IX. in Alem Algarve. Among the French effects which were taken at Abrantes CHAP. were about 200 hides and 1000 bags of cotton, which the state of the intermediate country had prevented them from sending 1808. into France: they had carried on a gainful trade while the com- August. munication was open. But now they began to feel that the Movements amount of their gains and of their plunder was in danger. In Tejo and spite of all prohibitions and precautions, some intelligence still found its way to Lisbon. The British squadron and the transports had been seen from the heights, and though the French abated nothing of their high tone, the inhabitants were now well assured that their deliverance was at hand. As the only course which offered any hope of extricating himself, Junot resolved to collect the whole of his disposable force, and give the English battle before their reinforcements arrived, and before they should be ready to act on the offensive. The only places in which he left garrisons were Elvas, Almeida, and Peniche. Setubal had hitherto been occupied by a force under General Graindorge, who had succeeded Kellermann in the command there. His situation had not been tranquil, while Mestre had taken possession of Alcacere do Sal, and an English frigate was off the port. But Mestre was recalled in all haste to Beja, when that city, after the fate of Evora, apprehended a second visitation with fire and sword. The men whom he commanded gave on this occasion proof of that patient and uncomplaining spirit with which the Spaniards and Portugueze endure privations. They started fasting and without provisions, and after a long day's march reached the little town of Odivella, where no rations had been provided for them. Mestre and his adjutant then went from door to door, to beg bread, and with the bread which was thus obtained they were contented and cheerful. Aware of the alarm which Loison's operations had excited, Graindorge resolved to clear the neighbourhood, and the Juntas Sal and Se aban French. Neves, iv. 173-179. Portuguez, CHAP. of Alcacere, Santiago de Cacem, and Grandola, fled at his apXI. proach. But when Beja was relieved from danger by Loison's 1808. movements to the north, Mestre, who had been dispatched toward Evora, was ordered to return upon Alcacere, and the Alcacere do same direction was taken by one body of men from Algarve, and tube by another under Lopes from Beja. Graindorge had now received orders to retire with his troops to Almada; Alcacere therefore was abandoned when the Portugueze arrived there, and Setubal also. Setubal had been singularly fortunate during a time of general rapacity. Perfect 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. Observador The Portugueze writers ought not to have passed over in silence the name of one who averted so much evil, and who, it may well be believed, was more to be pitied than condemned for her frailty. About 300 men were left at Palmella. Graindorge 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 291. Measures at Lisbon. XI. August. persons were deceived by these artifices. On the 15th the Em- CHAP. peror Napoleon's birthday was celebrated; the guns from the ships and fortresses were fired, Junot gave a grand entertain- 1808. ment 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 Observador treason they have been extolled in their own country, with that 406. perversion of principle and utter insensibility to honour, which 187-8. equally characterise the schools of the Revolution, and of Buonaparte. Portuguez, Thiebault, tion to the Lisbon. It had been proposed to form a national guard at Lisbon at Proclamathis time, composed of all who had any property to protect; but people of 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 confessed, that they knew not how the people of Lisbon subsisted during the three months preceding the harvest; for it was known that the consumption of food in Thiebault, that great city was only one-third of what it used to be, and the numbers who had been expelled, who had emigrated with the court, or had found means of following it, were not greater than 95. CHAP. that of the foreign troops who had been introduced. Impossible if the popular feeling could be repressed or allayed only for a XI. they have no hope of preserving it. They know that a new CHAP. French army has already passed your frontiers, and that if this should not be sufficient, another will come after it; but they 1808. will have destroyed your naval establishments, they will have August. 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 which must necessarily follow, if this beautiful 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, Observador ..death,.. behold what you would draw upon yourselves! The 40s. thought alone makes me shudder. Inhabitants of Lisbon, avert from yourselves these terrible calamities!" Portuguez, tions on Russian The tone of the French was somewhat altered in their Preparamenaces. There had been no shuddering when the fate of Beja board the and Evora was announced to the people of Lisbon, nor when the squadron. 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 upon the city in case Observador an insurrection were attempted. Justly apprehensive, however, 410. 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 Portuguez, |