DE FREIRE MURDERED BY THE SOLDIERS. 179 of General de Freire. He determined to retire CHAP. IV. before the French, and occupy a strong position 1809. in the neighbourhood of Oporto. A mutiny March. was the consequence. De Freire was suspected of treason, and brutally murdered by the troops; and Baron D'Eben, a German officer in the service of England, was appointed his successor. With about twenty-three thousand men, of whom two thousand were regulars, this officer endeavoured to oppose the advance of Marshal Soult. The attempt was a vain one. The Portuguese force, undisciplined, and without subordination, was speedily routed; and the French having found one of their fellow-soldiers horribly mutilated by the natives, no mercy was shewn in the pursuit. Baron D'Eben vainly endeavoured to rally the fugitives, and embody them for the defence of Oporto. An army composed of such materials, though it may be dispersed at a breath, can only with extreme difficulty be rallied. Soult experienced little further opposition till he reached Oporto; and that city was carried by assault, on the twenty-ninth of March. A Mar. 29. scene of dreadful carnage ensued. The cavalry charged through the streets, slaughtering the in 180 ATROCITIES OF THE FRENCH CHAP. IV. habitants without discrimination of age, sex, or March. 1809. party. Terrified by the sight of such horrors, the people fled in crowds to the bridge, but were encountered there by showers of grape-shot and musquetry. Others endeavoured to cross in boats; these, too, were fired on; and above three thousand of the inhabitants were either drowned or shot in this quarter of the city. Altogether, the slaughter was very great, and would undoubtedly have been still greater, had not Marshal Soult exerted himself with honourable zeal to put a stop to the excesses of his troops. Oporto, which had thus easily been occupied by the enemy, might, under a better organized system of defence, have opposed a very formidable obstacle to the French armies. The garrison consisted of about twenty thousand men, and the city had recently been covered by a line of detached works, extending from the Douro to the sea, on which were mounted about two hundred pieces of artillery. But want of discipline and subordination again proved fatal. Several of the superior officers, who endeavoured to restore obedience, were murdered by the soldiers, under charge of treason. No further AT THE CAPTURE OF OPORTO. 181 defence. CHAP. IV. efforts were made to regulate the Thus was it that the second city of the kingdom fell, almost without a struggle, into the hands of the enemy. But Soult, notwithstanding his success, did not deem it prudent to advance immediately on Lisbon. The hostility of the natives rendered the communication between the French corps destined for the reduction of Portugal, at once difficult and precarious; and before quitting Oporto, he wished to receive intelligence of the movements of Victor and Lapisse, the latter of whom, with a corps of five thousand men, was directed to threaten the frontier between the Douro and Almeida; and subsequently to join Victor whenever Soult should have advanced on the capital. No intelligence, however, of either of these leaders reached Oporto; and Soult, averse to commit his army by any uncombined movement, applied himself to secure and con 1809. March. 182 CHAVES RETAKEN BY SILVEIRA. CHAP. IV. ciliate the portion of the kingdom already overrun by his armies. 1809. March. In the meanwhile, the division of native troops, under General Silveira, were not idle. Mar. 25. That General had succeeded in regaining possession of Chaves, and capturing about thirteen hundred of the garrison. He then made every effort to cut off the communication of the French army with Spain, by securing the bridge of Amarante, and strengthening the line of the Tamega. The activity of Silveira, who succeeded in repulsing the enemy in several attacks, tended greatly to raise the hopes of the Portuguese. The peasantry again took arms, and came in crowds to the field. Colonel Trant, who commanded at Coimbra, took the field at the head of a body of militia and volunteers; and Romana, who had received a reinforcement of three thousand men, already threatened the enemy's communications in Asturias. We must now turn to England. The disasters attendant on the retreat of Sir John Moore, and the wretched condition to which his army had been reduced, materially deranged the projects of the British government. The troops CONDUCT OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 183 1809. March. embarked at Corunna, instead of sailing direct CHAP. IV. for Lisbon or the south of Spain, had been under the necessity of returning to England, and the hope of successful resistance to the French power in the Peninsula had become more feeble in the minds of all. The British ministry, however, were not disheartened by the reverses of the preceding campaign. They served only to stimulate them to renewed exertions, and, at the close of February, Sir Arthur Wellesley, then Chief Secretary for Ireland, resigned his office and seat in Parliament, to assume the command of the British forces in the Peninsula. It was determined to reinforce the army in Portugal; and in March the expedition with Sir Arthur Wellesley sailed for Lisbon. His instructions were, in case that city should have been evacuated by Sir John Cradock, to proceed to Cadiz, and land there, if the government would consent to the admission of British troops into the garrison. The contemplated alternative, however, did not Sir John Cradock had been engaged in preparations for the defence of the city; and that officer, on being superseded by Sir Arthur Wellesley, was appointed governor of Gibraltar. occur. |