He had been warned of them in the strongest manner by Talleyrand, and even by Fouche; nay, he had himself written to rebuke the headlong haste of Murat in occupying the Spanish capital--to urge on him the necessity of conciliating the people, by preserving the show of respect for their national authorities and institutions--to represent the imminent hazard of permitting the Duke del Infantado to strengthen and extend his party in Madrid--and concluding with those ominous words: _Remember, if war breaks out, all is lost_.
Ferdinand, before he left Madrid, invested a council of regency with the sovereign power, his uncle, Don Antonio, being president, and Murat one of the members.

Murat's assumption of the authority thus conferred, the departure of Ferdinand, the liberation and departure of the detested Godoy, the flight of the old King--these occurrences produced their natural effects on the popular mind.

A dark suspicion that France meditated the destruction of the national independence, began to spread; and, on the 2nd of May, when it transpired that preparations were making for the journey of Don Antonio also, the general rage at last burst out.
A crowd collected round the carriage meant, as they concluded, to convey the last of the royal family out of Spain; the traces were cut; the imprecations against the French were furious.

Colonel La Grange, Murat's aide-de-camp, happening to appear on the spot, was cruelly maltreated.
In a moment the whole capital was in an uproar: the French soldiery were assaulted everywhere--about 700 were slain.

The mob attacked the hospital--the sick and their attendants rushed out and defended it.