Robert Southey

INSURRECTION IN PORTUGAL.

?1808.
May.?

While these events were passing in Spain, Portugal also was convulsed by this political ?An agent sent from Badajoz to the Spaniards at Lisbon.? earthquake. The first insurrection in Madrid had been no sooner known at Badajoz, than an anonymous proclamation from that city was circulated on the Portugueze border; and a lieutenant of the Walloon Guards, by name Moretti, was sent to consult at Lisbon with General Carraffa upon the means of withdrawing the Spanish troops. Carraffa thought it too hazardous to declare ?Neves, t. iii. 7.? himself at that time; but though in other respect acting altogether in subservience to Junot, he did not make him acquainted with the transaction, and Moretti returned in safety.

?Difficulties of Junot’s situation.?

Junot was now disturbed from his dreams of royalty; yet his head lay as uneasily as if it had worn a crown. Like the other French commanders, when the insurrectionary movement became general throughout Spain, he thought it impossible that any continued or formidable resistance could be opposed to the power of France: but his own situation was exposed to peculiar danger; he was farther removed from assistance than any of the other commanders in the Peninsula; there was an English squadron in sight, watching the course of events, and in defiance of all his vigilance, well informed of whatever was going on; and it was not to be doubted, that if a favourable opportunity offered, Great Britain would make an effort for the deliverance of Portugal. Pursuant to his instructions from Madrid, he had sent into Galicia the remains of Taranco’s division, so that Carraffa’s was now the only one which remained; some 4000 of these were at Porto, the rest were in detachments at Lisbon, Mafra, Santarem, and on the other side the Tagus at Setubal, Cezimbra, and ?Neves, iii. 66.? other places. In the hope of exciting a national feeling against them, and thereby counteracting that sympathy which their common language, manners, and religion, and now a sense of their common interest, were producing between them and the Portugueze, rumours were spread, that by an arrangement made with Buonaparte, Portugal was to be governed by Spain till its fate should be determined at a general peace. But this artifice failed. The Spaniards were not to be deceived; from the time when they knew that Ferdinand had been inveigled to Bayonne, there was an end of all good understanding between them and the French; and they were so ready to engage in personal quarrels, from the national indignation which possessed them, that it was found necessary to confine them to their quarters at an early hour in the evening. Care was taken to divide them into small detachments, and station every where with them a superior number of French. Many deserted, especially of those who were quartered beyond the Tagus. Some made their way to the Spanish frontiers in strong parties. The regiment of Murcia marched for Spain in a body, in defiance of its colonel; a detachment of 600 French was sent from Lisbon to intercept them; they met at ?Neves, iii. 67.? Os Pegoens; this was a case in which individual ?Observador Portuguez, 287.? strength and determination were of more avail than military discipline; the Spaniards were victorious, and proceeded on their way, receiving the utmost kindness from the people, and nearly two hundred wounded French were landed at Lisbon.

?Kellermann takes the command in Alem-Tejo.?

Badajoz was the point to which the Spaniards repaired from Alem-Tejo and the south of Portugal, and the numbers who were collected there made such an addition to the strength of the garrison, that General Kellermann, who was then at Elvas, felt himself ill at ease in the neighbourhood. That general had taken the command in Alem-Tejo upon Solano’s departure, and so different was the spirit of his administration, that one of his first measures was by his own authority to impose an extraordinary contribution upon the exhausted province. Evora was to pay 10,000 cruzados novos, Elvas and Portalegre 8000 each, Villa-ViÇosa 6000, and other places in proportion. The sum was exacted within six hours after the demand: but it was restored without ?Observador Portuguez, p. 277.? delay, in consequence of peremptory orders from Junot, when complaint was made to him of this unauthorized exaction. He was displeased with Kellermann for presuming to levy money at his own pleasure, and this was no time for exasperating the people by farther acts of oppression. Already they were in so perturbed a state, that it ?May 22.? was deemed expedient to order all absent bishops and beneficed priests to return to their dioceses and cures, and there exert themselves in preserving order, and exhorting the people to submission. Buonaparte had reckoned upon the good services of the clergy; experience, he said, had shown him that countries where there were many friars were easily conquered; ... he was undeceived of both errors in the Peninsula.

?He attempts to conciliate the Spaniards at Badajoz.?

In the hope of reviving old animosities, and exciting the Portugueze to act against the Spaniards, Kellermann called out the OrdenanÇas, and required the people of Elvas to take arms for the defence of their city, which, he said, the Spaniards, eternal enemies to the name and independence of Portugal, were preparing to attack ?June 1.? from Badajoz. At the same time he sent a letter to the Spaniards of that place, exhorting them to return to their duty, and promising intercession, and pardon and protection. No answer was returned; he then put forth an argumentative address to the Commandant and the Representatives of Extremadura, asking them what end they could propose to themselves from the revolt in which they had blindly engaged? The House of Bourbon had renounced all its rights to Spain; Ferdinand was in France, and the right of appointing a king for the Spaniards had been transferred ?1808.
June.? to the Emperor. Did they wish to draw upon themselves the evils by which France had been ravaged during so many years? If that country had come with glory out of a struggle which would for ever be celebrated, it was owing to her internal strength, her valour, and above all the talents of that extraordinary man whom Heaven had sent to reign over her, for her happiness, and for the happiness of the Spaniards also, if they chose it. Could they expect a like issue? Would valour alone suffice to effect it? What was their position? Half Spain had declared for the new order of things. Their own countrymen would take the field against them. The French armies were in the midst of the land, under the greatest generals, without enemies, and abundantly supplied with all the means of war. On their part they had only some soldiers who had murdered their chiefs; a populace vain of their own strength, because they had met with no resistance; and a few miserable English, the eternal artists of discord, active in stirring up enemies to the French, and always ready, like cowards, to abandon the victims of their infernal policy. Nor was there any thing in the change which had taken place to provoke their opposition. At the commencement of the preceding century Spain had called Philip V. to the throne, for the purpose of establishing an invariable union ?Observador Portuguez, 288.? with France. The establishment upon that throne of a prince of the new French dynasty was nothing more than a consequence of the system which Spain had then adopted, and which was now confirmed. There was yet time to choose. The sword was not yet drawn, the door was still open for reconciliation, ... and he requested that they would not close the gate of their city against his communications. To this also no answer was vouchsafed. He made a third effort, telling them that he would suspend hostilities till they should be better informed, and desiring the Junta to meet him at the Caya, the little stream which there divides the kingdoms. No persons were there to meet him; and he then began to store the forts of Elvas, and to devise plans for attacking Badajoz, expecting, no doubt, that some of the troops in Spain would be ordered upon that service. Believing too that fÊtes and rejoicings would have as much effect in Portugal as in France, he appointed a day of public thanksgiving for the benefits which Napoleon had promised to confer upon the Portugueze. They were not a people to be thus deceived. Their hearts were with the Spaniards, and so many repaired to Badajoz, where D. Joseph Galluzo, with great activity, was forming a camp, that they were incorporated in a legion of foreign volunteers, the command of which was given to Moretti. Many artillerymen escaped thither from Elvas; some hundred of the Portugueze troops whom the French had ordered away for foreign consumption, had been collected there; ?Neves, iii. 75.? promotion was offered to all officers of that nation who should join them, and Kellermann’s vigilance could not prevent the emigration which took place in consequence.

?Distribution of the French troops in Portugal.?

A considerable garrison was required in Elvas, as being the strongest fortress in the kingdom, and now of more importance because of the hostile attitude which the Spaniards at Badajoz had assumed. Strong garrisons were placed at Peniche and Setubal, for fear of the English. Almeida also had been occupied by the French. ?Neves, iii. 77.? Except the troops in that place there were no other French in the whole north of Portugal than the small parties stationed upon the military road, a weak detachment at Figueira, and some fifty men at Coimbra. The great body of the French was collected at Lisbon, and in the adjacent country, where, in case of sudden danger, they might be brought to act promptly and with ?The Spaniards at Porto declare against the Intruder, and march into Spain.? effect. Porto was in possession of the Spaniards, who had occupied it by virtue of the secret treaty of Fontainebleau. General Bellesta, however, upon whom the command had devolved, had been placed under the orders of the French General Quesnel, when the abortive kingdom of Northern Lusitania was no longer held out as a lure to the court of Spain. Quesnel had with him about seventy dragoons, and a few other French, holding military or civil situations. When news arrived of the movements in Gallicia, Bellesta, obeying without hesitation the voice of his country, ?June 6.? arrested the French and their general, and convoking the military, judicial, and civil authorities, explained to them briefly the situation of affairs, expressed a hope that Junot would by that time have been seized in Lisbon, as Quesnel was in Porto, and asked of them what course they would pursue, ... whether they would restore the national government, choose a Spanish one, or remain in submission to the French? The Vereador, Thomas da Silva Ferras, replied, that he, and the chamber, and the city, desired nothing more than to be under the government of their lawful sovereign, and required that the royal arms might immediately be re-established. A Desembargador ventured to observe, that they had no authority to determine such things, not being representatives of the people; that they were without arms, ... that they had no means of resisting so terrible an enemy as the French; and that it was better to wait till they knew what had happened at Lisbon. Reasonable as the fear was which this speaker expressed, a more generous feeling prevailed, and by Bellesta’s orders the Sargento Mor, Raymundo JosÉ Pinheiro, went from the meeting to take the command of ?Neves, iii. c. 6.? the fortress of S. Joam da Foz, at the mouth of the Douro.

?The lawful government restored at Porto.?

It was late at night when the meeting broke up. Raymundo called together his officers; they bound themselves by a formal deed and solemn oath to act for the service of their lawful Prince against the French, and invoking the aid of Our Lady of the Rosary, to whom that castle was dedicated, vowed in the Prince’s name to solemnize the anniversary of that day by a festival to her honour. At daybreak the Quinas were once more seen flying upon the fortress, a royal salute was fired, and returned from the castles of Queijo and Matozinhos, the bells were rung, rockets were discharged, and the people gave themselves up to joy. The Spaniards without delay marched for CoruÑa, taking with them their prisoners. An English brig of war, which was cruising off the river, hearing an unusual stir in the city, drew near in hopes of ascertaining the cause; Raymundo went on board, he was received with due honours, and an officer returned to shore ?Neves, iii. 85–91.? with him, and was sent to Luiz de Oliveira da Costa, who commanded at Porto during the absence of General Bernardim Freire de Andrada.

?The governor adheres to the French, and suppresses the insurrection.?

Luiz de Oliveira had been present at the meeting which Bellesta convened, and assented to the resolution which had there been taken. Whether his heart was with his voice on that occasion, or whether he had submitted to the prevailing opinion only while it was dangerous to oppose it, the fear of the French returned upon him, now that the Spaniards had left Porto to its own means of defence; and instead of receiving the English officer with open arms, he wrote to Raymundo, calling him to account for having opened a communication with the English brig, and saying that he knew nothing of the business. Raymundo replied with great spirit, that if the governor had forgotten what passed when the government of the Prince Regent was re-established, he had not; he and his officers had proclaimed their beloved Sovereign, he had invited the English commander, in the Prince’s name, to assist him; and if any person disputed the propriety of what he had done, he would make that person know what the power of the royal name was, and that that port was open for the English. Raymundo’s means, however, were not commensurate with his will; the people of Porto were disheartened by the departure of the Spaniards, and the city remained to all appearance in perfect submission to the French government, while the Portugueze flag was flying at S. Joam da Foz. A lieutenant-colonel, by name Manoel Ribeiro de Araujo, now presented himself in that fortress with an order from Oliveira to take the command. Raymundo told him, that if it were taken for the service of the Prince, he was ready to resign it into his hands; but if it were his intention to follow the French part, he might return to the place from whence he came, for within those walls no other name should be acknowledged than that of the lawful sovereign, and not a shot should be fired from them against the English. Araujo returned in the evening with fair words, and invited Raymundo to the governor’s house, there to confer with him upon the best mode of proceeding in the present critical circumstances. The treacherous invitation was accepted, and he had no sooner set foot within Oliveira’s apartment than he was arrested as a disturber of the people. The next step would have been to deliver him up to the French, and to certain death; but though he had with strange want of circumspection walked into the snare, neither his courage nor his presence of mind forsook him. Oliveira, with Araujo and another officer, went out into the varanda to give directions ?Neves, iii. 91–97.? concerning him; Raymundo, who was left alone in the apartment, quietly locked the varanda door, and lost no time in gaining a place of concealment.

?Junot disarms and seizes the Spaniards at Lisbon.?

Bellesta had left a letter for Junot, which the Chamber of Porto, as soon as his departure left them to the sense of their own weakness, dispatched to Lisbon, with assurance of their continued submission to the French. The news reached him at the close of an entertainment given by the French officers at the theatre, where, though the Russian admiral and his officers were present, the portrait of Buonaparte was displayed, with the Russian flag lying among other trophies ?Observador Portuguez, 292.? at his feet. A sense of insecurity was manifested amid their festivities; the avenues to the theatre were occupied by armed troops, fire engines were made ready, and all the watermen were ordered to be at hand with their barrels full. The entertainment continued till four in the morning, and immediately afterward movements were observed which indicated that some important intelligence had arrived; couriers were sent off, troops crossed the Tagus, and detachments marched to Mafra, Santarem, and other places. A body of Spaniards who were stationed in the Campo de Ourique were ordered to the Convent of S. Francisco da Cidade, an unfinished pile of enormous magnitude, which the French occupied as barracks, and where a thousand men were waiting to disarm them as soon as they should enter. The Spaniards, when they drew nigh, suspected ?Observador Portuguez, 295.? some ill design, and fixing their bayonets, declared they would not be quartered there. They were allowed to return without interruption; and in the evening they and their countrymen at Val de Pereiro, being in all 1200, were ordered to assemble at two in the morning, in the Terreiro do PaÇo, there to embark and cross the river on their way to Spain. Thither they repaired joyfully, and found 3000 troops awaiting them, with cannon placed under the arcades of that great square, and at the mouths of the streets which open into it; and they were summoned to lay down their arms and baggage, and surrender. In the course of that and the succeeding day, the Spaniards from Mafra and other parts were brought in as prisoners, in a condition which excited the compassion of the people, their women exhausted with the fatigue of marching in the burning heat of summer, some carrying children at the breast, and some, who were unable to walk, tied upon the baggage carts, lest they should be thrown off. The whole number of Spaniards thus arrested was somewhat above 4500; they were confined in hulks upon the Tagus. The officers were left at liberty upon their parole; but after a few days, when several had broken an engagement, which, considering the manner in which they had been seized, they did not think themselves bound in honour to observe, they were placed under the same confinement as the men. Junot then informed his army, in public orders, that the infamous conduct of the Spanish General Bellesta, the revolt of two regiments, the arrest of some of his officers at Badajoz and at Ciudad Rodrigo, and the inability of the Spanish commanders to control their men, had compelled him to this severe measure. Happily it had been executed without shedding blood. These Spaniards were not enemies; they should receive pay and provisions as heretofore, and their actual situation in no degree altered his good disposition toward them. ?Neves, iii. 99-109.
Observador Portuguez, 300.? He expressed his satisfaction at the conduct of his soldiers; and said, that if the English thought proper to make an attack, they were now fully at leisure to receive them.

?Junot’s proclamation to the Portugueze.?

He addressed a proclamation also to the Portugueze, wherein with incautious effrontery he avowed the double treachery which had been ?June 11.? practised upon them and upon the Spaniards. After six months of tranquillity, he said, the peace of the kingdom had been in danger of being disturbed by the Spanish troops, who entered the country apparently as allies, but in reality with the intention of dismembering it. No sooner had he in the Emperor’s name taken possession of the whole government, than they had begun to show their dissent: and at length their conduct at Porto, and in other places, had compelled him to disarm all who were within his reach. “Portugueze,” he continued, “I have hitherto been satisfied with your good disposition. You have known how to appreciate the advantages which must result to you from the protection of Napoleon the Great. You have had confidence in me. Continue it, and I will guarantee your country from all invasion, from all dismemberment. If the English, who know not how to do any thing except fomenting discord, choose to seek us, they will find us ready to defend you. Some of your militia and your remaining troops shall make part of my army to cover your frontiers; they will be instructed in the art of war, and if I may be fortunate enough to put in practice the lessons which I learnt from Napoleon, ?Observador Portuguez, 297.? I will teach you how to conquer.” Junot seems at this time to have aimed at conciliating the Portugueze soldiers, and making them act with his army. For this purpose he announced certain new regulations by which they were placed upon the same footing with the French ?June 14.? as to their pay and provisions. Hitherto four-fifths of their pay had been in paper money, which was at a great discount; the proportion was now reduced to two-thirds. A promise was made that the first item in the monthly military expenses should be for the allowance of the Portugueze prisoners in Algiers. The manner in which it was notified that the troops were to be under French command, was not in the imperious tone which the Duke of Abrantes, as he styled himself, heretofore had used; they were to form part of the divisions, it was said, within whose districts they were stationed; consequently the French commanders were to include them in their reports, and inspect and review them, to see that they received what was their due, and to perfect and accelerate their instruction. The ?Observador Portuguez, 303.? artillery, cavalry, engineers, and marine, were to be immediately under the orders of the respective French generals, who by this means would know their force, watch over their instruction, and see to their welfare: the intention of his majesty being, that the Portugueze troops should be treated in the same manner as his own in all respects.

?Festival of the Corpo de Deos at Lisbon.?

But it was too late for conciliation and flattery, after so many acts of insolent oppression: and an accident at this time occurred to manifest ?June 16.? with what suspicious apprehensions the French and the inhabitants of Lisbon mutually regarded each other. The day arrived for the annual procession of the Corpo de Deos. In the days of Joam V. this had been the most splendid display which the Catholic religion exhibited in Europe; and though in latter years the management had been less perfect, and there had been some diminution of its splendour, it was still a spectacle of unrivalled magnificence and riches. The streets of the capital on that occasion, and that only, were cleaned and strewn with fine gravel; the houses were hung with damask; the troops in their new uniforms, the various companies and brotherhoods, civil and religious, each with their banners, the knights of the military orders, and all the monks and friars of Lisbon, moved in the procession; which was closed by the dignitaries of the patriarchal church, the Prince in person, and the chief persons of his court, following the great object of Catholic adoration, which on that day, and that day only, was actually carried abroad. The most remarkable object in this pompous display used to be an image of St. George in complete armour, upon a beautiful horse, led by a squire and supported by pages on each side, and accompanied by the finest horses from the royal stables, with rich housings, and escutcheons thrown across their saddles. These horses and the saint had formed part of the procession from the year 1387, with one interruption only, early in the seventeenth century, when, at the instigation of a certain Mordomo, the Archbishop of Lisbon excluded the horses, as thinking it irreverent that the Real Presence should be preceded by unreasonable creatures. St. George’s charger alone was excepted from the prohibition; but in the midst of the procession that charger suddenly stopped, and could neither be induced nor compelled to proceed; it was not doubted that the rider had chosen this means to manifest his displeasure at the privation of his accustomed train; the Archbishop revoked his order upon the spot, and when the horses were introduced as usual, St. George consented to move forward, and the ceremony of the day was concluded with more than wonted satisfaction. The profane Mordomo, however, was not forgiven; on the following Sunday, when he was saying mass at the saint’s altar, St. George let ?Mappa de Portugal, t. ii. 257.? his spear drop from his hand upon the offender’s head.

The image which performed this miracle, after appearing annually in the procession during more than 350 years, was destroyed by fire at the time of the great earthquake. A new one, however, had been substituted, which succeeded to all the honours and miraculous properties of its predecessor. One of the finest horses which could be found in Portugal was selected to bear the saint in the great procession, and reserved for that single purpose, as if any other would have desecrated it. Junot, however, had taken St. George’s horse for himself, and rode it every Sunday when he reviewed his troops. And this year, for the first time, St. George was not to bear a part in the pageant: the reason which the French assigned for excluding him was, that he could not appear with his usual splendour, because the jewels of the Cadaval family, which he always wore in his hat on that day, had been taken to Brazil when the court emigrated. Other motives were imagined by the Portugueze: when the saint returned, after the fatigues of the day, a royal present had always been allotted him; it was thought that the French wished to spare themselves this expense. They were carrying on works within the circuit of the castle which were designed to command the city, and render the place defensible against the English and the Portugueze themselves; these works were carried on secretly, but it was part of the ceremony that St. George should enter the castle, and in that case his retinue would have observed what ?Neves, iii. 257.? was going on. Lastly, the people said that the French did not choose to let St. George go into public because he was an English saint.

?The procession interrupted by a panic fear.?

In all other things Junot wished the Lisboners to see that the spectacle had lost nothing of its wonted splendour. The procession had performed half its course when a sudden alarm arose, occasioned, it is said, by a thief, who being detected in some petty larceny, cried out, in the hope of exciting confusion and effecting his escape, that the English were crossing the bar. A general tumult ensued; some of the French formed as if expecting immediately to be attacked, ... others hurried to their posts with a celerity which was absurdly attributed to fear instead of promptitude; a crowd rushed into the church of S. Domingos for sanctuary, from whence the chapter of the patriarchal church were just about to proceed with the pix, in which the Romish mystery of impanation, the object of that day’s superstition, was contained. Some of the insignia which were to form a part of the show were thrown down and broken in the rush, and the clergy hastened to secure themselves each where he could. Not the mob alone, but the persons who were to form the procession, priests, monks, ministers, and knights, in the habiliments of their orders, took to flight; communities and brotherhoods forsook their banners and their crosses; here and there only an aged friar or sacristan was seen in whom the sense of devotion was stronger than fear, and who remained in his place, thinking that if he were now to die, it were best to perish at his station and in his duty. Wherever a door was open, the terrified people ran in, as if flying from an actual massacre; the great streets and the Rocio were presently deserted, and the pavement was strewn with hats, cloaks, and shoes, lost in the confusion. Fewer accidents occurred than might have been expected in such a scene; the alarm abated when it was ?Observador Portuguez, 306.
Neves, iii. 256–262.
Thiebault, 122–124.? ascertained that the British fleet was not entering; and when the cause of the13disturbance was discovered, the broken parts of the procession were brought together as soon as possible, and Junot with his generals closed it, in place of the Prince Regent and his court.

?Junot fortifies the castle.?

Though the tidings of the insurrection at Porto had soon been followed by news that submission had been restored in that city, intelligence of insurrectionary movements or designs was now arriving every day, and Junot thought it necessary to take farther precautions for holding Lisbon in subjection. The water-carriers were employed to fill the cisterns in the Castle, which was now strongly fortified; stores and fodder were laid in there, it was garrisoned with 800 men, and all the swords and small arms from the arsenal ?June 24. Edict for disarming the people.? were removed thither. An edict was issued commanding all persons to deliver up their fire-arms, swords, and hunting-spears, those Portugueze alone whose legal privilege it was to wear a sword being allowed still to retain one. If within forty-eight hours after the publication of that edict arms should be found in the possession of a Portugueze, he was to be imprisoned, and fined according to his means from 100 franks to 1000 cruzados; if the offender were a native of Great Britain, and delayed obedience half the time, his fine was to be from 100 cruzados to 10,000, and greater punishment inflicted if the case required it: for other foreigners the same time was appointed as for the natives, and the extent of ?Observador Portuguez, 314.? their fine was to be 2000 cruzados, but, like the English, they were liable to any farther punishment which the French might think proper to inflict. It was the custom in Portugal, as formerly in England, to celebrate the eve of certain festivals, and especially those of St. John the Baptist, and St. Peter, with bonfires: the custom of kindling festal fires at that season of the year is as old as the worship of the Kelts, even perhaps before their entrance into Europe; and it is one of the many pagan rites which Romish Christianity adopted. The use of gunpowder made it a dangerous custom even among a people so little addicted to mischief as the Portugueze: and at the pretended desire of certain pious persons, who deemed such rejoicings incompatible with that calm and collected state of mind which the church required at such times, all these demonstrations of festivity were prohibited. Any person letting off fire-works or fire-arms, as had been usual, making any use of gunpowder, or kindling a bonfire, was to be imprisoned eight days, and pay a fine proportioned to his means: parents were made answerable for their children, schoolmasters for their boys, masters for their servants, tradesmen for those in their employ; the public walk was not to be open in the evening, and any concourse of people in the streets was forbidden. Orders were given to clear the ?Observador Portuguez, 311.? Campo de Ourique immediately, though the crops were not ripe, that troops might be encamped there, from whence, and from the Castle, the city would be completely under their command. Detachments were sent north and south to keep down a people, who were now everywhere beginning to manifest their long suppressed ?Observador Portuguez, 317.? indignation. The men marched out of Lisbon with provisions and kettles upon their backs, and each with a loaf fixed upon his bayonet.

?Movements at Braga.?

The news of the first insurrection at Porto produced considerable effect in the north of Portugal before it was known that that city, through the treachery or timidity of the persons in power, had again submitted to the intrusive government. At Braga the Archbishop gave orders for taking the cover from the royal arms upon his palace, and reciting in the service the collect for the Prince Regent and Royal Family. The restoration of the legitimate government was proclaimed by the better part of the people; but the public performance of that duty was prevented by some of those persons who are to be found in all countries, whose sole object is to advance themselves, they care not by what means. They, putting their trust in Buonaparte and his ?Neves, iii. 124–6.? fortune, drew up formal charges against the primate, and dispatched them to Junot. Had the French remained masters of Portugal, this process would have terminated in his deposition, perhaps in his death; ... but the fire was now spreading on all sides, and breaking out, as in ?Insurrection at MelgaÇo.? Spain, every where, simultaneously. A Galician gentleman, by name Mosqueira de Lira, having concerted measures at the house of his brother-in-law, who was an inhabitant of MelgaÇo, with the Corregedor of that place, and with a retired magistrate, entered the town with some other Galicians of the border and their armed followers, on a day when the people from the adjacent country were assembled there at a fair. Encouraged by their appearance, the Portugueze broke out into execrations against Napoleon and his instruments, and proclaimed their lawful Prince. The Quinas, which, during the usurpation, had been covered upon all public buildings and monuments where they had not been destroyed, were presently exposed again to the eyes of a people whose belief it was that Christ himself had in person commanded the founder of their monarchy to bear upon his shield those ?June 9.? symbols of his passion. The next day the acclamation was performed with the same formalities as at the commencement of a new reign, the magistrates and persons in office taking the lead; and the joyful inhabitants sallied out to indulge their overflowing loyalty by repeating the scene in the neighbouring villages. Their hilarity was interrupted by a sudden report that a French army had landed on the coast of Galicia, and that a corps of that army had already arrived at Caniza, meaning to cross the Minho, and attack MelgaÇo. That town had been founded by the first King of Portugal, and refortified by King Diniz: his works had long since fallen to decay, and the place was open to an enemy. The bells rang the alarm, and the people, resolving rather to meet the danger than to wait for it, set off with two pieces of cannon, tumultuously, and in that state of heated spirits and insubordination which such calamitous times produce. The falsehood of the report was soon ascertained; a fellow then boldly proposed that they should nevertheless march forward and collect forces, and because the Capitam Mor ordered the countrymen to return peaceably to their homes, this man attempted to pistol him; the mischief was prevented by a resolute and right-minded peasant, who seized the ruffian and threw him to the ground. Other indications of the disposition in the populace to abuse their power as soon as they feel it, soon appeared. A rumour went about that the Juiz de fora had struck the red flag which had been planted in the town; a tumultuous sentence of death was passed upon him, and a party set out to execute it. But when they approached the town they saw the flag still flying: it was however true that the Juiz had been advised to strike it, because, if the French arrived, the sight of the bloody flag might provoke them to put all to the sword. The advice was given by an officer, and with no ill intention, for no man exerted himself more actively: but his military prudence on this occasion had well nigh cost him his life, and he only escaped by the swiftness of his horse. Warned by these indications how dangerous any act would be which the people could interpret into an intention of intimidating them or checking their ardour, the Juiz, when he received Junot’s proclamation, communicated it to none but those on whom he could rely; he prepared for action as well as the means of the place would afford, and applied to the Junta of Orense for assistance in men, arms, and ammunition. Some troops accordingly were sent by them to Milmanda and Cellanova, whence they might enter ?Neves, iii. 126–135.? Portugal to assist MelgaÇo, whenever their assistance was required.

?The Prince Regent proclaimed at Braganza.?

While the national feeling was thus displayed in one of the remotest corners of the kingdom, similar scenes occurred in places of more importance, and more exposed to the vengeance of the enemy. The post-office in the city of Braganza was at the house of the Abbot of Carrazedo. ?June 11.? A letter brought him news of the insurrection at Porto; he read it aloud to the persons who happened to be present; their letters confirmed the welcome tidings, and added the flattering expectation that by that time Junot would have been made prisoner at Lisbon. Readily believing what they wished, they set up a shout of rejoicing; the news spread; the multitude joined in exulting acclamations, and the parties from the post-office hastened to a church, where the governor of the province, General Manoel Jorge Gomes de Sepulveda, was attending a service in honour of St. Antonio. This general, though oppressed with age and infirmities, hesitated not as to the course which he should pursue. He left the church to issue such orders as were expedient without delay. The bells of the cathedral were ordered to strike up, and those of all the churches joined presently in expressing and heightening the public joy. There were, however, men in authority who had no generous hopes or feelings to mislead their judgement on this occasion; and they, like others of the same stamp at Braga, thinking to obtain favour with the intrusive government, hastened to the general, and asked him what was the meaning of all this stir. Sepulveda took them to the window, and showed them the streets swarming with people, who were crying out, The Prince and the Royal House of Braganza for ever! the General for ever! Down with the French! “There,” said he, “you hear what is the meaning; ... and you may quiet that multitude if you dare.” He illuminated his house, which was the signal for a general illumination: he ordered such arms as were in the city to be made ready for service, sent to Chaves for more, offered pardon to deserters upon their repairing to Braganza, called upon all reduced officers to come forward, and issued orders to all the governors and Capitaens mores within his jurisdiction to proclaim their lawful Prince, and enrol the peasantry for the service of their ?Neves, iii. 136–141.? country. A solemn mass was celebrated the next day in the cathedral as a thanksgiving service, a sermon was preached upon the occasion, and all who were present mounted the national cockade, the clergy wearing it upon the breast.

?The Braganzans intimidated by the news from Porto.?

These festive days were of short duration. The next post, which was expected to confirm the promises of the last, and bring news of Junot’s overthrow and capture, arrived with intelligence that all was tranquil at Lisbon, and that Porto had returned to subjection. It brought also circular letters from the French government, requiring the Portugueze to continue in obedience, and threatening severe vengeance to all who should disturb the public tranquillity. The danger was now deemed as imminent as the triumph had before seemed certain. Loison would hasten from Almeida to punish Braganza for its revolt; and Marshal Bessieres also, they thought, was about to descend upon them from Castille. The time-servers now obtained an ascendancy, and were about to draw up a formal accusation against Sepulveda, and the persons who had taken the lead in this precipitate insurrection. They proposed to him, however, that he should join with them in a representation soliciting pardon for the city, saying that all which had been done, had been submitted to by him because it was not possible at that moment to oppose the populace, and that the illuminations and other demonstrations of joy were only in honour of St. Antonio. Letters were accordingly written to this effect. Sepulveda’s object was to gain time by dissimulation, while he took measures for securing a retreat into Spain, unless affairs in Portugal should take a fortunate turn; and while he let the promoters of this submission ?Neves, iii. 141–146.? send his letter with their own to the post-office, he secretly instructed the post-master not to forward it.

?Second insurrection at Porto.?

As the first declaration of the people at Porto had occasioned these movements in the north of Portugal, so these secondary movements, reported and exaggerated in like manner, re-acted upon the public spirit in that city. Oliveira, who had acted under fear of the French, was now in fear of his own countrymen, and soon found himself in such a situation, that he was in danger of being regarded as an enemy by both. On the day of the Corpo de Deos he wished the soldiers to carry the French eagles in the procession instead of the national banner, and this they resolutely refused to do; the end was, that only a few companies, without any colours, appeared in the train. The temper of the people was shown at this time by the groups which collected in the streets, and the agitation which every countenance expressed. Raymundo, consulting at once his own safety, and the furtherance of his country’s cause, had conveyed letters to the city, dated from Vianna and from ValenÇa, saying that he was on his way to Spain, there to solicit succours, with which he should presently return: and the ignorant people, ready to believe any thing, were fully persuaded that he would soon appear at the head of a Spanish ?Neves, iii. 97.? army. A report, with more appearance but as little reality of truth, accelerated the success of his stratagem, though it was intended to intimidate the people. The Juiz de fora at Oliveira de Azemeis received orders to provide rations for a French detachment on the way from Coimbra to Porto. It was part of Junot’s policy to alarm the people by such reports, for the purpose of keeping them in submission. The means of that place were not equal to the sudden demand; the Juiz represented this to the governor of Porto, and bread was ordered from that city, in obedience to the requisition. A few Frenchmen, who had concealed themselves during the first insurrection, and re-appeared when Oliveira restored the usurped authority, imprudently assisted in loading the carts with loaves for this purpose; a crowd collected at the sight, burning with indignation; a native Portugueze artilleryman remarked, that bread enough could be found for the French, though not for the Portugueze; one of the Frenchmen returned an answer which ?Neves, iii. 163–168.? provoked a blow; the mob immediately took part, seized the French, and delivered them to a guard of soldiers, who took charge of them, without knowing for what end, or inquiring by whose authority.

This second insurrection had been prepared, though the occasion upon which it broke out was accidental. The Portugueze flag was displayed, Joam Manoel de Mariz brought out from the barracks at Santo Ovidio four field-pieces ready for service, with thirty artillerymen to serve them; the arsenal was opened, and arms and cartridges distributed to all who applied for them. And Raymundo, who had concealed himself in a country-house only two miles from Porto, made his appearance by the convent of S. Domingos, with nineteen Spaniards, armed with blunderbusses like himself, and covered with dust, and with their cloaks upon their backs, like men arriving from a long march. They declared that a Spanish army was on the way, and the people, in full expectation of this support, prepared to defend the city against the French. Some guns were placed upon the bridge, others on the heights of Villa-nova. There was some difficulty in conveying them to the latter position; a Dominican, who had sallied from his convent sword in hand, and with his sleeves tucked up, laid hold of the ropes; friars, priests, and women, followed his example, and the work was presently accomplished. While they were thus exerting themselves to provide for the defence of the city, the rabble exercised their authority in the usual way, discharging fire-arms in the streets, beating drums, blowing trumpets, ordering the bells to be rung in all the churches and convents, breaking open houses to search for Frenchmen and suspected persons. They threw Oliveira and many others into prison, but happily no murders were committed. The mob were restrained in their ferocity by the expectation that traitors would be brought to condign punishment as soon as the lawful authority was re-established, which it soon would be. Till that time it was resolved that a local and provisional government should be formed after the manner of the Spaniards. The authors of the movement had concerted this, and fixed upon persons to constitute the Junta; but while they were engaged in the ceremony of nominating and appointing them, a report arrived that the French were actually at Grijo, within twelve miles of Porto. The question then was, should they wait upon the defensive on the heights of Villa-nova, or hasten to attack them, in the hope of surprising them by night, and finding them exhausted by a long march? The bolder opinion prevailed; and a volunteer party set off for Grijo, and hurried there so fast, that they would have been in worse condition, as well as worse order, than the enemy, if any enemy had been there. But instead of the French they found a few travellers on the way from Coimbra, who assured them that there was no rumour of the advance of any troops along the road. Even a victory would hardly have elevated their spirits more. This was about daybreak; they hastened back to the city. The ?June 19.? soldiers in the Campo de S. Ovidio swore upon their swords to defend the independence of Portugal, their religion, and their King. A public meeting was convoked, the bells of the chamber rung, the soldiers led the way in military order, with two field-pieces; the people followed to the episcopal palace; the Bishop came forth into the varanda, and gave the assembled multitude his blessing; then he descended among them, kissed their banner, and led the way to the cathedral, there to implore the divine assistance in their meritorious undertaking. This done, they returned to the palace, and proceeded to appoint what they called the Provisional Junta of Supreme Government; the list which had been prepared was shortened, as being inconveniently numerous; eight members were appointed, in equal numbers, from the clergy, the magistracy, the military, and the citizens, and ?Neves, iii. 169–176.? the Bishop was placed at their head with the title of President Governor.

?Measures of the Junta.?

The Bishop, D. Antonio de S. JosÉ e Castro, immediately published a manifesto, in the name of the Prince Regent, declaring that the French Government was abolished and exterminated in that country, and the royal authority restored and to be exercised plenarily and independently by the Provisional Junta of Porto, till the government instituted by his Royal Highness should be re-established. The Junta therefore gave orders, that in all places the Prince should be proclaimed, and the royal arms uncovered and respected as heretofore they always had been, and now again hereafter were to be; and they called upon all constituted authorities to act accordingly. His next business was to dispatch a messenger to General Sepulveda at Braganza, requesting succours, especially in cavalry, and an officer capable of taking the command, whether for attack or defence. The Visconde de Balsamam was sent to the British brig, which was still hovering off the bar, and a communication was thus opened with England. Voluntary contributions were liberally made, the pay of the soldiers was raised, and as a measure not less popular, a Tribunal de Inconfidencia was instituted, to take cognizance of causes in which treason was suspected. The prevalence of suspicion is indeed one of the many dreadful evils in such calamitous times. An example of this occurred before the close of ?Arrest of Cardoso.? the day. Colonel JosÉ Cardoso de Menezes Soutomaior had been that day appointed to the chief command, as being the senior officer. Happening to send a messenger that evening with letters upon public business to the Juizes de fora at Oliveira de Azemeis and Recardaens, he forgot to provide him with the passport which was now necessary for crossing the bridge. The messenger was therefore stopped by the guards, and either from the confusion occasioned by fear, or from a confidence of protection, refused to declare whither he was going, or by whom he was sent. Upon this the guards searched him, and found the two letters. These would have explained the matter and cleared him; but perceiving that a third letter which he carried more secretly about his person was in danger of being found, he drew it out, tore it in pieces with his teeth, and threw it over the bridge. A few fragments were saved, but not enough to give any indication of its contents. The messenger was immediately arrested as a traitor, and carried before JosÉ Cardoso, who thought at first to end the business by desiring that the man might be left with him, and saying that he would answer for him. The people (for a crowd had collected on the way) transferred at this their suspicions upon Cardoso himself; and to satisfy them, he found it necessary to open the two letters, and thus acquaint the mob with arrangements which it had not been intended that they should know. But he could give no account of the paper which had been torn; and therefore the mob, having thrown his messenger into prison, returned to arrest him and carry him before the Bishop. Protestations of innocence were vain, and it was evident that his life would be in danger on the way; some of his friends, however, bethought themselves of a happy stratagem; they rung the alarm bells, and raised a cry that the enemy was approaching. Evening was now closing; the populace left their intended victim to go in quest of the invaders, and passed the night in hurrying here and there upon the false report. Cardoso meantime got in safety to the Bishop’s palace, and related all that had passed. As far as he was concerned his justification was clear, but of the third letter he could give no account. The messenger, however, gave a plain and credible one; he had not long since been at Lisbon, where a Frenchman had given him this letter for one of his countrymen in Porto; on his arrival in that city he found that the person to whom it was addressed had been carried away prisoner by the Spaniards; and his intention was, when he returned to Lisbon, to deliver it again to the writer. He had torn it in a moment of fear, lest he should be considered a partizan and agent of ?Neves, iii, 186–192.? the French, if it were found upon him. The Bishop was satisfied; but he advised Cardoso not to appear in public till this unlucky accident should be forgotten.

About noon, on the ensuing day, the alarm bells were rung again, drums beat, trumpets sounded, and preparations were again made for an immediate engagement with the enemy. They were at Os Carvalhos, it was said, eight miles off. There was some foundation for this report. The Juiz at Oliveira de Azemeis was in expectation and fear of the French, and not having received the bread from Porto which he had been ordered to have in readiness for them, had sent to this town and to the adjacent villages, to embargo all that could be found. Troops and volunteers now hurried forward with the utmost alacrity, and in the utmost disorder. This was a critical moment for Cardoso: if he went abroad, to put himself at the head of the forces, as his duty required, there was the risk of being again accused and endangered as a traitor: if, on the other hand, he forbore to appear, the very forbearance would be interpreted as a proof of disaffection to his country. After some hours of indecision, he could not bear to remain inactive, and incur the reproach to which it must needs subject him at such a time, and forth he went. He had not gone far before a poor fellow, whom a party of OrdenanÇas upon some suspicion had seized, met him, and implored his protection. Cardoso inquired into the case, and finding the man innocent, gave orders to release him. His authority was disputed, and presently he himself was reproached and seized as a traitor. Some were for putting him to death upon the spot; and though others insisted upon carrying him before the Bishop, it appeared very doubtful whether he would reach the palace alive. When they met a priest upon the way, the mob called upon him to confess this traitor, who was about to die, and Cardoso himself cried out for absolution, seeing nothing but death before his eyes. The Bishop was convinced of his innocence, but could neither persuade the populace, nor command them; nor could he save Cardoso’s life by any other expedient than that of allowing him to be thrown into one of the worst dungeons of a Portugueze prison. In that miserable confinement ?Neves, iii. 192–196.? he remained till the heat of these tumults had abated; he was then released, and honourably distinguished himself afterwards.

?Disturbed state of the people.?

Meantime Porto was in a frightful state of insubordination. The people readily enrolled themselves, but, as if intoxicated with joy, they celebrated their deliverance instead of labouring to secure it: and men who ought to have been practising the drill, or erecting batteries and throwing up trenches, were beating drums, ringing the bells, and wasting powder in empty demonstrations of bravery. The city was illuminated during three successive nights, and they seemed so little aware of the tremendous conflict in which they were engaged, that they were about to march to war as to a festival. From this delusion the Bishop roused them by an appeal well adapted to those for whom it was intended. “Portugueze,” he said, “in the name of Heaven and of Jesus Christ, listen to a government which loves you, which desires your happiness, and is labouring for it! Their turbulence, he told them, their insubordination, their waste of powder, only exposed them to the enemy, who would come upon them by surprise, and surely destroy them, if they would not listen to their rulers and obey orders. Strength without order was like the bull, who, strong as he is, is brought to the ground by a weak hand, with the aid of dexterity and a cloak. Their endeavour should be to be unseen and unheard, that they might the more fatally be felt; ... to conceal their movements, that they might strike when the blow was not expected. The government conjured them, by every thing which was most sacred in heaven and earth, to subject themselves to discipline, and obey their officers. Where they were posted there they were adjured to remain till the time for action arrived: they who were first in the field would diminish the number of the enemy when they engaged them; the second body, when they arrived, would weaken the French still farther; the third would complete their destruction. But if all hurried on tumultuously, all would be lost.” The populace by this time had fired away so much powder, and spent so much of their animal spirits in rioting, and hurrying here and there upon so many false alarms, that they were disposed to listen to this advice. Tranquillity was produced by exhaustion; and to preserve it, order was given that the alarm bells should not be rung till the cathedral ?Neves, iii. 196–198.? began, and that whenever that was necessary, a flag should be hoisted on the tower by day, and a torch by night, to distinguish it from the fire-bell.

?The Junta conclude an alliance with the Junta of Galicia.?

Subordination being now in some degree restored, the Junta entered with alacrity upon their arduous duties. They raised a loan, and imposed new taxes, as the exigencies of the time required; among others a duty of four mil reis upon every pipe of wine which was exported. Two deputies were sent to England; and an alliance was concluded with the Supreme Junta of Galicia, the nearest of the newly constituted authorities in Spain; Galicia engaging first to assist in liberating Portugal, and Portugal promising, ?Neves, iii. 199.? after her own deliverance should be accomplished, to co-operate in expelling the French from every part of the Peninsula. Wild as this promise appeared to the French, and to those shallow statesmen by whom the French were regarded as invincible, and the power of Buonaparte not to be resisted, it was faithfully performed by the Portugueze, and fulfilled to the letter of the bond. The Junta of Porto had another object to accomplish, more difficult, and at that time not less important, than an alliance with Spain. Other Juntas were now springing up in the north of Portugal at the first hope of deliverance, and unless these were induced to acknowledge that at Porto as supreme, all plans of defence would be frustrated by the jealousy of contending authorities. One had been formed ?Its authority is acknowledged throughout the north of Portugal.? at Viana on the same day; others at Torre de Moncorvo, Miranda, and other places of less note; all these submitted readily to the superiority which was claimed. Braganza was not so willing to resign its pretensions. The intrusive government had not been re-established in that city, notwithstanding the efforts of its adherents, and the apparent assent of General Sepulveda. Their penitent letters to the French ministry were stopped at Villa Real, where the people proclaimed their lawful Prince; and when the Braganzans, upon tidings of the second insurrection at Porto, formed a Junta, and required obedience to its edicts, its authority was disowned there. Sepulveda was so offended at this, that he sent Brigadier Manoel Pinto Bacellar to arrest Francisco da Silveira Pinto da Fonseca, then a lieutenant-colonel of cavalry, who had taken the lead at Villa Real. Bacellar acted with more prudence than the general who sent him, and endeavoured by amicable means to bring about a good understanding; and Silveira, disregarding the orders of one who had so far been found wanting, that he had at least professed submission to the French after having once thrown off their yoke, crossed the Douro, to spread the revolution in the province of Beira. Sepulveda found as little obedience in Torre de Moncorvo and some other Juntas in that district, when he issued a circular order requiring that every town which was entitled to a voice in the Cortes should send a deputy to assist at the provincial Junta of Tras os Montes, the title which that of Braganza had assumed. Opposed in their pretensions on that side, after contesting the authority of the Porto Junta, concluding a treaty with it, and then again disputing with it, and arraigning its measures, the Junta of Braganza ended at length in ?Neves, iii. 151–162. 180–185.? obeying the advice of the Bishop of Porto, which was repeated in strong terms by Sepulveda, and dissolving itself.

?The insurrection extends towards Coimbra.?

The whole of Tras os Montes and of the province between the rivers had now declared against the intrusive government, and acknowledged the Junta of Porto. The same spirit was spreading in Beira. Aveiro declared itself, and a plan was formed for surprising the French in Coimbra, an undertaking of more importance than danger. The details are curious, as showing the disposition of the people, the insignificance of their means, and the disorderly manner of their proceedings. A patrole of armed peasants had been sent out from Porto upon the Coimbra road, to obtain intelligence of the enemy, concerning whom nothing certain was known. Dr. JosÉ Bernardo de Azevedo, of the order of Avis, hearing upon what service these persons had been sent, represented to the Junta how little likely it was that such a set of men should act with discretion; upon the first news of the enemy they would hurry back without ascertaining their numbers, position, and probable movements; or if they ventured to approach them, would most probably fall into their hands. He ?June 22.? offered to obtain the desired information himself, knowing the country well, and accordingly laying aside his habit, set off with one servant on horseback. When he arrived at Oliveira de Azemeis, he met the greater part of the patrole on their return in triumph; they had failed to arrest the Juiz as they intended, but they had caught a lawyer, and were dragging him to Porto as a suspected person. They had however sent four of their party forward on the Coimbra road, in pursuance of their original object, and JosÉ Bernardo proceeding on his journey, overtook them at Mealhada, a village about twelve miles from Coimbra. Exulting that they had advanced so far without meeting the French, and encouraged by what they heard from the people of Mealhada, that the enemy had only a handful of men in Coimbra, and most of them invalided, they resolved to fall upon them, by surprise if possible, that very day. A reformed colonel of militia at Ois undertook to bring thirty armed ?Neves, iii. 200–205.? men; the people of Mealhada volunteered their services, and the two parties were to meet at Carquejo, half way on their march.

?Scheme for surprising the enemy in Coimbra.?

When the men of Mealhada began to prepare for their expedition, there were some whose hearts failed them, and the contagion spread. JosÉ Bernardo, however, by reproaching and threatening some, encouraging and praising others, with the seasonable administration of fruit and wine, and the zealous help of a serjeant of the OrdenanÇa, mustered some thirty peasants, with about twenty muskets, the rest were armed with pikes and sickles and other such instruments; and when they set off many of the others followed, ashamed to be left behind. The party from Ois not having arrived when they reached Carquejo, JosÉ Bernardo ordered his people to halt for them there, and suffer no person to pass toward Coimbra, while he and two others went on to reconnoitre and form the plan of attack. He found no difficulty in entering the city and obtaining all the information he desired. The French soldiers in Coimbra did not amount to an hundred men, and of these not more than forty were capable of service. There was a rumour that 1200 Spaniards were on the way against them. This the inhabitants were more likely to believe than the French, who, relying upon their Emperor’s fortune, the terror of the French name, and the submission of the Portugueze, were living to all appearance in full confidence of security. Satisfied with this intelligence, and without venturing to concert any co-operation in the city, JosÉ Bernardo returned as far as the Bridge of Agua de Maias, and sent to hasten the march of his motley volunteers.

?The French in that city are made prisoners.?

When they were not far from this bridge, they were seen by a patrole of four horsemen, two French and two Portugueze, who clapped spurs to their horses, in order to cross the bridge before them and give the alarm. The insurgents, however, equally on the alert, got between them and the bridge, and addressed them with the quem vive? Napoleon, was the answer, and two pistols were fired upon them without effect. A general discharge was returned, which killed two of the patrole and mortally wounded another. The fourth, who escaped unhurt, was a Portugueze; he threw himself off his horse, cried out, Viva o Principe de Portugal! and joined his countrymen. The wounded man was a Frenchman: the insurgents, with a humanity not to have been expected at such a moment, left one of their number to assist him, and he was afterwards removed into the city, and there humanely and carefully attended; but to his latest breath he reviled the Portugueze, and the last hope which he expressed was, that ample vengeance would be taken for his blood. The French guard at the gate of S. Sophia hearing the guns, and seeing a number of men approach, fired among them, and fled to their quarters in the College of S. Thomas. The Portugueze followed close: they were fired upon from the windows without effect, for the French were too sensible of their own weakness to make any regular defence; the doors were forced, and they quietly laid down their arms, and suffered themselves to be bound, ?Neves, iii. 207–212.? happy to receive no worse treatment from such an assemblage, ... for by this time the whole rabble of Coimbra had collected.

?The Juiz do Povo takes the command.?

Having thus easily succeeded, the first thought of JosÉ Bernardo and his comrades was to obtain the sanction and assistance of some legal authority for their future proceedings. The courage, and perhaps the disposition, of the magistrates was doubted; but the Juiz do Povo was an officer whom tumultuous times had heretofore forced into importance, and the Juiz do Povo was now called for. JosÉ Pedro de Jesus, a cooper by trade, who held the office, happened to possess a rare union of upright character, activity, and good sense. He came forward, assumed a power which was willingly recognized, and exercised it in a manner which at once gratified the populace and satisfied the wishes of cooler minds. First he lodged the French safely in prison, then distributed among the people the arms of those cavalry regiments belonging to the northern provinces, which Junot had disbanded. In the depÔt with these weapons a flag was found with the royal arms. It was carried in triumph through the streets, while the exulting people hastened to uncover the shield of Portugal upon the public buildings. The bells from all the colleges and convents and churches of that populous city pealed in with the acclamations of the people, and heightened the excitement and agitation of their spirits. Bonfires were kindled, as in old times, in defiance of Junot’s prohibition: the night of St. John’s had always been a festival in Coimbra, but never before had it been celebrated with such uproar and overflowing joy. Some barks on the river, laden with provisions for the French in Figueira, were seized during the night; and in the morning it was deemed prudent to march off the prisoners to Porto, under a strong escort, lest the magistracy, in their fear, ?Neves, iii. 214–217.? should release them, and again reduce the city to submission.

?Order restored in Coimbra.?

This apprehension, however, was ill founded. The Juiz de fora came forward to act in the national cause; the students and lecturers formed themselves into an academical corps; and the Vice-Rector of the university, Manoel Paes de Aragam Trigoso, took upon himself the civil authority, in compliance with the wish of the inhabitants. They would have vested the military command in General Bernardim Freire de Andrade, whom the Prince, before his departure for Brazil, had appointed to the command at Porto. Not choosing to exercise it under the intrusive government, he was living privately at Coimbra; but being now summoned by the Bishop and Junta of Porto to his proper station, he declined for that reason the present nomination. The people next thought of D. Miguel Pereira Forjas, but he chose rather to follow Bernardim as his quarter-master general. They then chose Bernardim’s brother, Nuno Freire de Andrade, making him, however, subordinate to Trigoso. The men who thus accepted offices of authority discharged a most perilous duty to their country. They were not, like their countrymen in Tras os Montes and between the rivers, secured in some degree by distance from the French, and within reach of assistance from Spain, or, if need were, of an asylum in that kingdom. Nor would Coimbra be like some of the smaller towns, overlooked as unworthy of vengeance. Next to the capital itself there was no place in Portugal where a terrible example would so deeply impress and intimidate the nation: it was within easy reach of the enemy, from Almeida as well as from Lisbon, and all military means of defence were ?Neves, iii. 219–223.? wanting: a few pounds of powder were all that could be found in the city, and not one piece of cannon.

?Preparations for defence.?

On the other hand, more talents and enterprise, such as the times required, might reasonably be expected in Coimbra than in any other of the Portugueze towns. It was a populous and flourishing university, the only one in the kingdom: here therefore the flower of the Portugueze youth would be found, just at that age when they would be most willing and fit for service; and of that rank, and in that place, where national and generous feelings would have their strongest influence. If any where heads to plan and hands to execute might be found, it would be here. Accordingly no exertions were wanting. Chemists made gunpowder, geometricians directed works of defence, old soldiers were employed, some in making cartridges, others in training volunteers; mechanics were ?Neves, iii. 223–225.? set to work in whatever manner they might be most useful; bridges were broken down, roads broken up, means made ready for defending the streets, if the enemy should enter the city, and a strict police established.

?Successful expedition against Figueira.?

When one day had been passed in these arrangements and preparations an expedition was planned against Figueira da Foz, a small town and fort at the mouth of the Mondego, on the right bank, seven leagues from Coimbra. The French had a garrison of an hundred men there. Forty volunteers, who were almost all students, under the command of Bernardo Antonio Zagalo, ?June 25.? a student also, set out at evening, in hope of capturing this important point: they relied upon increasing their numbers on the way, and they took with them authority from the governor to raise the country as they went. Zagalo, with four horsemen, took the right bank, the rest of the party the left: they met at Montemor o Velho, and marching all night, appeared with the reinforcements which they had gathered, now some 3000 in number, before Figueira, at seven in the morning. The enemy were taken by surprise; they were dispersed about the town, when they saw this multitude approach; but immediately retiring into the fort, they prepared for defence. The place might have been easily defended against a crowd of peasants, more of whom were armed with pikes and reaping-hooks than with fowling-pieces, and who were likely, upon the slightest loss or disgust, to abandon their enterprise as precipitately as they had engaged in it. But the French, relying too confidently upon the submission of the Portugueze, had neglected to store the fort with provisions; and Zagalo summoned them, saying he knew they had not food for more than four-and-twenty hours, and that if they did not surrender they should all be put to the sword. Contrary to his usual policy, Junot had given the command of this fort to a Portugueze lieutenant of engineers; this person demurred at surrendering, because his family were at Peniche, in the power of the French. But, wanting either the will or the ability to exert himself in the enemy’s service, he remained inactive and confounded, till the following day, when Zagalo received positive orders from Coimbra to return immediately with all his people. This enabled the commander to obtain terms which might be pleaded to save his credit; and he capitulated on condition that the garrison should be allowed to cross the river with their arms and knapsacks, but without powder and ball; and to march unmolested to Peniche, the nearest strong place in possession of the French. Upon these terms the fort was given up; but the peasantry searched the men when they were embarking, and finding that some of them had concealed a few cartridges, declared that the conditions were broken: they themselves were desirous of breaking them, and therefore gladly found this pretext; and the ?Neves, iii. 226–233.? French would have been massacred if the students had not exerted themselves to protect them, and lodged them safely as prisoners at Coimbra.

?Loison ordered to march from Almeida to Porto.?

A report of Loison’s sudden approach had occasioned the order for recalling Zagalo. General Count Loison had been sent in the latter end of May, with 4000 troops, to Almeida, in pursuance of positive and repeated instructions from Murat when exercising the command in Madrid. He was to concert his movements with Bessieres, and, if necessary, to join him; he was to observe Salamanca, and secure Ciudad Rodrigo, if that were practicable. But the Spaniards were too much awakened to be again deceived or surprised by the French; and Loison having remained at Almeida from the 5th of June till the 16th, received orders from Junot to march upon Porto, take the command in that city, and keep the northern provinces in subjection. He had previously got possession of Fort ConceiÇam. Each party seems at this time to have been strangely ignorant of the movements and means of the other: Loison apprehended that an enemy’s force might render it impossible for the French to maintain this fort; he therefore directed General Charlot, whom he left with the command at Almeida, to remove thither the guns from ConceiÇam, keep it as long as he could, and destroy the works if he should be forced to evacuate ?June 17.? it. He then began his march with two regiments of light infantry, fifty dragoons, and six pieces of ?Thiebault, 148–150.? artillery. A battalion of light infantry was to set out from Torres Vedras, and reach Porto at the same time.

On the fourth day he reached Lamego without the slightest resistance, and on the following morning crossed the Douro by the ferry at Regoa, and reached Mezam-frio, meaning to sleep there. ?He turns back from Mezam-frio.? His advanced guard was on the way to Amarante, which is only forty miles from Porto, when news was brought him while he was at dinner that the mountaineers were defending the pass at Os Padroens da Teixeira; and presently a second ill messenger arrived with intelligence that his baggage was attacked at Regoa. These operations had been ably planned by Silveira, and were well executed. In so strong a country he deemed it better to turn back than to proceed at the risk of being surrounded by an armed population. An ambuscade among the vineyards at Santinho annoyed him greatly on his way toward the Douro, and he himself was slightly hurt. The Portugueze, when they were dislodged, retreated to the heights; the French took up a position for the night, and in the morning sacked the villages of Pezo and Regoa, where neither age, nor infirmity, nor sex, nor childhood, were spared by them; for Loison was one of those men after Buonaparte’s own heart, who, being equally devoid of honour and humanity, carried on war in the worst spirit of the worst ages, plundering and massacring without shame and without remorse. He now understood that Porto, which he had expected to find discontented indeed, but passive and in subjection, had thrown off the yoke; that a Portugueze officer, with whom he maintained a secret correspondence, had been fain to abscond from that city; that the disbanded soldiers had reassembled; and that the insurgent peasantry, in such numbers as to be truly formidable, were moving ?The peasantry harass his retreat.? against him from all parts of the two northern provinces. The news of his retreat was presently known throughout the whole country between the Tua and the Cavado; expresses and telegraphs could not have communicated it more rapidly than it was spread by the voluntary bearers of good tidings. One column came from Villa Real, one from Amarante, a third from Guimaraens; a motlier assemblage had never taken the field; ... the commonest weapons were pikes and long poles armed with reaping-hooks at the end; and there were as many abbots, monks, friars, and parochial clergy in command, as officers. The three columns united at Regoa, too late to impede or molest the French in their passage of the river. The enemy halted for part of the night at Lamego, and resumed their retreat at two in the morning. The Portugueze came up with them that day at Juvantes, and harassed them during three days. The total want of discipline, order, and authority, rendered their great superiority of numbers unavailing; and after they had reached Castro d’Airo, dispersing as irregularly as they had collected, they gave up the pursuit, less in consequence of the loss which they sustained in a few brisk encounters, ?Neves, iii. 235–248. Thiebault, 150–1.? than because they were too numerous to find sustenance, and every man was eager to report the retreat of the enemy and the share he had borne in the success. F. JosÉ Joaquim de AssumpÇam, a friar of orders gray, distinguished himself in this expedition, by his activity, his strength, and his unerring aim.

?He goes to Viseu.?

The loss on either side, in this pursuit, appears not to have been great; the pursuers were too disorderly and too ill armed to make any serious impression upon the enemy, and the French were not strong enough to act upon the offensive with effect. They lost two pieces of artillery, and some of their ammunition and baggage; and a few rich uniforms which fell into the hands of the Portugueze were suspended as trophies in the churches of N. Senhora da Oliveira at Guimaraens, and of S. GonÇalo de Amarante, in the town which was under his peculiar patronage. Being freed from his pursuers, Loison, sending part of his force by the road of Moimenta da Beira, which was the shorter but rougher line to Almeida, took himself the way of Viseu. This ?Alarm at Coimbra in consequence of his movements.? was the movement which alarmed the people at Coimbra, and induced them to recall Zagalo from Figueira. It was not improbable that his intention was to march upon that important city, and there place himself in communication with Lisbon: his own judgement would dispose him ?Thiebault, 152.? to this, and indeed no fewer than five-and-twenty dispatches, instructing him so to do, had been sent, not one of which had reached him. But he had received an exaggerated report of the proceedings in Coimbra, brought by some partizans of the French, who had fled to save their lives, on the night of the insurrection, when their houses were broken open, during the suspension of all order and authority. Their testimony concerning the temper and unanimity of the inhabitants could not be doubted; it was ?Neves, iii. 217.? added, that they were busy in constructing formidable works of defence, and that an auxiliary force of 12,000 Spaniards was expected there. Such strange events were now every day occurring, that nothing seemed too extraordinary to be believed; and Loison, it is thought, in consequence of these rumours, judged it best ?He returns to Almeida.? to change his purpose, and return to Almeida. The Portugueze general who commanded in Beira resided at Viseu; upon the approach of the French he summoned the magistrates and members of the Camara, and they determined not to oppose a premature and unavailing resistance. Loison, though notorious for rapacity, in the most rapacious army that ever disgraced its profession and its country, was at this time sensible how desirable it was, if possible, to obtain a character for moderation and equity. He encamped his troops for the night without the city, in the open space where the fairs were held, took up his own lodging in the general’s house, and on his departure the next day, paid for every thing with which the men had been supplied. He also released three or four prisoners, who, in the late skirmishes, had fallen into his hands. At Celorico, where an insurrectionary movement had commenced, it was suspended by the prudence of the magistrates and the just fears of the people, till the enemy had passed by. The peasantry of the adjacent country were less cautious; they appeared in arms upon the heights, and Loison therefore sent two companies to burn the village of Souropires. Being now within easy reach of Almeida, and knowing that the country about Trancoso and Guarda was in a state of insurrection, his intention was to employ ?Thiebault, 152.? himself in reducing it to submission; but here the only one of the numerous dispatches from Lisbon which reached its destination found him, and, in pursuance of its orders to draw nearer the capital, he hastened to Almeida, to make the ?Neves, iii. 249–253.? necessary arrangements for his march. On the way he began to sack the city of Pinhel, which the inhabitants had deserted at his coming; but upon the tidings that a corps from Tras os Montes had arrived at Trancoso, and that Viseu was now in arms, he hastened forward, and on the 1st of July re-entered Almeida.

?Insurrection at Olham.?

When Loison, upon the first apprehension of danger, was sent to occupy Porto, General Avril was instructed, at the same time, to take possession of Estremoz and Evora, for the purpose of holding Alem-Tejo in subjection, and to give orders for securing Algarve. General Maurin commanded for the French in this kingdom, as it is designated, the smallest but richest province in Portugal: owing to his illness the command had devolved upon Col. Maransin, who received instructions to occupy Mertola as well as Alcoutim, for guarding the Guadiana against the Spaniards; and to protect the coast from Faro, the greatest port in that province, to Villa Real, the frontier town, at the mouth of the river. Maransin, however, was not left at leisure to do this. Junot’s proclamation, announcing the seizure of the Spanish troops, expressing his satisfaction with the Portugueze for their peaceable deportment, and promising to instruct them in the art of war, had been fixed upon the church door at Olham, a small fishing village about four miles from the city of Faro. The governor of Villa Real, Col. JosÉ Lopes de Sousa, happening to be in that village on the day of the Corpo de Deos, as he was going into the church stopped to see what the people were reading. The language of that proclamation proved how little Junot understood the character of the nation to which it was addressed; it wounded that high sense of national honour for which the Portugueze are remarkable, and Lopes, giving way to an honourable feeling of indignation, tore the paper down, and trampled upon it; then turning to the bystanders, exclaimed, “Ah, Portugueze, we no longer deserve that name ... we are nothing now!” But they answered, that they were still Portugueze, and swore that they were ready to lay down their lives for their religion, their Prince, and their country. Though the impulse had thus been given, and the determination of the parties formed, they did not neglect the religious duties of the day, but entered the church peaceably, and attended mass. That done, they proclaimed the Queen and Prince Regent in the porch, and called upon Lopes to be their general. He without delay prepared an address to the people, and sent for two pieces of artillery and some powder from an island at the bar of Armona, and from Fort Lorenzo on the bar of Faro. These were secured before the French in Faro could hear of the projected insurrection. Two agents also went off to the English squadron; the means which were at the commandant’s disposal had probably been all disposed of to the Spaniards; they proceeded therefore to Ayamonte, and performed their errand with such good speed, that on the following night they returned to ?Neves, iii. 270–275.? Olham with 130 muskets from the Junta of that city.

?Success of the insurgents.?

The greater part of Maransin’s force was stationed at Mertola, the rest was at Tavira and Villa Real, except 200 men at Faro. But before the news reached Faro a larger body of fishermen and peasantry had collected than 200 men could with any prudence have attacked. The French therefore sent for reinforcements from Villa Real and Tavira. From the latter place fourscore men embarked for Faro in three caics. The fishermen of Olham, confident in their skill upon the water, set out to intercept them under Captain Sebastiam Martins Mestre, one of those persons who had opened a communication with the English fleet and with Ayamonte. So little were the French prepared for such an encounter, that they surrendered without resistance, and thus the insurgents obtained a seasonable supply of arms. They were not long allowed to enjoy their victory; about 200 French arrived from Villa Real to assist their countrymen at Faro, and they marched against Olham. The Portugueze met them half way, and disposed an ambuscade to receive them: their own eagerness prevented its success; but they behaved so well in a skirmish which ensued, that the enemy thought it not prudent to advance. This was the third day of the insurrection, and the people of Faro had as yet made no manifestation in its ?The Chamber of Faro issue an edict against them.? favour. The chamber of that city had, on the contrary, issued an edict against the insurgents, for what it denominated a riotous and scandalous attempt against the security of the nation, saying that their conduct would brand the Portugueze with the infamous stain of ingratitude, and warning them against the severe punishment which awaited them if they persisted in their frantic and desperate attempt. This edict was posted up in Olham; and it so evidently affected the people, in whom great excitement and fatigue had now produced proportionate exhaustion, that ?Neves, iii. 275–281.
Observador Portuguez, 332, 333.? Lopes and Mestre, who had been hurt in the skirmish, thought it prudent to carry their prisoners to Spain, and go themselves to solicit aid from the Juntas at Ayamonte and at Seville.

?Insurrection at Faro.?

Maransin, not aware of their departure, and anxious to lose no time in suppressing a spirit the consequences of which he had so much reason to dread, sent out three pieces of cannon to his detachment, and for want of French troops, a party of fifty Portugueze artillerymen, under Lieutenant Belchior Drago, an officer much more inclined to act against the enemies of his country than with them. Meantime the commander of the French, having learnt that the people of Olham were wavering, succeeded in obtaining a conference with some of them, and proposed terms. He promised them a free pardon, if they would return to their obedience; said that they should be protected in their fishery, and that even Lopes himself should be no otherwise punished than by forbidding him to appear in that place. The persons to whom these conditions were propounded listened to them willingly, and expressed an opinion that the people would probably assent, if the Portugueze authorities in Faro gave their sanction to the proposals. Some of the magistrates accordingly went to conclude this agreement with the Prior of Olham, a zealous Portugueze, to whom, in the absence of Lopes and Mestre, the insurgents looked as their proper counsellor and ruler. But at this moment, when the French by mere authority had nearly quelled the insurrection, the spell was broken, and they were made sensible that they had relied too confidently upon the terror of their name. A few Faro-men met in the shop of one Bento Alvares da Silva Canedo, and determined, while the French troops were absent, to raise the city against them. They hired a fellow for a few moidores to give the signal, by chiming the bells of the Carmo church at a certain hour, in the manner usual in that country when prayers are solicited for a woman in labour. They who had concerted the scheme sallied into the streets, and proclaimed their native Prince; the populace gathered together at that welcome acclamation; a colonel of artillery joined them, and sent advice to Belchior Drago, who immediately returned to the city with his detachment; two of his brothers, both in the Portugueze service, appeared in the same cause, and the rest of the native troops without hesitation ?The French excluded from that city.? did the same. The French, when they would have re-entered the city to restore order, found cannon planted against them by men who knew how to use them; and, being repulsed in two attempts, retreated towards Tavira. Their magazines, their military chest, and all their papers, were taken14, General Maurin, sick in bed, was necessarily left to his fate; and the populace would have killed him in their first use and abuse of power, if some humaner spirits had not interfered to preserve him. The Bishop also exerted ?Observador Portuguez, 333–335.? himself to prevent this inhumanity, and had him ?Neves, iii. 282–289.? transferred to the episcopal palace for security.

On the following morning an assembly of the people was held in the Alto da EsperanÇa. The magistrates, the Bishop and his chapter, the clergy, the monks and friars, (who had all taken arms), the troops and the nobles, met and solemnly proclaimed their lawful Prince; the Quinas were hoisted, and an oath was taken that they would each to the last drop of his blood defend the rights of the house of Braganza. Circular letters were dispatched to all the towns and villages in Algarve. The next day some instances of insubordination, and the reasonable apprehension of an attack, induced one of the canons to propose, and the people to consent, to the appointment of a Junta. The Chamber nominated seven electors for the nobles, and as many for the people, the chapter seven for the clergy, and the army seven for themselves. By these electors eight members were chosen, two for each of the four orders, and the Conde de Castro-Marim was appointed president. This nobleman had been governor and captain-general of Algarve at the time of the invasion; under the intrusive government he resided as a private individual at Tavira, and the popular desire of re-establishing the order of things to which they had been accustomed, was shown in nominating him to the presidency, as it was indeed in all the circumstances of the insurrection throughout ?The insurrection spreads through Algarve.? Portugal. Emissaries were now sent to the east and west: in the west there were no enemies, and within eight-and-forty hours the acclamation was effected in Loule, Sylves, Lagos, at the fort of Sagres, and in the little towns to the north of Cape St. Vincent. From the east there was reason to apprehend an attack; the enemy, who had been compelled to retire from Faro, had retreated to Tavira, and had been joined there by a detachment from Mertola. But the English squadron was in sight; and the French commander, knowing how inadequate his whole force was to the dangers which menaced it, knew also that Algarve might, with little inconvenience, be left to itself, and that his business was to place himself in communication with the ?The French retreat to Mertola.? troops in Alem-Tejo. He therefore withdrew to Mertola, and the people of Tavira, rising as soon as the enemy retired, harassed them on the way. Juntas, subordinate to that of Faro, were now formed in Tavira, and in other smaller places; a red riband upon the right arm was assumed as the badge of patriotism, and they who ventured to appear without it were in no small danger from the people; but though many persons were insulted and menaced, and some imprisoned as partizans of the French, the better orders exerted their influence with such effect, that no blood was shed. Preparations were made for defending the passes of the mountains which divide Algarve from Alem-Tejo; and accredited agents were sent to Ayamonte, Seville, and Gibraltar. Arms were without delay supplied from all these places, and from Gibraltar a considerable quantity of ammunition. A circumstance, however, occurred, which seemed likely at first to occasion a misunderstanding with the Spaniards; for the Portugueze, upon the retreat of the French, having thrown up some works at Castro-Marim, the Spaniards crossed the river and destroyed them. This measure, so rash, and in appearance so hostile, was occasioned by an apprehension that the French might return there, which they had made a demonstration of doing before they ?The people of Algarve form a treaty with Seville.? abandoned Tavira. It was soon explained, when each people had so strong an interest in being upon the best terms with each other, and a formal ?Neves, iii. 290–303.? treaty was concluded with the Junta of Seville.

Before the insurrection in Algarve had succeeded, and even before it was known beyond the mountains, the same national feeling had ?Insurrection at Villa-ViÇosa.? manifested itself in Alem-Tejo at Villa-ViÇosa, the place of all others where the national and loyal feelings of a Portugueze would be most elevated by local associations, having been the residence of the Braganzan family during the Spanish usurpation. Early in the month the inhabitants had been exasperated by the passage of a French escort through the town, with the contributions that had been levied in that Comarca and the plate of the churches. They were farther irritated by an order for the militia to repair to Elvas at a time when Kellermann hoped to employ them against the Spaniards at Badajoz. But Elvas, where the main body of the French in Alem-Tejo were stationed, was only four leagues distant; there was a strong detachment still nearer, at Estremoz, and a French company was quartered among them, in the castle: they knew not that any movement for the recovery of their country’s independence had been made; nor, owing to their peculiar situation, were there any people in Portugal by whom it could be made with so little hope or possibility of success. Thus they had borne oppression, and might have continued to bear it, if their oppressors, in the wantonness of power, had not added insult to wrong. There was an image of N. Senhora dos Remedios, which, after having by a supernatural declaration of its own pleasure, changed its name, ?Santuario Mariano, t. vii. 571, 579.? made sundry voyages to and from India, and travelled from one place to another in Portugal during more than fourscore years, had at length obtained a settlement at Villa-ViÇosa, in a chapel of its own, where, being in high odour for its miraculous powers, it was visited with peculiar devotion on its own holyday, the 19th of June, by the people of that town, and the adjacent country. The history of this idol might excite a mournful smile for human weakness, not without indignation at the systematic frauds which have been practised upon a religious people. The French were too irreligious to see any thing in it but matter of mockery; and some of the soldiers, placing themselves in a gateway near the chapel, amused themselves with deriding the Portugueze, who were going there to worship, in ignorance indeed, and in delusion, but in simplicity and sincerity of heart. Some of the peasants resented this insult by manual force; more Frenchmen came to help their comrades, more Portugueze to support their countrymen; the scuffle became serious, for life or death, ... the bell of the Camara was rung, the ?Neves, iii. 305–309.? French retired into the Castle, and succeeded in closing the gate, which had been so well secured with iron in old times, that the people were neither able to break it open, nor to hew it in pieces. This was towards evening, and the riot continued all night.

The town was now in open insurrection. Messengers set off to solicit succour from Badajoz, and General Francisco de Paula Leite, who had lately governed the province, was called upon to take the command, which he absolutely refused, knowing that this tumult must inevitably end in the destruction of those who engaged in it. Antonio Lobo Infante de Lacerda, an old officer, and then Sargento-Mor of the militia, regarding consequences less, set his life fairly upon the die; he took the lead, and stationed marksmen upon the top of the ConceiÇam church, and in other points which commanded the Castle. Owing to these dispositions several of the French fell. Meantime the news reached Estremoz, where Kellermann and Avril both happened to be: fifty dragoons, with half a battalion of infantry, and two pieces of cannon, were immediately dispatched to rescue their fellows. A poor countryman, by name Ignacio da Silva, was in Estremoz at the time; seeing their movements, he easily divined their intention; good will gave him good speed, and running the ten miles, he brought intelligence of their march to Villa-ViÇosa in time for Antonio Lobo to make preparations for receiving them. He stationed some forty men, all for whom fire-arms could be found, upon the walls, and towers, and houses, at the entrance from the Borba road; the enemy, informed of, or divining this design, took another entrance. The way was soon cleared by their field-pieces. General Avril and Colonel Lacroix entered the town in pursuit of the routed multitude, the bayonet was used, with little mercy or discrimination, 200 persons were killed in the ?Observador Portuguez, 335.? streets, many more in the country, twelve prisoners ?Neves, iii. 309–315.? were put to death as ringleaders in what the French called rebellion, and the place was given up to pillage for one hour.

The messengers from this unfortunate town had been joyfully received at Badajoz; and Moretti, the officer who had performed the perilous service of conferring with General Carraffa in Lisbon, was dispatched with a corps of Portugueze refugees which had been formed under protection of the Spanish fortress. They had arrived at OlivenÇa on their way, when Antonio Lobo arrived there also, escaping with about a score companions from the carnage. Instead of returning with ill news, as a man of ordinary spirit would have done, Moretti inquired whether some useful enterprise might not be attempted; and they determined upon getting possession of Jurumenha, knowing how important it was that the Portugueze loyalists should possess a place within their own border, which had the name of being fortified, when the French were in no condition to attack it. It was occupied by a Portugueze garrison, but the governor partook so little in the honourable feelings of his nation, that he had that day seized some fugitives from Villa-ViÇosa, and sent them prisoners to Elvas, requesting at the same time a French garrison for his security and that of the place. He understood the temper of his own people; but Moretti and Lobo knew it also, and calculated upon it. Sixteen Portugueze, concealing their arms, entered as if upon ordinary business; eight proceeded to seize the governor, the others took their station in the gates, and admitted their party just in time to point the artillery of the place against the French, who had been ordered from Elvas to occupy it without delay. Moretti now obtained farther assistance from Badajoz, and discretionary powers: on the other hand, Kellermann sent a second party to recover Jurumenha; but supposing the force which defended it to be much stronger than in reality it was, they returned without venturing to attack it. This greatly encouraged the Portugueze, and more than counterbalanced the effect of their slaughter at Villa-ViÇosa. Emissaries and proclamations were sent from hence throughout ?Neves, iii. 316–320.? the province; and the people, exaggerating the importance of the place, looked to it with confidence as a strong point of support in their own country.

The news from Algarve, spreading at the same time, elevated their spirits; and the state of the country soon became such, that the French couriers were every where intercepted. Colonel Maransin, with his troops, had now effected his retreat to Mertola, from whence, for the purpose of restoring a communication with Estremoz and with Lisbon, he sent a detachment of 100 foot and thirty dragoons to Beja. That city was originally a settlement of the Kelts, possessed next by the Carthaginians, afterwards the Pax Julia of the Romans, a Moorish corruption of which name has been euphonized to its present form. It was taken from the Moors by the first king of Portugal, restored from its ruins and fortified in the thirteenth century by Affonso III. and beautified by his son, King Diniz, with his characteristic magnificence, of which the walls with their forty towers, and the fine castle, bore testimony in their ruins. Here, as in all the other cities of Alem-Tejo, there was a melancholy air of decay, less owing to the long and destructive struggle with Spain, in which that province had been the great scene of action, than to the peculiar circumstances which depressed its agriculture, and that inhuman persecution of the New-Christians, by which the largest part of the commercial capital in Portugal had either been annihilated by confiscations, or driven out of the kingdom. Still, however, it contained some ten or twelve thousand inhabitants, and was a place of considerable importance in that thinly peopled province. It stood on the highest part of an elevated and extensive plain, conspicuous from a distance, and commanding a wide prospect on all sides, the heights of Palmella and even of Cintra being distinctly visible. The immediate country, where it is cultivated, is fertile, and the situation in high repute for its salubrity. Eventful as the history of Beja had been, it was now to undergo as severe a calamity as any with which it had been visited in the unhappiest ages of Spain.

The French detachment entered the city without opposition, passed the night there, and on the next day ordered quarters and provisions to be made ready for the whole body of troops in Mertola, who, they said, were about to follow them. Their demand was received in such a manner by the people of Beja, who were now acquainted not only with the state of Spain, but with the nearer events in Algarve and at Jurumenha, that the French deemed it prudent to march out, and take a position in the open country, not far from the walls. This encouraged the populace; and, like all mobs, becoming cruel as they felt themselves strong, they murdered two soldiers whom the French indiscreetly sent into the city for provisions. Ignorant of their fate, the commander supposed they had been imprisoned, and threatened, if they were not immediately set free, to release them by force. The people then riotously demanded arms, that they might rush out and attack the enemy. The magistrates remonstrated with them in vain, and on the following ?June 25.? morning the Corregidor, finding that farther delay would only endanger his own life, distributed among them such weapons as could be collected, and taking the safest course for himself, set off to solicit aid from the Junta of Ayamonte, the nearest authority by which it could be supplied. The Provedor and the Juiz de Fora thought it their duty to avert, if possible, the immediate danger: they went out to the French, entreated them not to attack the town, and promised them supplies; the enemy were easily entreated, because they were not strong enough in reality for any such attempt: the magistrates then endeavoured to make the people ratify what they had undertaken for them; all reasoning was in vain, and to save their own lives they left the city. But here also private malice availed itself of public troubles to effect its own ends; a messenger recalled them, upon the plea that they were wanted to give orders for collecting provisions, in fulfilment of their agreement; for the Corregidor having departed, there was no person to take upon himself that business. Deceived ?Neves, iii. 323–327.? by this treacherous message, they returned, and were butchered by a ferocious mob, who knew not that they were made the brutal instruments of individual revenge.

By this time, however, the ardour of the people had so far cooled, that they no longer talked of sallying against the French, they contented themselves with keeping a tumultuous watch through the night; and when the morning dawned, and there appeared no enemy, they fancied themselves secure. The French commander had merely retired out of sight: his dispatches reached Mertola at eleven on the preceding night; at midnight Maransin, with 950 men, began his march, and at four the next evening the united force ?June 26.? arrived before Beja. They were opposed by a mere multitude without order, leader, or plan of defence, every man acting for himself as he thought best. Yet the victory was not gained without a brave resistance, and some loss to the assailants. According to the French account they lost eighty in killed and wounded, while 1200 of the Portugueze were slain in the action, and all who were taken in arms were put to ?Observador Portuguez, 341.
Neves, iii. 327–332.? death. The worst excesses followed by which humanity can be disgraced and outraged, and the15 city was sacked and set on fire. In this whole merciless proceeding Maransin acted upon his own judgement, well knowing that such was the system which Napoleon had laid down, and which his generals felt no reluctance in executing. He proceeded to Evora, and Kellermann, approving of his conduct, held out the fate of Beja in a proclamation, as a warning ?Kellermann’s proclamation to the people of Alem-Tejo.? to the province. “Inhabitants of Alem-Tejo,” he said, “Beja had revolted, and Beja exists no longer. Its guilty inhabitants have been put to the edge of the sword, and its houses delivered up to pillage and to the flames. Thus shall all those be treated who listen to the counsels of a perfidious rebellion, and with a senseless hatred take arms against us. Thus shall those bands of smugglers and criminals be treated, who have collected in Badajoz, and put arms into the hands of the unhappy Lusitanians, but dare not themselves march against us. Who, indeed, can resist our invincible troops? Ye who have precipitated yourselves into rebellion, prevent, by prompt submission, the inevitable chastisement that awaits you! And ye who have hitherto been happy or prudent enough to continue in your duty, profit by this terrible example! Our general in chief has not told you in vain that ?Observador Portuguez, 347.? clouds of rebels shall be dispersed before us like the sands of the desert before the impetuous breath of the south wind.”

The bombastic sentence which Kellermann thus quoted, was from a proclamation that Junot had just sent forth, in that spirit of shameless falsehood and remorseless tyranny which characterised the intrusive government. He asked the Portugueze what madness possessed them? What reason they could have, after seven months of the most perfect tranquillity, of the best understanding, to take arms; ... and against whom? against an army which was to secure their independence and maintain the integrity of their country! Was it their wish, then, that ancient Lusitania should become a province of Spain? Could they regret a dynasty which had abandoned them, and under which they were no longer counted among the nations of Europe? What more could they desire than to be Portugueze, and independent? and this Napoleon had promised them. They had asked him for a king, who, under his all-powerful protection, might restore their country to its rank. At this moment their new monarch was expecting to approach them. “I hoped,” said Junot, “to place him in a peaceable and flourishing kingdom; am I to show him nothing but ruins and graves? Will he reign in a desert? assuredly not; and you will not be any thing but a wretched province of Spain. Your customs and laws have been maintained; your holy religion, which is ours also, has not suffered the least insult; it is you who violate it, suffering it to be influenced by heretics, who only wish for its destruction. Ask the unhappy Roman-catholics of Ireland under what oppression they are groaning! If these perfidious islanders invade your territory, leave me to fight them; ... your part is to remain peaceably in your fields.” He then attempted to soothe them, saying, that if any abuses in the administration still existed, every day’s experience would diminish them. The Emperor, satisfied with the reports which he had received of the public spirit, had graciously remitted half the contribution. He was fulfilling all their wishes. And would they let themselves be dragged on by the influence of a banditti, at the very moment when they should be happy? “Portugueze,” said he, “you have but one moment to implore the clemency of the Emperor and disarm his wrath. Already the armies of Spain touch your frontiers at every point; ... you are lost if you hesitate. Merit your pardon by quick submission, or behold the punishment that awaits you! Every village or town in which the people have taken arms, and fired upon my troops, shall be delivered up to pillage, and destroyed, and the inhabitants shall be put to the sword. Every individual ?Observador Portuguez, 317–320.? found in arms shall instantly be shot.”

The French had dealt largely in false promises; they were sincere in their threats, and on the very day when this proclamation was issued at Lisbon, that sincerity was proved at Beja. ?National feeling of the Portugueze.? But as the Portugueze had not been deceived, neither were they now to be intimidated. Their character had been totally mistaken by their insolent oppressors. They, like the Spaniards, had a deep and ever-present remembrance of their former greatness. It was sometimes expressed with a vanity which excited the contempt of those who judge hastily upon that imperfect knowledge which is worse than ignorance; more generally it produced a feeling of dignified and melancholy pride. The kingdom had decayed, but the degeneracy of the people was confined to the higher ranks, whom every possible cause, physical and moral, combined to degrade. Generation after generation, they had intermarried, not merely within the narrow circle of a few privileged families, but oftentimes in their own; uncles with their nieces, nephews with their aunts. The canonical law was dispensed with for these alliances; but no dispensing power could set aside the law of nature, which rendered degeneracy the sure consequence. Thus was the breed deteriorated; and education completed the mischief. The young fidalgo was never regarded as a boy: as soon as the robes, or rather bandages of infancy were laid aside, he appeared in the dress of manhood, was initiated in its forms and follies, and it was rather his misfortune than his fault, if, at an early age, he became familiar with its vices. When he arrived at manhood, no field for exertion was open to him, even if he were qualified or disposed to exert himself. The private concerns of embellishing and improving an estate were as little known in Portugal as those public affairs in which the nobility of Great Britain are so actively engaged: if not in office, he was in idleness, and his idleness was passed in the capital. A wasteful expenditure made him a bad landlord, and a bad paymaster; a deficient education made him a bad statesman; and well was it if the lax morality which the casuists had introduced into a corrupt religion, did not make him a bad man. Exceptions there were, because there are some dispositions so happily tempered, that their original goodness can never be wholly depraved, however unpropitious the circumstances in which they are placed; but men, for the most part, are what circumstances make them, and these causes of degeneracy were common to all of the higher class. On the other hand, the middle classes were improved, and the peasantry uncorrupted. Their occupations were the same as those of their forefathers; nor did they differ from them in any respect, except what was a most important one at this time, that a long interval of peace, and their frequent intercourse with the Spaniards, had effaced the old enmity between the two nations, so that along the border the languages were intermingled, and intermarriages so common, as to have produced a natural and moral union. They were a fine, hospitable, noble-minded race, respected most by those who knew them best. The upper boughs were scathed, but the trunk and the root were sound.

Their ignorance as well as their superstition, contributed at this time to excite and sustain a national resistance. They expected miracles in their favour; the people of Coimbra actually believed that a miracle had been wrought, because when the French fired upon them from the windows of their quarters, no person was ?Neves, iii. 210.? hurt. Of the relative strength of nations they knew nothing, nor of the arrangements which are necessary for carrying on war, nor of the resources by which it must be maintained. Spain filled a larger space in their imagination than France, and Portugal than either; and they were not erroneous in believing that Spain and Portugal together possessed a strength which might defy the world. The threats of the intrusive government therefore excited indignation instead of dismay; such language addressed to minds in their state of exaltation, was like water cast upon a fire intense enough to decompose it, and convert its elements into fuel for the flames. The fate of Beja excited hatred and the thirst of vengeance instead of fear, and the insurrection continued to spread in the very province where the experiment had been made upon so large a scale of putting an end to it by fire and sword.

A Portugueze of the old stamp, by name Antonio Leite de Araujo Ferreira Bravo, held the office of Juiz de Fora at Marvam, a small town about eight miles from Portalegre, surrounded with old walls. Of the many weak places upon that frontier it was the only one which, in the short campaign of 1801, resisted the Spaniards in their unjust and impolitic invasion, and was not taken by them; and this was in great measure owing to his exertions. When the French usurped the government, a verbal order came from the Marquez d’Alorna, at that time general of the province, to admit either French or Spanish troops as friends, and give them possession of the place. Antonio Leite protested against this, maintaining that no governor ought to deliver up a place intrusted to his keeping without a formal and authentic order: proceedings were instituted against him for his opposition, and he was severely reprehended, this being thought punishment enough at that time, and in a town where no commotion was dreamt of. When the decree arrived at Marvam, by which it was announced that the house of Braganza had ceased to reign, Antonio Leite sent for the public notaries of the town, and resigned his office, stating, in a formal instrument, that he did this because he would not be compelled to render that obedience to a foreign power which was due to his lawful and beloved Sovereign, and to him alone. Then taking with him these witnesses to the church of the Misericordia, he deposited his wand of office in the hands of an image of N. Senhor dos Passos, and in the highest feeling of old times called upon the sacred image to keep it till it should one day be restored to its rightful possessor. He then returned to his house, and put himself in deep mourning. The order arrived for taking down the royal arms. He entreated the Vereador not to execute it, upon the plea that the escutcheon here was not that of the Braganza family, but of the kingdom, put up in the reign of Emanuel, and distinguished by his ?Neves, ii. 109–122.? device; and when this plea was rejected, he took the shield into his own keeping, and laid it carefully by, to be preserved for better days.

The Juiz seems to have been a man who had read the chronicles of his own country till he had thoroughly imbibed their spirit. These actions were so little in accord with the feelings and manners of the present age, that they were in all likelihood ascribed to insanity, and that imputation saved him from the persecution which he would otherwise have incurred. But when the national feeling began to manifest itself, such madness was then considered dangerous, and the Corregidor of Portalegre received orders from Lisbon to arrest him. Before these orders arrived he had begun to stir for the deliverance of his country, and had sent a confidential person with a letter to Galluzo, the Spanish commander at Badajoz, requesting aid from thence to occupy Marvam; men could not be spared; and the messenger returned with the unwelcome intelligence that before he left Badajoz the business on which he went had transpired, and was publicly talked of. Perceiving now that his life was in danger, his first care was that no person might suffer but himself, and therefore he laid upon his table a copy of the letter which he had written, from which it might be seen that the invitation was his single act and deed; having done this, he seemed rather to trust to Providence than to take any means for securing himself. It was not long before, looking out at the window, he saw the Corregedor with an adjutant of Kellermann’s and a party of horse coming to his house. He had just time to bid the servant say he was not within, and slip into the street by a garden door. He had got some distance, when the Corregedor saw him, and called after him, saying he wanted to settle with him concerning the quartering of some troops. Antonio Leite knew what his real business was too well to be thus deceived, and quickened his pace. The town has two gates, one of which was fastened, because the garrison was small: toward that however he ran, well knowing that if he were not intercepted at the other, he should be pursued and surely overtaken. Joaquim JosÉ de Matos, a Coimbra student, then at home for the vacation, met him, and offered to conceal him in his house; but the Juiz continued to run, seeing that the soldiers were in pursuit, dropt from the wall, escaped with little hurt, and then scrambled down the high and steep crag upon which it stands. Matos, thinking that he had now involved himself, ran also, and being of diminutive stature, squeezed himself through a hole in the gate; they then fled together toward Valencia de Alcantara, and had ?Neves, iii. 333–337.? the satisfaction, at safe distance, of seeing a Swiss escort come round the walls to the place where the Juiz had dropt.

The Spanish frontier being so near, their escape was easy; but when they had been a few days at Valencia de Alcantara, Matos determined upon returning to his family, knowing that there was no previous charge against him, and thinking that the act of having spoken to the Juiz could not be punished as a crime. In this he was mistaken. The governor of Marvam was a worthy instrument of the French. He not only arrested Matos, but his father also, an old man who was dragged from his bed, where he lay in a fit of the gout, to be thrown into a Portugueze prison; and a physician, whom he suspected of being concerned in the scheme of an insurrection. This news reached the Juiz; it was added, that his own property had been sequestered, he himself outlawed, and all persons forbidden to harbour him, and that a French escort had arrived to carry the three prisoners to Elvas. He could not endure to think that he should be, however innocently, the occasion of their death, and therefore determined to attempt at least their deliverance at any hazard. It was not difficult to find companions at a time when all usual occupations were at a stand, and every man eager to be in action against an odious enemy. With a few Spanish volunteers he crossed the frontier, and there raised the peasantry, who knew and respected him: with this force he proceeded to a point upon the road between Marvam and Elvas; the escort had passed, ... but he had the satisfaction to learn that it had not gone for the prisoners, only to bring away the ammunition and spike the guns. This raised their spirits; they directed their course to Marvam, climbed the walls during the night, opened the prison, seized the governor, and without the slightest opposition from two hundred Portugueze troops, whom he had just obtained from Elvas to secure the place, and who, if they knew what was passing, did not choose to notice it, the adventurers returned to Valencia in triumph with their friends, and with the governor prisoner. The Junta of Valencia did not now hesitate, in conformity to an order from Badajoz, to give the Juiz regular ?June 26.? assistance; he entered Marvam in triumph with this auxiliary force, and the Prince Regent was proclaimed there by the rejoicing inhabitants, at the very time when Beja was in flames. A few ?Insurrection at Campo-Mayor.? days afterwards a Spanish detachment from Albuquerque entered Campo-Mayor with the same ?July 2.? facility. Some jealousies which arose there, as well as at Marvam, from the inconsiderate conduct of the Spanish officers in issuing orders as if they were in their own territories, were put an end to by the formation of a Junta, of which the Spanish commander at Campo-Mayor was made president. The example of these places was immediately followed at Ouguela, Castello de Vide, Arronches, and Portalegre; and the insurrection thus extended throughout all that ?Neves, iii. 337–360.? part of the province which is to the north of Elvas.

Junot meantime was in a state of great anxiety at Lisbon. It was not known what was become of Maransin and the troops in Algarve; there was no news of Loison; the insurrection in the north had reached Coimbra, and was spreading in Estremadura, and there was a report, probable enough to obtain credit, that an expedition of 10,000 English was off the bar. He called a ?June 28.? council, at which the generals of division, Comte de Laborde and Travot, were present, the chief of the staff, General Thiebault, Baron de Margaron, and other officers. The result of their conference was, that the army should be collected in and near Lisbon, leaving garrisons in only the three important places of Almeida, Elvas, and Peniche; that Setubal and the left bank of the Tagus should be maintained as long as possible; that when the English appeared they should occupy in succession three positions; one from Leiria to Ourem and Thomar; a second from ?Thiebault, Relation, 128.? Santarem to Rio-Mayor, Obidos, and Peniche; lastly, one from Saccavem to Cintra: finally, that they should defend Lisbon till the utmost extremity, and only leave it to retire upon Elvas, rest the troops there, and then force their way either to Madrid, Segovia, or Valladolid. In ?1808.
July.? pursuance of this resolution, Kellermann was summoned from Alem-Tejo, and courier after courier dispatched to recall Loison from Beira. Junot’s next measure was to put the church plate ?Observador Portuguez, 321.? which he had secured in a portable form, and for this purpose what there was no time for coining was melted into ingots. To counteract the rumours, true and false, by which the Portugueze were encouraged, it was affirmed that Napoleon had entered Spain, and that 20,000 men had reached the frontiers of Portugal to reinforce the French. Alarmed and harassed by contradictory rumours, and dreading from the temper of the people an insurrection, which would be punished by a massacre, many families removed from Lisbon; those who had country estates to their Quintas, the greater number to the different ?Observador Portuguez, 343. n.? places on the opposite side of the river, particularly ?July 1.? Almada and Casilhas. They were however ordered to return; every head of a family who did not within four days obey this order was to be arrested, and all persons were prohibited from leaving Lisbon, unless they were provided with a passport from the police, ... an institution to which the Portugueze at this time applied the name of the Inquisition. It was of importance, the decree said, that good citizens should be secured against the ridiculous rumours which were promulgated, and that all notions of danger to the city of Lisbon should be put an end to; the French army would know how to maintain tranquillity there. This, however, was less a measure of policy than of extortion; those families who had retired were made to pay, in proportion to their means, for permission to remain where they were. They who had nothing to ?Observador Portuguez, 345.? give suffered the whole inconvenience of this oppressive law.

The French commander tried to suppress the national feeling by the influence of religion. In the village of Varatojo, near Torres Vedras, there was a famous seminary for itinerant preachers of the Franciscan order, instituted by Fr. Antonio das Chagas, a man remarkable alike for his genius, for the profligacy of his youth, and the active, austere, enthusiastic piety of his after life. Junot sent for the Guardian of this seminary, requiring his immediate attendance; the old man, in strict adherence to the rule of his order, which forbade him to travel by any other means, obeyed the summons on foot, and arrived four-and-twenty hours later than the time appointed. He was then ordered to dispatch some of his preachers, as men who possessed great authority over the people, to Leiria and into Alem-Tejo, to preach the duty of submission and tranquil obedience. The Guardian excused himself by representing that his brethren who were qualified for such a mission were already on their circuits, and that there were then in the seminary none but youths engaged in preparing for the ministry, and old men, who, being past all service, rested there ?Neves, iv. 61–63.? from their labours, in expectation of their release. ?July 2.? The dignitaries of the patriarchal church could not so well evade his commands; a pastoral letter was obtained from them denouncing excommunication against all persons who should, directly or indirectly, either by writing, speaking, or acting, encourage the spirit of insurrection which had gone abroad. This was sent into the provinces, with a letter from the French intendant of police, Lagarde, in which the clergy ?July 4.? and the heads of convents were informed, that wherever public tranquillity might be disturbed, they would be held responsible, because no disturbance would break out if they exerted themselves to prevent it, as the true spirit of religion required. The fate of Beja, he said, should be that of every city in Portugal which should have the guilty imprudence to revolt against the Emperor, now the sole sovereign of that country. And he asked the Portugueze, wherefore they would bring upon themselves the heavy weight of power at a moment when the Almighty authority (such was the blasphemous expression) thought only of putting in oblivion the rights of conquest, and of governing with mildness? Is it, said he, before a few handfuls of factious men ?Observador Portuguez, 348–353.? in Portugal that the star of the great Napoleon is to be obscured, or the arm of one of his most valiant and skilful captains to be deadened? Deeply as the baneful superstition of the Romish church has rooted itself in that country, the threat of excommunication excited nothing but contempt. The French could not derive any assistance from ecclesiastical interference while it was remembered that they had robbed the churches.

It is not extraordinary that the intrusive government should have failed to deceive the people by its addresses; but that it should have attempted so to do; that it should have talked of benefits intended and conferred upon a nation on whom it had brought such wide and general misery, and inflicted injuries as unprovoked as they were enormous, indicated indeed an effrontery of which none but the agents of Buonaparte were capable. Their insolent language exasperated the Portugueze. One of these papers was lying upon a tradesman’s counter in Thomar, and one of their very few partizans vindicated the manner in which the Prince was there spoken of, saying, that the country was now rid of him and of the Inquisition. A Franciscan who was present immediately took a knife from his sleeve, and struck it through the paper into the board, saying, that in that manner he would serve any one who dared speak against his Prince and his religion: and producing a pistol, he was only withheld by force from giving murderous proof of his sincerity. An information was laid against him, and a party of Portugueze soldiers sent from Abrantes to arrest him: he absconded in time, and the Guardian of the convent, who was suspected of favouring his escape, was taken in his stead. Before they could carry him out of the ?Neves, iv. 3–8.? town, the people rose and rescued him, and the restoration of the legitimate government was proclaimed with the same ceremonies as in other places.

About the same time a handful of students from Coimbra, collecting volunteers as they went, spread the insurrection at Condeixa, Ega, and Pombal, and approached Leiria, from which city a small party of the French retired before them. This place was within easy reach of the enemy, and troops, arms, and ammunition were wanting to defend it. The people sent to Coimbra for all, as if Coimbra could supply either: the Bishop exerted himself to forward the preparations; and the people mustered tumultuously with that confidence which an ignorant multitude always feels of its own untried strength. The French had some small garrisons upon the coast, about twenty miles off, in the little forts of Nazareth, S. Giam, and S. Martinho, which communicated with each other by telegraphs, and drew rations every day from the adjoining country. The Juiz of Pederneira was compelled to furnish these; in this time of alarm he was called upon to store them with a convenient stock beforehand, and because this was not, and could not be done in a few hours, they began to pillage the neighbourhood. Provoked at this, the fishermen fell upon a ?Success of the insurgents at Nazareth.? Frenchman, who was going with dispatches from S. Martinho to Nazareth, and murdered him, crying, Down with the French! The sentinel at the signal-post had the same fate ... the signal-post was broken, and the country round about was presently in insurrection. The enemy withdrew from S. Giam and S. Martinho, having hastily spiked two guns at the former place, and buried two barrels of powder. They fell back upon a detachment under General Thomieres, which watched the country between the Caldas, Obidos, and Peniche. Nazareth was blockaded by the insurgents; the report was, that a considerable Spanish army had arrived at Leiria, and incredible as this was, it was believed, and gave full confidence to these ignorant and zealous people. They sent thither for assistance, and the Coimbra students came with a party of peasants, those who could muster the best arms. The cannon were brought from S. Giam, and rendered serviceable; the two barrels of powder were discovered; a Portugueze artilleryman escaped from the fort to join his countrymen, and direct their operations; and the French, finding themselves now in serious danger, capitulated ?July 5.? to save their lives. The victorious students and their party were far advanced on their ?Neves, iv. 14–30.? return to Leiria, when they heard news of that miserable city, which rendered it necessary for them to strike into the pine forest, and conduct their prisoners by unfrequented ways to Figueira.

General Margaron had been sent from Lisbon with between 4000 and 5000 men, to check the progress of the insurrection in Estremadura, and learn some intelligence of Loison, from whom nothing had been heard for a considerable time. Though the disposition of the people was every where the same, they were kept down by the presence or by the neighbourhood of the enemy, every where within reach of the capital; and he met with no opposition till he approached Leiria. That city, which is the most considerable place on the road to Coimbra, is built upon the little rivers Liz and Lena, in a beautiful country, an hundred miles from Lisbon. It is believed to have been built from the ruins of Colippo, a Lusitanian city which the Romans destroyed; and it has been asserted, that Sertorius planted a colony there whom he brought from Liria in Spain. Affonso Henriquez fortified it as a strong hold against the Moors, who then possessed Santarem, and recovered it after they had captured it. Some of his successors occasionally resided there, and its fine castle was enlarged and beautified by Queen St. Isabel, wife of the magnificent King Diniz. At the beginning of the last century it contained 900 houses and 2150 communicants. Its population had increased, and might at this time have been estimated at about 5000. The adjacent country has been made the scene of pastoral romance by Francisco Rodriguez Lobo, for which it is precisely adapted by its wild yet beautiful and peaceful character.

The people of Leiria and the peasantry who had collected there had had little time for preparation when they heard that the French were approaching. They had paraded through their streets the banner of the city, bearing for its device a crow upon a pine tree; in memory of one which, when Affonso Henriquez attacked the city, perched there in the midst of his camp, and clapped its wings and croaked in a manner that was accepted as a good omen. They had proclaimed the Prince, restored and repainted the royal arms, and assisted at the performance of Te Deum in the cathedral; but school-boys in a rebellion could not have been more unprepared with any plan of defence, or unprovided with means for it. They were in an open city. They had not a single piece of cannon. Of some 800 men who were stationed at outposts and other points of danger, scarcely a fourth part were armed with muskets, and for these three or four round of cartridges were all that could be found. To persons unacquainted with the character and condition of the Portugueze it might appear almost incredible that resistance should have been attempted under circumstances thus absolutely hopeless. But the people were goaded by insult, and stung by the feeling of insupportable wrong. They had been wantonly invaded, ... grievously, inhumanly, and remorselessly oppressed. They knew that the nation was rising against its oppressors: they felt instinctively what the strength of a nation is; and were too ?Neves, iv. 31–36.? much exasperated to consider, or too little informed to understand, that without order and discipline numbers are of little avail, and even courage not to be relied on.

The higher orders were perfectly sensible of their imminent danger, but they would have exposed themselves to certain destruction if they had attempted to reason with the infuriated multitude. The magistrates therefore, and the person who had been appointed to the command, withdrew secretly from the city during the night, and fled. In the morning five Frenchmen, who had been surprised upon a marauding party, were ?July 5.? brought in prisoners. A short-lived and senseless exultation was excited at their appearance. At noon it was known that the enemy were close at hand; they sent forward a peasant who had fallen into their hands, and whom, contrary to their custom, they had spared, to offer pardon to the people if they would return to their obedience; that offer being refused, they attacked the insurgents. By their own account the resistance was so momentary, that there was no time for the artillery, nor for half the troops to take part in the action. The insurgents threw away their arms, like terrified villagers, imploring the clemency of an irritated conqueror. From 800 to 900 were left upon the field. The city was ?3d Bulletin. Observador Portuguez, 357.
Thiebault, 143.? entered on all sides. But, by their own account, the moment the action was over, General Margaron restrained the indignation of his troops; their moderation was equal to their valour, and victory was immediately followed by order. Margaron, in a proclamation to the inhabitants, dwelt upon his clemency. “A decree had been issued,” he said, “commanding that every town where the French were fired upon should be burnt, and its inhabitants put to the sword.” They had incurred that penalty, and his duty required him to inflict it. Nevertheless he had prevented the massacre and the conflagration; not a house, not a cottage had been burnt; he had protected their persons and their property, as far as was possible under such circumstances; and instead of seeking for the guilty, he repeated to them his offers of peace and union. He called upon them to learn who were their real friends, and ?Thiebault, PiÈces Justificatives, No. 10.? lay aside their arms. “Leave,” said he, “the noble task of protecting and defending you to the soldiers of the great nation. Submit yourselves to the power which Heaven supports, and obey our holy church as I do, ... you in renouncing your projects of exterminating the French, I in forgiving all that you have done against them.”

This is what the French relate of their conduct at Leiria. “Sepulchres of Leiria,” exclaims the Portugueze historian of these events, “prove ye the falsehood with which these robbers, as cruel as they are perfidious, have deceived the world!” What they have not related is now to be recorded. It is not dissembled by the Portugueze that the defence was as feeble and as momentary as the enemy describe it. They entered the city on all sides, and began an indiscriminate butchery; old and young, women and babes, were butchered, in the streets, in the houses, in the churches, in the fields. The most atrocious acts of cruelty were committed, and not by the common soldiers only. One of the superior officers related of himself, that a feeling of pity came over him when upon entering the town he met a woman with an infant at her breast, but calling to mind that he was a soldier, he pierced mother and child with one thrust! Free scope was given to every ?Memoir of the early Campaigns of the Duke of Wellington, p. 8.? abominable passion; and in the general pillage the very graves were opened, upon the supposition that treasure might have been hidden there, as in a place where no plunderer would look to find it. When the slaughter in the streets had ceased, they began to hunt for prisoners, and all who were found were taken to an open space before the Chapel of S. Bartholomew, there to be put to death like the prisoners at Jaffa. The greater number of these poor wretches fell on their knees, some stretching their hands in unavailing agony toward their murderers for mercy; others, lifting them to heaven, directed their last prayers where mercy would be found. The murderers, ?Neves, iv. 37–42.? as if they delighted in the act of butchery, began their work with the sword and bayonet and the but-end of the musket, and finished it by firing upon their16victims.

On the same day actions of the same devilish character were committed by Loison’s division on their way from Almeida. Leaving a garrison of 1250 men in that place, and having blown up the works of Fort Conception, he set out towards Lisbon, in pursuance to the orders which he had received, with between 3000 and 4000 troops. The next day he approached the city of Guarda; it happened to be Sunday, and also the annual festival of Queen St. Isabel, whose name, stripped of all fable and idolatrous observances, deserves always to be held in dear and respectful remembrance by the Portugueze. The assemblage of people was therefore much greater than at other times; but they were assembled to keep holyday, not to provide for their defence. A Junta had been constituted there two days before; and with that miscalculation of strength, or ignorance of the state of things, which prevailed so generally among their countrymen, they seem not to have considered themselves as in danger of an attack till Loison was within two miles of the city. An old iron gun, rusty and dismantled, and lying useless in the ruins of the castle, was their whole artillery; ... a few peasants mounted it upon a cart, and so carried it to a rising ground near the road, as if the sight of it would deter the French from advancing. According to the ?Bulletin 4.
Observador Portuguez, 366.? French official account, the rebels, as they insolently styled the Portugueze, drew up in two ?Thiebault, 153.? lines, having their flanks well supported, and two pieces of cannon to protect their centre; their lines were forced at all points, their guns taken, themselves surrounded as well as routed; the disorder was general, the slaughter dreadful; more than a thousand dead were left upon the field, and Loison in pursuit of the fugitives entered the city. The truth is, that a disorderly multitude fled as soon as they were attacked; and that, as all who could not escape were cut down, the number of the slain has not perhaps been much exaggerated. A night of licentiousness and pillage followed, and Loison then proceeded. The ancient and flourishing town of Covilham escaped a similar visitation, because it lay somewhat out of the line of his march, and he had no time to spare. Alpedrinha, a place containing between two and three thousand inhabitants, was not so fortunate. On the same day that Margaron entered Leiria, and with as little resistance, General Charlot entered this ?July 5.? unhappy town; that General was one of the few commanders who had hitherto obtained a character for honour and humanity, ... here, however, all horrible crimes and cruelties were committed; one inoffensive old man was taken out of the town, and burnt alive within sight and hearing of the fugitives upon the mountains; and the French, having carried off every thing ?Neves, iv. 77.? that was portable, set the place on fire. They proceeded, plundering as they went, by Sarzedas, CortiÇada, and Sardoal to Abrantes.

The French stated in their bulletin that they had lost upon their march twenty killed, and from thirty to forty wounded, whereas the rebels had left at least three thousand upon the different fields of battle17. The character of the intrusive government would be imperfectly understood hereafter, if its language as well as its acts were not faithfully recorded. The bulletin which announced this statement to the Portugueze, and to that great portion of the civilized world in which the events of the war were anxiously observed, proceeded to say, “this is the mournful result of a frenzy which nothing can justify, which nothing can excuse, and which obliges us to multiply the number of victims who excite sorrow and compassion, but upon whom a terrible necessity compels us to inflict the strokes of just vengeance. Thus it is that the Portugueze people, blind instruments of the unfeeling calculations of the British cabinet, destroy with their own hands the happiness which we with all our power were endeavouring to make them enjoy! Thus it is that from the bosom of tranquillity, of good order, and of repose, they draw upon themselves the destructive scourge of war, and bring devastation even upon the very fields where God had given abundance! Thus it is that deluded men, ungrateful children as well as guilty citizens, change all the claims which they had to the benevolence and protection of government, for deserved misfortune and wretchedness, ruin their families, carry desolation, flames, and death, into their dwellings, transform flourishing cities into heaps of ashes and vast tombs, and by their fatal union draw upon the whole country the calamities which they provoke, which they deserve, and from which (weak victims as they are) they cannot escape, covering themselves with shame, and completing her destruction. Thus it is that no other resource remains to them than the clemency of those whom they sought to assassinate, ... a clemency which they do not implore in vain, when, acknowledging their crime, they ask pardon from the French, who, incapable of belying their noble character, are ?Bulletin 4.
Observador Portuguez, 368.? always as full of generosity as of valour.” This was the18language of Buonaparte’s governor in Portugal! “To be the victim,” says Mr. Wordsworth, commenting upon these things and words at the time, in that strain of profoundest feeling and philosophy by which his higher compositions are so eminently distinguished, “to be the victim of such bloody-mindedness, is a doleful lot for a nation; and the anguish must have been rendered still more poignant by the scoffs and insults, and by that heinous contempt of the most awful truths, with which the perpetrator of those cruelties has proclaimed them. Merciless ferocity is an evil familiar to our thoughts; but these combinations of malevolence historians have not yet been called upon to record; and writers of fiction, if they have ever ventured to create passions resembling them, have confined, out of reverence for the acknowledged constitution of human nature, those passions to reprobate spirits. Such tyranny is, in the strictest sense, intolerable; not because it aims at the extinction of life, but of every thing which gives life its value, ... of virtue, of reason, of repose in God, or in truth.”

Loison, for the sake of intimidating the country, and thereby preventing the danger of such resistance as he had experienced in Tras os Montes, had sent before him a report that he had been reinforced by 16,000 men from the army of Marshal Bessieres; and this news was officially transmitted to Junot by the Corregedor of Abrantes. At first the French received the tidings with entire belief, and with a joy proportionate to the danger from which they now thought themselves delivered. A comparison of dates and distances occasioned some uncomfortable doubts, and the next day advices came that Loison had arrived at Abrantes with no other force than his own. But even this was of no inconsiderable importance: it relieved them from their anxiety concerning him, it brought the whole of their disposable force within reach and within command, for Kellermann had now arrived with the troops from Alem-Tejo; and Junot determined upon striking a great blow before the English should appear. Kellermann had been sent to AlcobaÇa, where the troops under General ThomiÈres, who covered Peniche, and those of Margaron (who had received the submission of the people of Thomar, and exacted from them ?Neves, iv. 64.? 20,000 cruzados) were to be under his orders. Loison was now instructed to form a junction with them and take the command; crush the insurgents in that part of the country, march against Coimbra, subdue and chastise that city, thus quenching one great furnace of the insurrection, ?Thiebault, 146.? and return to Lisbon. Before he reached AlcobaÇa part of these instructions had been fulfilled by ThomiÈres.

That General had advanced with a few hundred men to Obidos, with the intention of relieving the fort at Nazareth; but a reconnoitring party which he sent forward to Barquinha was driven back, four of his scouts were made prisoners and sent on board an English vessel, and a report that a considerable body of English had landed there to assist the insurgents deterred him from proceeding in time. The Portugueze themselves raised this report; in reality they had applied for aid to the English, who, some time before, had taken possession of the Berlengs; a few pieces of cannon were given them, but the garrison was so scanty that no men could be spared; and the short respite which they obtained by deceiving the enemy would have been better employed in providing for escape, than for a feeble and disorderly resistance. Nine days after their triumph ThomiÈres proceeded against them ?July 14.? with 3000 men, in the belief that some English had joined them. One column, under cover of the darkness, got under the ill-served guns of the insurgents before they were perceived; the Portugueze fired in haste without aim and without effect, and then took to flight. A few drunken fellows, who had undertaken to serve the guns, remained by them, with a woman and a few old men, and these were put to death. The town of Nazareth was sacked, and set on fire. The jewels which they took from the church of N. Senhora de Nazareth were estimated at more than £20,000; for of the innumerable and many-named idols of Our Lady in Portugal, this was the most celebrated. It is the very image which, according to the legend, St. Jerome sent from Bethlehem to St. Augustine, and St. Augustine to his monks at the Caulian monastery, from whence, at the destruction of the Goths, it was brought by King Roderick and Romano to this spot. It is said, that during the last century the idol has sometimes been visited by not less than 20,000 devotees on the day of its festival. The enemy then descending to the beach, burnt the lower town, consisting of some 300 houses, of which only four escaped the flames; they burnt also the nets and vessels, upon which the inhabitants, ?Neves, iv. 84–87.? being fishermen, depended for their subsistence: they then plundered Pederneira, and set it on fire, and returned with their booty to AlcobaÇa19.

Loison having taken the command, proceeded, in pursuance of his instructions, towards Coimbra; but he had hardly got beyond Leiria when he was recalled, in consequence of an alteration in Junot’s plans, which the events in Alem-Tejo had rendered necessary. In the north of that province the insurrection was spreading far and wide, while Beja was in flames; and when Kellermann marched for Lisbon, leaving only a garrison in Elvas, it spread with equal rapidity in the south. Beja had not been destroyed by the fire; houses with little furniture and little wood-work are not easily burnt. The Corregedor returned there from Ayamonte with a supply of arms; a Junta was formed, which assumed great authority, and acted with unusual promptitude and vigour. Men were raised, the regular taxes claimed in the name of the rightful government, and a detachment under Sebastiam Martins Mestre, who had taken an active part in Algarve, was sent to guard against the French at Setubal, by forming a cordon to guard the river Sadam. Having raised a few men for this purpose in the districts of Grandolo and Santiago de Cacem, he proceeded to Alcacer do Sal, established a Junta there, and brought four iron guns from Melides for the defence of this town, a point of great importance to the province while there was an enemy’s force ?Neves, iv. 92–95.? at Setubal: Setubal and Palmella were the only places which they now occupied on that side the Tagus.

Lobo meantime, leaving Moretti in Jurumenha, formed Juntas at Borba and at Villa-ViÇosa, where he placed the palace and park upon their former establishment. These Juntas readily acknowledged the supremacy of Estremoz, where one was at this time formed, which endeavoured to make its authority recognized as supreme in Alem-Tejo, and was supported in its pretensions by the Spanish government at Badajoz. The claim was admitted by all the smaller places in the surrounding country, but not at Beja nor at Campo-Mayor, in which latter place considerable activity had been displayed. Instead of doubling the soldiers’ pay, which had been rashly done at Porto, the officers who assembled at Campo-Mayor resolved that those whose means rendered it possible should serve for half-pay, or without pay; they raised loans and donatives, levied a third of the rent upon the entailed estates, and took from the property of the church contributions in kind; and having thus acquired considerable funds, they undertook, and for a time sustained, the improvident expense of paying their Spanish allies. The ready obedience shown to its authority, when these imposts were demanded, and the power which it derived from the distribution of the money thus raised, gave the Junta of Campo-Mayor exaggerated notions of its own importance, and when tidings arrived that a Junta of higher or equal pretensions had been formed at Estremoz, that of Campo-Mayor sent to propose a reciprocal alliance, as if one sovereign power were treating with another. But in reply a paper in the form of a decree was sent, declaring, that the primacy of the Junta of Estremoz should be acknowledged by all others in the province, because of the position of that place, and because it was a fortified town; that the members of that Junta should have the title of Highness, because they represented the august person of the Sovereign; and that there should be a subordinate Junta in every town, and one deputy from each sent as a representative to assist in the Supreme Junta of Estremoz. Obedience ?Neves, iv. 92–116.? to this decree was required from Campo-Mayor, till a Supreme Junta should be established, as it was about to be, at Evora, whither head-quarters were to be removed.

The transfer of the supreme provincial authority to Evora was concerted by Moretti and by the Portugueze General Francisco de Paula Leite, who had refused to concur in the first hasty tumult at Villa-ViÇosa, but who now, when the insurrection had become general throughout the province, felt himself bound to resume the charge with which the Prince Regent had intrusted ?A Supreme Junta formed at Evora.? him. The object of this transfer seems to have been a persuasion, that as Evora was the most populous city in the province, and the seat of the Archbishop, its authority would at once be acknowledged, and all disputes for precedency, which might otherwise prove so prejudicial to the common cause, would thus be terminated. This object was effected: in other respects the measure was incautious, and contrary to the judgement of the most judicious inhabitants; for when Moretti had by letter proposed it to them, they replied, that the richest city of Alem-Tejo, lying as it did so near Elvas, ought not to declare itself, unless it could reckon upon a force of 8000 men for its defence. It was not that the will was wanting; this General Leite knew; and without farther demur, he and Moretti and Lobo, with ?July 20.? 200 foot soldiers and 100 cavalry, entered Evora. They were received with enthusiasm; a Junta was formed under two presidents, Leite being one, and the Archbishop, D. Fr. Manoel do Cenaculo Villas Boas, the other, a man then in extreme old age, distinguished for his erudition and his exemplary virtues. Circular letters were dispatched to all the other Juntas in Alem-Tejo, requiring a recognition, and the troops which had been embodied were ordered to Evora. Before the new machine of government could be ?Neves, iv. 118–126.? put in motion, Loison had crossed the Tagus on his way to destroy it.

Notwithstanding the contempt with which the French government, and its agents in Portugal, regarded the Portugueze, Junot knew how easily brave men might be made good soldiers, under due instruction; and he seems to have apprehended, that better officers would be found to train and command them than either Portugal or Spain at that time could supply. He apprehended that the force in Alem-Tejo would soon become strong enough not only to seize Setubal, but to occupy the heights of Almada, and render useless all the batteries on the left bank of the Tagus; while at the same time another division of their troops, acting higher up the river, would co-operate with the insurgents from Coimbra. To prevent this combination, he resolved to attack the weaker and nearer body first. For this purpose Loison had been recalled from Leiria, Solignac and Margaron were placed under his command, with 5000 men, and it was thought, that after quelling the insurgents in Alem-Tejo, he might send a supply of food to Lisbon, especially of meat, ... victual Elvas, strike a blow against the Spaniards at Badajoz, and then, recrossing the Tagus at Santarem or Abrantes, proceed against Coimbra; operations from which, at any time, in case of need, he could speedily turn back to join the main body of the French at Lisbon. There was, in fact, so little combination ?Thiebault, 156.? among the Portugueze at this time, that the insurgents in the northern provinces, and those in Alem-Tejo, knew nothing whatever of each other’s proceedings, and the first news which reached the latter of the insurrection at Porto was communicated to the people of Sines by an English frigate.

The first tidings of Loison’s movement which reached Evora were, that he had crossed the Tagus, and was in full march towards that city. No time was lost in transmitting this from Aldea Gallega; any previous intelligence had been rendered impossible by the secrecy with which the French prepared their measures. Moretti applied for reinforcements to Badajoz; orders were sent for the forces from Campo-Mayor and the other places in the north of the province, to hasten to Evora, and General Galluzo was requested to occupy the posts which would be left unprotected by their absence; but no assistance came from Badajoz, and Galluzo, instead of acting as was expected, forbade the Portugueze to leave Campo-Mayor. An advanced guard of 700 men had been stationed at Montemor o Novo, twenty miles from the city. General Leite ordered 400 men to reinforce this post. They met the corps which they had been sent to support in full retreat, the commander, not knowing that succours were on the way to him, having thought himself too weak to await20 an attack. Instead of deriving confidence or hope from the meeting, they hastened to Evora, and entered the city in alarm, exclaiming that they were betrayed. That cry, in such miserable times, is sure to be eagerly taken up. The people had been assured that the French who were coming against them did not exceed 800 men; this had been said either in a most erroneous policy, to keep up the spirits of the inhabitants, by deceiving them as to the extent of their danger; or more probably in good faith, all ranks being credulous in believing what they wished; the natural effect, when the truth now became known, was to give the populace apparent ground for believing the vague charge of treason; their tumultuous movements were with difficulty suppressed, and the Corregedor found himself so marked an object of suspicion, that, in the hope of securing himself, he secretly left the city. Order being in some degree restored, piquets of cavalry and patroles were stationed for the night. In the morning a company of Miquelets arrived from Villa-ViÇosa (that term having been borrowed from the Catalans), and the legion of Foreign Volunteers in the Spanish service, under Sargento-Mor D. Antonio Maria Gallego: both came by forced marches; the latter had left Jurumenha the preceding evening, a distance of four-and-forty miles. With these succours the whole force collected then amounted to 1770 ?Neves, iv. 126–131.? men, of whom about half were regular troops, the others being volunteers newly-raised and undisciplined.

The city of Evora is so ancient, that fabulous history has laid its foundation more than two thousand years before the Christian era. Certain it is, that it was a flourishing city in the days of Viriatus. Sertorius chose it for his residence; some of the buildings with which he adorned it are still remaining, and the inhabitants are still supplied with water by his aqueduct, which Joam III. repaired. CÆsar made it a municipal town, and from him it was called Liberalitas Julia. Under the Visigoths it continued to flourish, and Sisebut coined money there. It was recovered from the Moors in the reign of Affonso Henriquez, the first king, by the romantic enterprise of Giraldo the Fearless, then an outlaw. King Fernando rebuilt or repaired its walls; and Cardinal Henrique founded an university and established an Inquisition there; but the university had been suppressed. In the war of the Restoration it was besieged and taken by D. Juan de Austria, but it was soon recovered, and the Spaniards in retreating toward their own frontier suffered one of the most signal defeats which they sustained during that long contest. Its population, once amounting to 40,000, had declined to about half that number at the beginning of the eighteenth century; since which time it had varied so little, that there had neither been any apparent diminution nor increase. The city was populous enough to have defeated the force which was now marching against it, if it had been prepared for a Zaragozan defence. There is courage enough for any thing in the Portugueze character; but that individual and commanding genius was wanting by which alone the inhabitants of a large city can be made to act steadily with one will, and thereby capable of heroic valour. They prepared for a military defence in the field, which was exposing peasantry and half-disciplined troops to certain defeat.

About seven in the morning the vedettes announced that the enemy were in sight, and the Portugueze took their ground in better order than might have been expected, considering the alarm and insubordination which had lately prevailed, and the real inequality of the contest. Their right rested upon the Mill of S. Bento, about a mile from the city, the centre was posted upon the hill of S. Caetano, the left rested upon the Quinta dos Cucos. Having reconnoitred this position, Loison directed General Solignac to attack the enemy’s right, and Margaron to break the centre with one part of his brigade, while the other attacked the left; they were to unite behind the city, occupy the roads to Arrayolos and Estremoz, and thus cut off the fugitives from all retreat, the cavalry being ready for pursuit upon the right and left, ... so sure and easy a victory was anticipated. The action began about eleven. The Portugueze had four four-pounders in their right wing, one three-pounder in the centre, and two howitzers in the left; there was no want of artillerymen, and if the other troops had understood their business and performed their duty like these, the event might have been doubtful; but the cavalry could not by any exertion of their commanders be brought into action; they hung back and retired, while the infantry stood their ground. When the latter were defeated, instead of flying, as the French had expected, in all directions, they retreated into the town. The defeat, however, was thought so irreparable, that General Leite and his staff made the best of their way to OlivenÇa, and Moretti hastened to the Archbishop, to bid him provide for saving his own life without delay, in the imminent danger which threatened it. The venerable prelate calmly told him in reply, to think of preserving his own, which might yet be useful and honourable to his country; for himself, he said, the remainder of his days, few and useless as they needs must be, did not deserve a thought. The city had five gates, three of which had been walled up; the breaches which time had made in the walls had also been closed, but the walls were old and ruinous, and the French forced their entrance at many points, and then most of the defendants took flight: ... Moretti and the ?Neves, iv. 132–138.
Observador Portuguez 382–387.
Thiebault, 158–165.? Spaniards to Jurumenha, the company from Villa-ViÇosa to their own town; others dispersed; time was gained for them by the resistance which Lieutenant-Colonel Franco made at one of the gates, and the brave conduct of the foreign volunteers under21Gallego, who fought desperately in the streets, and suffered great loss.

The horrors which ensued will be remembered in Portugal while any record of past times shall be preserved there. Though even a military pretext was wanting for delivering up the city and the inhabitants to the will of the soldiers, the whole proceedings of the Portugueze and their Spanish allies having been those of regular war, to them it was abandoned. A resolution had been taken in the Junta that those persons who feared the event should provide for their safety by retiring in time; ... from some unexplained cause, most probably from a well-grounded fear that any persons who attempted to remove would be regarded as traitors by the furious populace, few or none availed themselves of this ominous warning; when it was too late great numbers got over the walls, but the French horse surrounded the city, and showed as little mercy to the fugitives without, as the infantry did to the ?Inhumanity of the conquerors.? inhabitants within. The convents and churches afforded no asylum; not those who had borne arms alone, but children and old men, were massacred, and women were violated and slaughtered. The lowest computation makes the number of these victims amount to 900. The clergy and religioners were especial objects of vengeance: they were literally hunted from their hiding-places like wild beasts: eight-and-thirty were butchered; among them was the Bishop of Maranham. The Archbishop’s intercession with Loison obtained only a promise that a stop should be put to these enormities; no attempt was made to restrain them that day, nor during the whole night, nor till eleven on the following morning, and then by an order of the General, what he called the lawful pillage was declared to be at an end; but he contented himself with ?Observador Portuguez, 387.
Neves, iv. 138–142.? issuing the order; no means for enforcing it were taken, and the soldiers continued their abominations till every place had been ransacked, and their worst passions had been22 glutted.

According to the statement of the French, 8000 of the allies were killed or wounded in the battle and in the capture of the city, and 4000 made prisoners, the latter being chiefly peasants. Their own loss they stated at 90 killed, and more than 200 wounded. The intimidation of that part of the country which was within the immediate reach of the victors was such as might be expected after such a blow. At the first rumour that reached Estremoz, the populace became ungovernable; their first impulse was that of rage, which would willingly have found any victim on which to sate itself. An officer had just arrived from Portalegre; they fancied that he had prevented the coming of some regular troops, which they had looked for; an attempt was made to murder him in the hall of the Junta, whither he fled for refuge, and in the presence of the members; and there was no other means of saving him but by concealing him from the ferocious rabble. Presently a dispatch came, announcing the total defeat at Evora, the capture of the city, and the loss of every thing. Such was the temper of the people, that it was a service of the utmost danger to communicate this news; and the member who attempted to read the dispatch to them from a varanda found his life in danger, and drew back. But it was not possible either to conceal the fatal intelligence or to delay it. Estremoz would assuredly be the next object of the enemy, and Evora was only six leagues distant; if they had hitherto dreamt of defending the town, the fate of Evora was now before their eyes: they knew that even the unreasonable multitude would feel this near and imminent danger, though they would not endure to be told of it; and the members of the Junta determined to take measures for immediate submission. The melancholy manner with which they passed through the crowd confirmed the worst apprehensions of the people; and as they went along they spake each to those persons on whose prudence he could rely, telling them what had occurred, and what must now of necessity be done; thus they thought the news might pass from one to another with the least danger, and every one take such measures for himself as he deemed best. There was a cry of treason at first, when it was seen that of the three guns which had been mounted to defend the walls, one was cast into the ditch, and the other two sent off to OlivenÇa. The Juiz de Fora became the object of suspicion, and could he have been found at that moment, would have been murdered; ... so fickle is popular feeling, that this very man was presently sought for as the ?Neves, iv. 145–149.? fittest person to give counsel. A meeting was held, and a messenger deputed to solicit Loison’s clemency.

Loison received the messenger well, thinking that severity enough had been shown to secure the submission of Alem-Tejo. He constituted a provisional government in Evora, at the head of which the Archbishop was compelled to act, and he set off for Estremoz on the fourth day ?August 2.? after the action. He raised no contributions there, permitted no pillage, and paid for every thing which the troops consumed; he also set at liberty some of his prisoners. But when he proceeded to Elvas he ordered two Swiss prisoners to be shot, condemned four others to work in chains for five years, threw the Spanish commander Gallego into a dungeon, and condemned the Portugueze Lieut.-Colonel Franco to death, for bearing arms against the French. The Bishop of Elvas interceded earnestly for this officer, and finding all intercession vain, concluded by saying, if this favour were refused him, he had still one to ask, which was, that the General would sentence him to the same fate, seeing life would be hateful to him if he could not save his countryman under such circumstances. Loison was ?1808.
August. Neves, iv. 149, 156–158.
Observador Portuguez, 397.? touched at this, and revoked the order for execution. That General has left a name in Portugal which will be execrated to the latest generations; here, however, is an instance which evinces some sense of generosity, as if his heart had not been naturally bad; but it was the tendency of the Revolution, and of Buonaparte’s system, to make men wicked whom it did not find so.

The less portable part of the plunder of Evora was sold at Elvas, a sort of fair being held for the purpose; and many persons purchased church vessels for the sake of restoring them to the altars from whence they had been taken. Loison made a movement upon Badajoz, and believing that the troops in that city had been called off to the Spanish armies, and that his recent success had occasioned great consternation there, endeavoured to introduce officers under a flag of truce, for the purpose of observing the state of the place; but they were refused admittance. The commandant of Elvas, Colonel Miquel, had made himself odious in that city, especially for executing a German as an emissary of the Spaniards, the main proof against him being some thirty pieces of gold which were found in his possession. Some fugitives from Elvas, with a few comrades from Campo-Mayor, waylaid this commandant as he went from the city, intending to sleep in Fort La Lippe, for greater security; they fired upon him and an officer in his company; the officer escaped, but Miquel lay all night upon the ground, the soldiers not venturing to seek him in the darkness, and being removed to Lisbon, he died there of his wounds. ?He is recalled to the neighbourhood of Lisbon.? This was some days before Loison’s arrival. That General appointed M. Girod de Novilard of the engineers to succeed him, and marched upon Portalegre. The Spaniards had already retired from thence, and the Bishop, with most of the principal persons, withdrew also in time. The city was plundered, and a contribution of 100,000 cruzados demanded from the district; about 40,000 were raised, and six persons were carried away as pledges for the remainder. He then ?Neves, iv. 156–164.
Thiebault, 168–172.? marched for Abrantes, having received dispatches which ordered him to hasten his return toward Lisbon by that route, it being now certain that an expedition from England was off the coast.

Those provinces, meantime, which had not felt the vengeance of the French were in a state of anarchy. The temporary dissolution of order, even though no revolutionary opinions were at work, produced evils little less alarming than the actual presence of the enemy. The cry of an inflamed multitude is always for blood. The Intendant of Police at Porto addressed a manly proclamation to the people, reproving them for eagerly demanding the death of a few suspected persons, who were already in the hands of justice, and from whom they had nothing to fear. In the processes against them, he said, there ought to be nothing precipitate, nothing that could be accused of inhumanity; he must see that all the proofs of their guilt were brought forward, that his own honour might suffer no stain. If they were dissatisfied with him, he would gladly lay down an office which he had never solicited; more willingly would he accompany his son to the army, than occupy a station for which, even in quiet times, he should have thought himself unqualified; and though life was dear to him, he would rather lose it in the service of his country than in a tumult. But mobs are as seldom capable of reason as of compunction. It was necessary, for the sake of preventing wider evils, to accelerate the processes, and to promise blood. No person, however innocent of any connexion with the French, however distinguished for his exertions against them, was safe from suspicion; no place, however sacred, was secure from search. Upon a report that a suspected person had concealed himself in a burial-vault, it was proposed to open all the vaults in the church till he was found. Upon another rumour that he was concealed in a nun’s habit in a Carmelite nunnery, the mob proposed to break in and examine the sisterhood. Raymundo exerted himself to prevent this scandalous outrage. Some one charged him also with treason, and his life was for a moment in danger. But Raymundo, who knew how little in such times any popularity, however deserved, was to be trusted, had provided himself with a crucifix in case of need. He displayed ?Neves, iv. 209–224.? it in this emergency, and by an exclamation according with the display, induced the rabble to join with him in a shout of loyalty, and succeeded in dissuading them from entering the convent.

Even in this early stage of popular commotions a military usurpation is said to have been projected by Luiz Candido Cordeiro Pinheiro Furtado, in conjunction with Joam Manoel de Mariz. Both were esteemed good officers; the latter was a member of the Junta, the former offended that he had not been nominated, and still more so that another person had been made commander-in-chief. They designed to erect a military Junta under their own direction, and they proposed to raise a corps under the name of the Loyal Porto Legion, of which Candido was to have the command; the officers were named, the uniform designed, and worn by Candido with some of his associates; he took to himself also a guard of honour, which, from a small beginning, was gradually increased, till at length the armed attendance with which he always appeared in public was such as to excite reasonable apprehension. The city was in this state when Bernardim Freire arrived from Coimbra to take upon himself the command. He was received with great joy by the people; but Luiz Candido was evidently displeased at his coming, and Bernardim was soon apprised that a conspiracy was formed against him and against the Junta. He was careful therefore to keep Candido and Mariz as much about his person as possible. Among other precautions for preserving tranquillity in the city, he ordered the guns to be unloaded; persons were not wanting to represent this as being done with a treacherous design; and a priest, notorious for irregularities, at the head of a mob seized his bridle, and exclaimed that the people would have no such General. A dangerous stir had already begun, when some men of better mind came resolutely forward; one of them felled the priest to the ground; Bernardim spake to the crowd in a manner which conciliated their good ?Neves, iv. 225–229.? will, the priest was thrown into prison, and the day was closed with an illumination in honour of the General.

Upon the arrival of D. Miguel Pereira Forjaz to assist his brother-in-law Bernardim, an attempt was made to establish a military Junta, in aid of the provisional government, and as a check upon the designs of Candido and his associates. This, however, proved ineffectual; and they proceeded so rapidly in organizing an armed party, that it was deemed necessary to secure Candido and Mariz without delay, lest the city should become a scene of bloodshed. They were accordingly summoned to a consultation at the Bishop’s palace, and there arrested. Their escort, which, as usual, had accompanied them, began to express displeasure at this; and three of the men entering the palace, demanded insolently that their commander should be delivered to them; if he were innocent, they said, they would set him at liberty; if he were a traitor, they would blow him to pieces from the mouth of a cannon. These men were secured, and Raymundo, with some other officers to whom this service had been assigned, disarmed their fellows. The agitation, however, continued the whole day, though this was at an early hour; and it was not till after midnight that the prisoners could be conducted without danger of a rescue to the jail. They were immediately proceeded against according to the forms of Portugueze law, and the evidence against them appeared so conclusive, that Candido was condemned to death, and Mariz to be degraded to Angola. The gallows accordingly was erected, Candido was led into the oratory to perform the last religious duties, the brethren of the Misericordia went out to attend the execution, and the crowd collected to witness it; when, after a while, it was announced that the two prisoners were removed to the fortress of S. Joam da Foz, to be embarked for Brazil, and there placed at the Prince’s disposal. So fickle is a multitude, that the crowd, which a few days before had almost mutinied because of the arrest of this man, became riotous now because he was not put to death. They were pacified by the personal exertions of the Bishop and two of his dignitaries, and by an official notification that the Junta having pronounced sentence of death against Luiz Candido upon full proof of a most ?Neves, iv. 229–237.? atrocious crime, had thought it proper to lay the proceedings before the Prince, and remit the criminal to his mercy.

The populace at Porto were kept in some degree of submission by the vigorous measures of the provisional government, the respect which was paid to the episcopal character, and by the influence which men of property possess in a ?Disturbances at Braganza.? flourishing commercial town. In remoter parts the local authorities were weaker, and tumults of the most disgraceful nature occurred. After the provinces beyond the mountains and between the rivers had been delivered from their first danger, by the failure of Loison’s expedition from Almeida, they were more seriously alarmed from the side of Castille and Leon; and indeed had it not been for the success of the Spaniards in Andalusia, Junot would probably have received powerful reinforcements from Marshal Bessieres after the battle of Rio Seco. The first disturbances arose at Braganza upon a rumour that this army was approaching. The people gathered together tumultuously, and when they learnt that no enemies were near, directed their vengeance against all whom they suspected; and in such times it is in the power of any wretch, however vile and worthless, to throw suspicion upon the object of his envy or resentment. The Junta, in hope of appeasing them, convoked a popular meeting, ... the readiest means of showing them their power, and teaching them how to abuse it; and the result was, that most of the members of the Junta were turned out, and such as the mob thought fit elected in their places. A shoemaker, and the keeper of a wine-house, who, because he was maimed in one arm, called himself o Loison Portuguez, were the kings of the rabble. The latter took upon himself the office of general, and was actually obeyed by the troops. Their chief vengeance was directed against the New-Christians, for Pombal’s law (the redeeming act of that tyrannical statesman) had not even in half a century produced a feeling of toleration in the populace. Any accusation, however preposterous, was believed; they gutted the house of one man, and threw him into prison, upon a charge of witchcraft, for having, it was said, made an image of General Sepulveda, and placed it over the fire in a frying-pan. When the city had thus continued three days under mob-rule, the magistrates took courage from despair, arrested the ruling demagogues during the night, and sent them prisoners to Chaves. Troops came from Villa Real, where Sepulveda at that time was, and tranquillity was restored; but it was necessary to gratify the people by making useless preparations for defence; and the popular opinion was, that nothing but what was right had been done, that the persons whose property had been destroyed, and their lives endangered, ?Neves, iv. 238–245.? deserved the usage they had suffered, and that the magistrates were bribed by the Jews.

More serious disturbances occurred at Villa Nova de Foz-Coa, arising from the same popular intolerance and love of rapine. That town, one of the most flourishing in Beira Alta, owed in great part its prosperity to its position at the confluence of the Coa with the Douro. A considerable trade in silk, and in rice, salt-fish, and other articles of foreign importation, brought thither by the river from Porto, was carried on with the adjacent country, and with the Spaniards of the border. This trade was mostly in the hands of persons who, because they were of Jewish extraction, were believed by the vulgar to be still attached in heart to the Mosaic law. The cry of Down with the French, was coupled here with Kill the Jews; ... their houses were attacked, their goods plundered, their persons abused, their lives threatened and seriously endangered, and more than twenty of the wealthiest families in that country reduced to utter ruin by the complete destruction of their property. Some of these unhappy persons effected their escape to Moncorvo; and, because they were protected there, and the Junta of that town endeavoured to restore order at Villa Nova, hostilities ensued between the two townships. The evil spread; and if the Junta of Moncorvo had not arrested during the night some movers of sedition in their town, and seized also some of the ringleaders from Villa Nova, who had crossed the Douro, the province of Tras os Montes would soon have suffered all the evils of civil war, exasperated by a spirit of fanaticism, such as existed in the worst ages of superstition and ignorance. The New-Christians were accused of assisting the French with money, blaspheming God, cursing the Prince, ?Neves, iv. 245–263.? defiling the crucifix, and finally, of Manicheism! When a judicial inquiry was afterwards instituted concerning the riots, depositions to this effect were made against them upon oath!

The troubles at Viseu, though less destructive in their consequences, assumed a more revolutionary character. The mob insisted upon having a Juiz do Povo, and elected a demagogue to that office, which had not before been known among them, which in quiet times is useless, and in turbulent ones dangerous. Florencio JosÉ Correa de Mello, the general of the province, and the Bishop, a good but timid man, instead of refusing to acknowledge this tumultuous and illegal appointment, ratified it by administering an oath to the chosen favourite of the mob, who from that moment became a person of more authority than either Bishop or General. The latter offended the military by refusing to double their pay, as had been so imprudently done at Porto; on this account they became mutinous, and a riot broke out in the city upon an absurd report that Loison was come to visit him. The demagogue, who was lord of the day, obtained from the intimidated Bishop an order for his arrest, his house was sacked, and he and the Juiz de Fora were thrown into prison amid the insults of a multitude who knew not what they did. A meeting of the people was then held, at which the magistrates were deposed, new ones ?Neves, iv. 263–273.? appointed, and the Bishop was declared Generalissimo, with Silveira, who happened to be passing through Viseu, for his adjutant-general.

Proceedings equally outrageous, and of more perilous tendency, occurred in the town of Arcos de Val de Vez. The bells in that town and in the surrounding villages rung the alarm upon a report that 20,000 French had landed at Espozende, and were entering Ponte de Lima. ?Riotous proceedings at Arcos de Val de Vez.? A disorderly multitude collected, and set out in search of the enemy; their courage was easily roused, and soon spent; for when they had ascertained that the report was without foundation, and were returning home, they learnt that a body of men from the north were in possession of their town, and instead of hastening thither to protect their property, and restore order, they took to flight, each seeking a place of refuge where he thought best. The people in fear of whom they fled were peasantry, who, like themselves, had set out to fight the French, in utter disorder; hurrying along in scattered parties, some with a soldier for their leader, some with an abbot, provided neither with ammunition nor bread, increasing their numbers as they went along, and expecting that the magistrates were to issue orders for supplying them wherever they came. The Vereadores exerted themselves to feed this rabble, and be rid of them; the Juiz de Fora, dismayed at such a visitation, and in despair of satisfying such visitors, absconded, and his disappearance was imputed to a consciousness of treason. While they were seeking him every where, an unlucky messenger entered the town with dispatches from the Corregedor of Barcellos, and as he happened to have lost an arm, the senseless multitude took him for Loison; and even when they had examined his papers were still so possessed with this preposterous notion, that they placed him in confinement. Another messenger with letters fell into their hands, and was seized in like manner; and they were demanding a warrant for the apprehension of the Juiz de Fora, when he was brought in from the country, by an inhuman rabble, in a condition which would have excited pity in the poor unthinking wretches themselves who were his tormentors, if they had beheld him separately, and if men did not seem to be divested of all compassion when they act in mobs. With great difficulty they were prevailed upon not to finish killing him, but to lodge him in prison. Presently the thirst for blood returned, and they ordered a young priest to go and prepare him for death. The priest objected that he had not yet received that order in the church which empowered him to officiate in the sacrament of confession; upon which they replied, that they ?Neves, iv. 279–287.? conferred the order. The young man then entered the prison, and with great presence of mind advised the Juiz to feign himself dead; then going out, he asked the mob, with a tone of anger, why they had sent him to confess a man whom they had already killed? They made no farther inquiry; ... the bells tolled for his death, and by this artifice his life was saved.

The rabble now took upon themselves to reform the state; they began by turning out the members of the Camara, throwing the chairs out of window, demolishing the seat of the Judge, and burning the public papers. They displaced officers, deposed two or three abbots, and nominated a Capuchin friar to be their General. They appointed a Junta, and made laws whereby they abolished the recruiting system, fixed the prices of milk, meat, and wine, prohibited the exportation of bread, forbade all processes for debt, suspended all law-suits during the war, abolished the fees of the parochial priests, and were hardly persuaded to spare the tithes, and, finally, exempted all tenants from payment of manorial rights; and these laws were enacted not for their own district alone, but for the whole kingdom. This was the only indication of a revolutionary disposition which manifested itself during these unhappy times. By good hap the persons whom they had chosen to form their Junta were prudent and well-intentioned men, who temporized with them, and accepted an illegal authority in the hope of restoring order. The anniversary of a religious procession occurred at this time, and they took advantage of it. The Host was borne through the streets, a sermon adapted to the circumstances was preached with good effect, and the reformers, tired of their work, and willing to secure what they had gained by pillage, broke up, and returned to their own part of the country. The people of the land then enrolled themselves, established patroles, and subjected themselves to ?Neves, iv. 287–293.? good discipline; so that when a second visit of the same kind was attempted, they seized the ringleaders. Troops at length came from Viana, and many of the criminals were apprehended and sent prisoners to Porto.

The authority of the provisional government at Porto would not have been generally acknowledged, and with so little reluctance, throughout these provinces, if that city had not been looked to as a capital, because of its great commercial importance. But so little intercourse was there between the north and south of Portugal, that both had been in insurrection against the French more than a month, before it was known in one part that any resistance had commenced in the other. Vague reports indeed were in circulation, which could be traced to no authentic source; but no intelligence upon which any reliance was placed arrived in Alem-Tejo, till a student from Coimbra, who had enlisted in the academic corps, came to Campo-Mayor on his own concerns, and gave a clear account of the transactions in which ?July 18.? he had borne a part. The news was immediately dispatched to Badajoz; tidings of the battle of Baylen reached that city at the same time; and messengers, accredited by the governors of Badajoz and Campo-Mayor, were sent to Coimbra, to communicate the joyful accounts from Spain. They were received not merely with transports of exultation, but with as much surprise, says the Portugueze historian of these events, as if they had come from another world, ... in such utter ignorance were the people of Beira of what had been going on in Alem-Tejo, though the two provinces, along an extent of some forty miles, are only separated by the Tagus. The messengers on their part with equal surprise learnt that the legitimate government was restored in Tras os Montes, and Entre Douro e Minho. Being thus referred to Porto, thither they proceeded; and returned from thence with letters from the Bishop and the General to the Archbishop of Evora and the Junta of Badajoz, recommending the establishment of a provisional government under the Archbishop, similar to that at Porto, that the same system might be pursued in the south as in the north. When they reached Coimbra on their way, they learnt the fate of Evora, that news having been circulated by the French without delay. Proceeding on their journey, when they drew near Castello-Branco they found the roads full of fugitives, removing with their children and families, and such goods as they could carry away, in fear of Loison, so far had the terror of his name extended. It was not then known that he had marched toward Abrantes; and the messengers, to avoid the ?Neves, iv. 197–205.? danger of falling in with his troops, entered Spain by Zebreira, and so proceeded to Badajoz and Campo-Mayor.

Things were in this state when a British expedition arrived upon the north coast. General Leite was collecting at OlivenÇa the troops which had escaped from Evora. The Conde de Castro-Marim was raising and embodying forces in Algarve; and the Junta of Porto were hardly less perplexed by the perilous spirit of insubordination which prevailed both in the city and in the remoter parts of the provinces, than by the deficiency of money and means for the men who willingly came forward to serve against the invaders. There were numbers, and courage, and good will, but every thing else was wanting.