, the terms
of his son's demand, which Napoleon was supposed
never to have received, his catholic majesty now told
his ally that such an alliance between the two courts
would be regarded by him with profound satisfaction.

Napoleon, on his side, had not dismissed as alto-
gether vain the project he had repudiated. He
disposed of Mdlle de la Pagerie by marrying her
to the duke of Aremberg, but he considered whether
the hand of the prince of Asturias might not suit
his niece Charlotte, the thirteen-year-old daughter
of Lucien Bonaparte and Christine Boyer. At an
interview with his brother at Mantua on December 1 3
he obtained the custody of the girl, who was then
sent off to be educated by her grandmother. She
gave so little promise of making a princess, however,
that she was after a short time packed off to her



The Conspiracy of the Escurial 241

father's home in Italy. There remained no other
daughter of the house of Bonaparte to mount the
throne of Spain, but there were brothers of Napoleon
who could fill it very well.

While assuring the emperor that no allusion to
his august self or to his agents would be permitted at
the trial, the Spanish Government had by no means
neglected the prosecution of Ferdinand's accom-
plices. Escoiquiz, seized at Toledo, was confined in
a cell under the roof of the Escurial. He was pre-
sently joined by the count of Orjas, and by the duke
del Infantado. His grace was on his way to Bordeaux
when he heard of the arrest of the prince. He at
once retraced his steps, hearing, as he approached
Madrid, that by order of the captain-general his
house had been searched and his servants apprehended.
He was informed that he must proceed to the Escu-
rial on a charge of high treason. Says Lord Holland,
somewhat rashly : " He would probably have been
executed immediately had he been brought thither
according to orders ; but the muleteers purposely
missed the turn to the Escurial, and conveyed him
as far as San Ildefonso before they acknowledged their
pretended mistake. They had, it is supposed, been
bribed by agents of the French embassy to do so."

The other accused were the marquis of Ayerbe,
Don Jose Gonzalez Manrique, Andres Casafia, and
Collado and Selgas, two of the prince's menial do-
mestics. Ferdinand is said, by the way, to have
succeeded, while under arrest, in conveying th6 first
warnings to his friends by means of a fishing-line
thrown from his window.

The judges were eleven in number. The tribunal



242 Godoy : the Queen's Favourite

was composed, says Beauharnais, of the poorest of the
occupants of the judicial bench in the hope that
they would be more easily corrupted. " Their names
alone," says another writer, " were a sufficient guar-
antee to the public." Their conduct certainly con-
victs Godoy of amazing stupidity if he had indeed
had a hand in their selection. That task would, I
imagine, fall to Caballero, the minister of Justice,
the favourite's bitter foe. Don Arias Antonio Mon,
acting governor of the Council of State, presided
over the tribunal ; his colleagues were Gonzalo de
Vilches, Antonio Villanueva, Gonzalez Yebra, the
marques de Casagracia, Alvarez Caballero, Sebastian
de Torres, Fernandez de Campomanes, Andres
Lasauca, Alvarez de Contreras, and Miguel Villagomez.
The crown prosecutor was Simon de Viegas,
devoted, we are of course assured, to the Prince of
the Peace. We learn that he attempted first to extort
confessions from the accused, and was authorised to
promise Escoiquiz a bishopric as the reward of his
revelations. This does not indicate a very vindictive
spirit on the part of the prosecution, especially as,
the complicity of Napoleon, the prince of Asturias,
and Beauharnais having been established, the canon's
revelations could not have been of much value. How-
ever, his reverence stood firm, avowing himself to
have been the counsellor, not the seducer, of his former
pupil. The crown prosecutor then announced that
he would demand the penalty of death against the
canon, Infantado, and Ayerbe, though a remission of
the sentence was promised. The accused were allowed
a fortnight to prepare their defence. Eminent advo-
cates volunteered their services on their behalf —



The Conspiracy of the Escurial 243

Davila for Escoiquiz, Joven de Salas for Infantado.
The chapter of Toledo dismissed its regular legal
adviser because he refused to defend the canon.

Public opinion is asserted to have been entirely on
the side of the accused. " Hatred of the favourite
caused every one to desire their acquittal ... it
seemed that the Escurial case, as it was called, must
decide the honour of the nation. The judges did
not suffer that patrimony to be tarnished in their
hands."

So says M. de Grandmaison, who does not perceive
that this effervescence of popular opinion may have
been as unfavourable as the influence of the crown to
an attitude of impartiality on the part of the judges.
To the same writer, on the authority of Beauharnais,
we are indebted for some picturesque details con-
cerning the trial which I can nowhere find mentioned
by Spanish historians.

When the court assembled in the early morning
of January 25, 1808, at the Escurial, one of the
judges was absent. This was Don Eugenio Caballero,
possibly a relative of Godoy's enemy, the minister of
Justice. He lay on his death-bed, and he implored
his colleagues to give him the opportunity of pro-
nouncing his judgment in so momentous a trial.
The court immediately adjourned to his bedside.
" They found Caballero sitting up in his bed wearing
his robe and insignia of office. His emaciated coun-
tenance lit up, and, with a last effort, he saluted the
court, the personification of justice. He craved leave
to deliver his judgment first ; but, observing the
presence of Simon de Viegas, who had followed the
tribunal, he pointed out that the prosecutor, having



244 Godoy: the Qucen^s Favourite

made his plea, had lost the right to assist at the de-
liberations of the court. Andres Lasauca agreed with
this, adding that he would withdraw if the prose-
cutor did not. Viegas, pale with anger, bowed curtly
and withdrew. Caballero spoke. His condition, the
issue, the circumstances, all imparted to his accents
a poignant emotion, shared by his colleagues. He
congratulated the accused on their firmness and hoped
the tribunal would establish their innocence."

This sounds, to English ears, a somewhat irregular
utterance from a judge; and, we are told, "the
magistrates, without pursuing a superfluous discussion,
delivered judgment. They found, firstly, that the
originals of the documents advanced as proofs had not
been produced ; secondly, that copies of these could
not be admitted ; thirdly, that the prince of Asturias
must be heard, which could only be before the Cortes
in public assembled ; fourthly, that the court had not
been informed by the Council of Castile of the
name of the accuser. The charge against all the
accused was dismissed. The judges affirmed their
verdict on the crucifix and embraced each other.

" Night had fallen, some wax tapers lit up this
death-chamber transformed into a court of justice.
Around the bed of Caballero, who lay suffering in
body but serene in soul, the light reflected itself on
the long red robes, and the naked walls and the
wooden chairs attested, without the apparatus of
justice, the majesty of duty accomplished and the
magnanimity of a true magistrate."

Without crediting the judges with any particular
heroism in giving a decision acceptable to their
future sovereign and the vast majority of the



The Conspiracy of the Escurial 245

nation, we must admit that no other finding was
possible. Once the king had forbidden the names of
the emperor and Beauharnais to be mentioned and
his son to be cited as a witness, the whole case fell to
the ground. Luckily for Infantado, Godoy, his
military superior, had refused to try him by a court-
martial, whereat more regard for facts and less for
forms might have been shown. It is difficult to
resist the conclusion, from what was not long after
to follow, that all the accused were ready to counsel
and abet the heir-apparent in resistance to his father's
government.

The acquittal was received with immense satis-
faction by the people. The advocates refused to
take their fees. On the death of Caballero, two days
later, his funeral was undertaken with great magni-
ficence by a neighbouring community of monks and
was attended by a vast concourse. Godoy's brother-
in-law, the archbishop of Toledo, had offered to resign
if his canon were convicted — it must not be forgotten
that his sister was estranged from her husband.

The king was convulsed with anger when he was
informed of the judgment. " And my honour ! "
he demanded, " is that to go for nothing ? " Maria
Luisa was insulted by the acquittal of the men who
had defamed her. One is reminded of that famous
trial at Venice, for ever commemorated by the black
cloak painted over the portrait of the Doge who had
also been refused reparation by his tribunals. Godoy
had been opposed from the first to the procedure
through the courts. He would have given Escoiquiz
a bishopric in America, have found similar high offices
far away for the prince's intimates, and persuaded the



246 Godoy : the Queen's Favourite

king to associate his son with him more intimately
in the government.

Charles indignantly refused to abide by the finding
of the court. By royal decree he stripped the accused
of all their offices and orders. Infantado was banished
to Ecija, Orjas to Valencia, Ayerbe into Aragon, San
Carlos to a distance of sixty leagues from any royal
residence ; Escoiquiz was sent to a monastery near
Cordova, under orders to assist at all the religious
offices of the community. The sentence was com-
municated to him by Caballero in harsh terms :
" His majesty is filled with indignation at your attempts
to corrupt the prince and to lure him from the paths
of sound morality and the Gospel. More out of
regard for your cloth than your person, he orders you
to proceed to the monastery of El Perdon and forbids
you to approach any royal residence, in the hope
that you may learn to live and die as a good Christian
and a clergyman."

These manifestations of the king's displeasure are
often spoken of as monstrous abuses of authority.
Charles, from our modern standpoint, can hardly be
justified in incarcerating persons acquitted by his
own judges, but he had certainly a right to expel from
his court and to divest of their offices all those whom
he believed to be hostile to his government. Godoy
says that he had some difficulty in moderating his
master's resentment, a task in which for once he was
assisted by Caballero. The minister of Justice after-
wards vaunted his activity on behalf of the accused
and said that they owed their lives to him. The
Prussian minister informed his Government that the
favourite " manifested great satisfaction at having



/



The Conspiracy of the Escurial 247

inclined the king towards clemency " ; M. de Beau-
harnais represented him gnashing his teeth with
baffled spite, while the Spanish nation looked wistfully
towards " the hero governing France " as a liberator.
They had not long to wait for him.



CHAPTER XIV

THE INVASION

While the eyes of all Spaniards were turned towards
the Escurial, Napoleon was busily reaping the advan-
tages secured to him by the treaty of Fontainebleau.
Before the ratification had been exchanged, Junot
had left the plains of Castile behind him. On
November 12 he set out from Salamanca, following
the difficult road through Alcantara. He reached
Abrantes twelve days later, after a march the horrors
of which can only be compared with those of the
retreat from Moscow. Of the army of 23,000 men
with which he entered Spain, he had now but four
or five thousand capable of continuing the advance.
With the intrepidity characteristic of Napoleon's
lieutenants, Junot pushed on, and with only 1,500
grenadiers entered Lisbon without resistance on
November 30. But the birds he sought had flown.
Upon the news of his approach the whole royal family
had embarked, and were now on their way to Brazil
under the protection of the English fleet.

Meanwhile Spain had faithfully fulfilled her part
of the compact. A small but well-disciplined corps
under General Carafa co-operated with Junot ;
General Taranco, with 6,000 men, penetrated into the
provinces allotted to the ex-king of Etruria and occu-
pied Oporto. The Portuguese troops had been ordered

248




CABALLERO.
(Goya)



249



The Invasion 251

by their Government not to offer armed resistance to
the Spaniards, which goes far to prove that the Cabinet
of Lisbon had faith in the benevolent attitude of
the court of Madrid. The marquis of Solano, with
an equal force, took possession of the southern provinces
of Alemtejo and Algarve. This general had received
orders to treat the inhabitants with especial lenity
that they might be less unwilling to accept the yoke
proposed for them in the treaty of partition.

Godoy displayed no eagerness to take possession of
his promised principality. Yet according to his enemy,
Beauharnais, he learnt the ratification of the treaty
of Fontainebleau with infinite relief. In the midst of
the mysterious intrigues and enmities of the Escurial,
the prospect of such an asylum might well have been
grateful. Godoy had not allowed the alliance forced
upon him to interrupt his real married life with
Pepita Tudo. To her house he went every night to
refresh his weary, harassed soul in the love of his
true wife and his two little sons. To Pepita he was