Fears and hopes in periodic press after Ferdinand VII's return to Spain

The return of Ferdinand VII to Spain in March of 1814 was the most important news during a lot of weeks in Spanish newspapers. And it was so because, along with his arrival, the future model of nation was at stake: there arose the question whether the state would be mediated by a Constitution which proclaimed the national sovereignty and protected an entire series of freedoms promulgated by the Cortes of Cádiz; or it would be absolutist, as many others, who were clinging to the most rigorous tradition, expected. So it was a very worrying and poignant task to test how, as the time when the king would have to declare his intention approached, the comments of the liberal sector, expressed by the periodic press, were showing more and more pessimism and anxiety, although they were always keeping a thread of hope. On the another hand, their ideological enemies, the reactionaries, had the good sense of not declaring too much publicly during this period of vagueness; however, when the King finally followed the way they wanted, many of its components took advantage of it and excessively wrought revenge on the liberals, attacking eagerly the reforms of the last years and the people who had supported them.