Upon his return, Buonaparte dispatched the Duque de S. Carlos to Valençay to negotiate, on Ferdinand’s part, with Laforest; and a treaty was easily concluded to this effect, that the Emperor of the French recognized Ferdinand and his successors as Kings of Spain and of the Indies, according to the order established by the fundamental laws of Spain; and that he recognized the integrity of the Spanish territory as it existed before the war, and would deliver up to the Spaniards such provinces and fortified places as the French still occupied in Spain: Ferdinand obliging himself, on his part, to maintain the same integrity, and that also of the adjacent isles and fortified places, and especially Minorca and Ceuta; and to make the English evacuate those provinces and places, the evacuation by the French and English being to be made simultaneously. The two contracting powers bound themselves to maintain the independence of their maritime rights, as had been stipulated in the treaty of Utrecht, and observed till the year 1792. All Spaniards who had adhered to King Joseph were to re-enter upon the honours, rights, and privileges which they had enjoyed, and all the property of which they might have been deprived should be restored to them; and to such as might choose to live out of Spain, ten years should be allowed for disposing of their possessions. Prisoners on both sides were to be sent home, and also the garrison of Pamplona, and the prisoners at Cadiz, Coruña, the Mediterranean islands, or any other depôt which might have been delivered to the English, ... whether they were in Spain, or had been sent to America or to England. Ferdinand bound himself to pay an annual sum of thirty millions of reales to Charles IV., his father, and, in case of his death, an annuity of two millions to the Queen, his widow. Finally, a treaty of commerce was to be formed between the two nations, and till this could be done, their commercial relations were to be placed upon the same footing as before the war of 1792.
The next step was to notify this treaty to the actual government of Spain. Accordingly Ferdinand addressed a letter to the Regency, being the first communication which he had been permitted to hold with his own country since his entrapment. “Divine Providence,” he said, “which in its inscrutable wisdom had permitted him to pass from the palace of Madrid to that of Valençay, had granted to him the blessings of health and strength, and the consolation of never having been for a moment separated from his beloved brother and uncle, the Infantes, Don Carlos and Don Antonio. They had experienced in that palace a noble hospitality; their way of life had been as agreeable as it could be under such circumstances; and he had employed his time in the manner most suitable to his new condition. The only intelligence which he had heard of his beloved Spain was what the French gazettes supplied; these had given him some knowledge of the sacrifices which the nation had made for him; of the magnanimous and unalterable constancy manifested by his faithful vassals, of the persevering assistance of England, the admirable conduct of its general-in-chief, Lord Wellington, and of the Spanish and allied generals who had distinguished themselves. The English ministry had publicly declared their readiness to admit propositions of peace, founded upon his restitution; nevertheless, the miseries of his kingdom still continued. He was in this state of passive but vigilant observation, when the Emperor of the French spontaneously made proposals to him, founded upon his restitution, and the integrity and independence of his dominions, without any clause which would not be compatible with the honour and glory and interest of the Spanish nation. Being persuaded that Spain could not, after the most successful and protracted war, conclude a more advantageous peace, he had authorized the Duque de S. Carlos to negotiate in his name with the Comte de Laforest, whom the Emperor Napoleon had nominated as plenipotentiary on the part of France; and he had now appointed the Duque to carry this treaty to the Regency, in proof of the confidence which he reposed in them, that they might ratify it in their usual manner, and send it back to him after this necessary form without loss of time. How satisfactory,” he concluded, “is it for me to stop the effusion of blood, and to see the end of so many evils! and how do I long to return and live among a people, who have given the universe an example of the purest loyalty, and of the noblest and most generous character!”