No. 4 To the Empress, at Bordeaux
Bayonne, April 23, 1808.
My Dear,—A son has been born to Hortense;28 I am highly delighted. I am not surprised that you tell me nothing of it, since your letter is dated the 21st, and the child was only born on the 20th,29 during the night.
You can start on the 26th, sleep at Mont de Marsan, and arrive here on the 27th. Have your best dinner-service sent on here on the 25th, in the evening. I have made arrangements for you to have a little house in the country, next to the one I have. My health is good.
I am waiting for Charles IV. and his wife.
Adieu, dear.
Napoleon.
April 30th.—Charles IV. and the Queen arrive at Bayonne.
May 1st.—Ferdinand gives back the crown to his father.
May 2nd.—Murat subdues insurrection at Madrid.
May 5th.—Treaty of Bayonne; Charles IV. and Ferdinand (May 6) surrender to Napoleon their rights to the Spanish crown.
May 13th.—Spanish Junta ask for Joseph Bonaparte to be their king.
June 6th.—King Joseph proclaimed King of Spain and the Indies by Napoleon, in an imperial decree, dated Bayonne.
June 7th.—French, under Dupont, sacked Cordova.
June 9th.—Emperor of Austria calls out his militia.
June 15th.—French fleet at Cadiz surrender to the Spanish.
July 4th.—English cease hostilities with Spain, and recognise Ferdinand VII.
July 7th.—Spanish new constitution sworn to by Joseph and by the Junta.
July 9th.—Commences the siege of Saragossa.
July 14th.—Bessières defeats 40,000 Spaniards at Medina de Rio Seco.
July 15th.—Murat declared King of Naples.
July 20th.—Joseph enters Madrid. Mahmoud deposed by his younger brother at Constantinople.
July 22nd.—Dupont capitulates at Baylen—“the only stain on French arms for twenty years (1792-1812).”—Montgaillard.
July 30th.—French protest against Austrian armaments.
August 1st.—Wellington landed in Portugal.
August 21st.—Battle of Vimiera, creditable to Junot.
August 25th.—Spanish troops reoccupy Madrid.
August 30th.—Convention of Cintra. French only hold Barcelona, Biscay, Navarre, and Alava, in the whole of Spain.
September 8th.—Convention of Paris (Prussia and France); Prussian army not to exceed 40,000 men.