XI. 1808. August. tunate during a time of general rapacity. Perfect CHAP: order had been maintained there while Solano and the Spaniards possessed it; and when Graindorge succeeded Kellermann, a Portugueze woman, who lived with him as his mistress, had influence enough to prevent him from delivering up that beautiful town to pillage, which his men required, and which, it is said, they had been promised. The Portugueze writers ought not Neves, iv. to have passed over in silence the name of one Observador who averted so much evil, and who, it may well 291. be believed, was more to be pitied than condemned for her frailty. 173-179. Portuguez, Lisbon. About 300 men were left at Palmella. Grain- Measures at dorge had two regiments under his command at Almada and other places on the left bank of the Tagus. The forts at the Bugio, Trafaria, and St. Julien, were occupied by the French, and they had troops also at Cascaes and Ericeyra. Sufficient force was to be left in and near Lisbon, to keep down the inhabitants, by the presumed aid of the Russian squadron, whose presence in the river was of great importance to Junot at this time. The enemy had recourse also to their usual policy of circulating fabricated intelligence. They affirmed, that 20,000 French had arrived at Braganza, and they produced Badajoz Gazettes which must have been forged for the purpose, relating the defeat and consternation of the Spaniards, and the rejoicings with which Joseph had been received on his triumphant entrance into Madrid. Few persons were deceived by these artifices. On the 15th the Emperor Napoleon's XI. 1808. August. CHAP. birthday was celebrated; the guns from the ships and fortresses were fired, Junot gave a grand entertainment to his officers, and appeared afterwards at the Opera in state; but meantime every thing was made ready for his departure. The night was passed in giving orders, and at daybreak the reserve was in motion, with the staff, the military chest, containing a million francs, and the most precious and portable part of their plunder. The Comte de Bourmont, and some other French emigrant officers who had found an asylum in Lisbon during the horrors of the Revolution, on this occasion joined the French army, the Count at his own solicitation being placed upon the staff, to fight against a government by whose bounty they had been supported, and a people who had hospitably received them in their distress: and for this moral treason Observador they have been extolled in their own country, 406. with that perversion of principle and utter in187-8. sensibility to honour, which equally characterise the schools of the Revolution, and of Buonaparte. Portuguez, Thiebault, Proclamation to the Lisbon. It had been proposed to form a national guard people of at Lisbon at this time, composed of all who had any property to protect; but this was rejected, less as being impracticable than as dangerous. The Lisbonians had too much reason to execrate their oppressors. Their sufferings, though not of that kind which give a splendour to history, and consecrate the memory of the sufferers, had been more pitiable, for they had been long continued and obscure. The French themselves XI. 1808. August. Thiebault, confessed, that they knew not how the people CHAP. of Lisbon subsisted during the three months preceding the harvest; for it was known that the consumption of food in that great city was only one-third of what it used to be, and the 95. numbers who had been expelled, who had emigrated with the court, or had found means of following it, were not greater than that of the foreign troops who had been introduced. Impossible as it was to conciliate a people upon whom they had inflicted such deep and irreparable injuries, the French deemed it politic at this time to take the most conciliatory measures in their power; if the popular feeling could be repressed or allayed only for a few days, by that time they should either have obtained a victory over the English, or have placed themselves by treaty under the safeguard of British honour. With these views Junot left a decree, that the heads of the tribunals, and the chief persons among the nobility and clergy, should be invited to assist at the council of government during his absence. He left also a proclamation to the inhabitants of Lisbon, saying, that he was departing from them for three or four days, to give battle to the English, and whatever might be the event, he should return. "I leave," said he, "to govern Lisbon, a general who, by the mildness and firmness of his character, has obtained the friendship of the Portugueze at Cascaes and Oeyras; General Travot will, by these same virtues, obtain that of the inhabitants of Lisbon. Hitherto you XI. 1808. August. CHAP. have been tranquil; it is your interest to continue so! do not stain yourselves with a horrible crime at the moment when, without any danger of your own, the lot of arms is about to determine by what power you are to be governed. Reflect for an instant upon the interests of the three nations who are contending for the possession of Lisbon. What the French desire is the glory and the prosperity of the city and of the kingdom, for this is the interest and the policy of France. Spain wishes to invade Portugal and reduce it to a province, that she may again make herself mistress of the Peninsula. And England would domineer over you for the purpose of destroying your port and your navy, and impeding the progress of industry among you. The English regard the magnificence of your port with envy; they will not suffer it to exist so near them, and they have no hope of preserving it. They know that a new French army has already passed your frontiers, and that if this should not be sufficient, another will come after it; but they will have destroyed your naval establishments, they will have caused the destruction of Lisbon, and this is what they aim at, and what they desire: they know that they cannot maintain themselves upon the Continent; but if they can destroy the ports and the navy of any other power, they are content. I depart full of confidence in you. I reckon upon all the citizens who are interested in the preservation of public order; and I am persuaded that it will be preserved. Call to mind the miseries XI. 1808. August. which must necessarily follow, if this beautiful CHAP. city should compel my troops to enter it by force! The exasperated soldiers would not be then to be controlled; .. fire, sword, all the horrors of war which are practised in a city taken by assault,.. pillage,.. death,.. behold what you would draw Observador upon yourselves! The thought alone makes me 408. shudder. Inhabitants of Lisbon, avert from your. selves these terrible calamities!" Portuguez, tions on Russian The tone of the French was somewhat altered Prepara in their menaces. There had been no shudder- board the ing when the fate of Beja and Evora was an- squadron. nounced to the people of Lisbon, nor when the massacre at Leiria was perpetrated. Care was taken to manifest that the French were prepared to execute their threats if needful. The Russian squadron, which lay at anchor in a line from Junqueira to Boa Vista, was made ready for action, the men being stationed at their quarters with lighted matches; they, no doubt, apprehended an attack from the English fleet, but La Garde intimated that they would fire Observador upon the city in case an insurrection were attempted. 410. Justly apprehensive, however, for his personal safety, this Intendant, whom, because perhaps of his office, the people regarded with peculiar hatred, went sometimes to pass the night on board the Vasco da Gama, and General Travot, though he was evidently esteemed by the people for his mild and honourable conduct (so much is a good name worth even in the worst times) thought it prudent not to sleep out of the Castle. Portuguez, |