Note 17 — Chapter II

Azanza and O’Farrill declare that when they came into office as Ferdinand’s ministers, they found no papers concerning it in their office. Cevallos says, that he was entirely ignorant of the transaction: Izquierdo indeed charges him with having approved the treaty in conversation with him, as the most advantageous which had ever been made by Spain; and with having complimented him for obtaining what France had constantly refused, while the Bourbons occupied both thrones. (Nellerto (Llorente), T. iii. p. 80.) But this does not necessarily imply that Cevallos was acquainted with the business while it was in progress. M. de Pradt affirms that Talleyrand only learnt it from Marshal Bessieres, of whom he inquired why the guards were marching towards Spain, and that Bessieres had been informed by one of the persons who signed the treaty. But M. de Pradt adds that Talleyrand immediately apprized the Conde de Lima, then charge d’affaires for Portugal, and that the Count set off instantly to give his government the alarm; this is wholly incredible. M. de Pradt is always a lively, and often a sagacious writer, but not always correct in his assertions. He makes the unaccountable mistake of supposing that the French had already occupied the North of Portugal two years before the treaty was made! (p. 26, 33.)