II. ceived that he had passed the frontiers! Even private letters CHAP. which communicated intelligence of the enemy's movements and the rapidity and disorder of the march, were detained upon 1807. the road. 4 November. Neves, 1. 160. clamation cantara. Nv. 17. Junot had advanced from Salamanca by forced marches; he reached Alcantara in five days, the distance being forty leagues, by mountainous and unfrequented roads and in a bad season. No preparations had been made for the French on the way; even at Ciudad Rodrigo the governor had received no intimation of their coming. The Spanish forces, which according to the secret convention of Fontainebleau were to be under the French general's orders, had been instructed to join him at Valladolid and Salamanca; by his directions however they waited for him at Alcantara; scarce half a ration could be procured there for the half-starved and exhausted troops, and this the Spanish general Carraffa took up upon his own credit. From Junct's prothence Junot issued a proclamation to the Portugueze people, in from Alwhich among his other titles he enumerated that of Grand Cross of the Order of Christ, an order conferred upon him by that very Prince whom he was hastening to entrap and depose. “Inhabitants of the kingdom of Portugal," it said, "a French army is about to enter your country; it comes to emancipate you from English dominion, and makes forced marches that it may save your beautiful city of Lisbon from the fate of Copenhagen. But for this time the hopes of the perfidious English government will be deceived. Napoleon, who fixes his eyes upon the fate of the Continent, saw what the tyrant of the seas was devouring in his heart, and will not suffer that it should fall into his power. Your Prince declares war against England; we make therefore common cause. Peaceable inhabitants of the country, fear nothing! my army is as well disciplined as it is brave. I will answer on my honour for its good conduct. Let it find the VOL. I. M CHAP. welcome which is due to the soldiers of the Great Napoleon ; II. let it find, as it has a right to expect, the provisions which are needful." The proclamation proceeded to denounce summary 1807. November. justice against every French soldier who should be found plundering, but its severest threats were against the Portugueze themselves. Every Portugueze, not being a soldier of the line, who should be found making part of an armed assembly, was to be shot, as well as every individual exciting the people to take arms against the French; wherever an individual belonging to the French army should be killed, the district was to be fined in not less than thrice the amount of its yearly rents, the four principal inhabitants being taken as hostages; and the first city, town or village in which this might happen, should be burnt and rased to the ground. "But," said Junot, "I willingly persuade myself that the Portugueze will understand their own true interest; that aiding the pacific views of their Prince they will receive us as friends; and especially that the beautiful city of Lisbon will with pleasure see me enter its walls at the head of an army which alone can preserve it from becoming a prey to the eternal enemies of the Continent." The French enter Portugal. The march from Salamanca had been so fatiguing that it was impossible for the troops to proceed without some rest. Junot had arrived there on the 17th of November. On the 18th he sent a reconnoitring party as far as Rosmaninhal, and they returned with intelligence that the country was neither prepared to resist them, nor aware of their approach. On the 19th, the vanguard passed the frontier, and Junot, with the remainder of the first division of his army, followed the ensuing day. This division consisted of 8,600 men, with 12 field pieces. The second division, moving likewise upon Castello-Branco, entered by Salvaterra and Idanha-a-nova: its cavalry and guns, with the third division and the baggage, were detained some days by the sudden rise of II. November. city upon the mountain streams. On the evening of the 20th there was a CHAP. report in Castello-Branco that the French were at Zebreira; and at six o'clock, when it was hardly known whether the rumour 1807. were true or false, a French officer arrived to inform the magistrates that quarters must be made ready for General Laborde and a corps of 3000 men, who would be there in the course of two hours. Junot took up his quarters the next day in the episcopal palace, and manifested sufficient ill-humour that no preparations had been made for entertaining him. The adjutants Their rapacarried off some of the bishop's valuables, overhauled his library the march. in the hope of finding money concealed there, and not finding what they were in search of, demanded money, and obtained it. One of them, after they had left the city, returned from Sarzedas to borrow a farther sum in Junot's name; nor was it known whether this was a fraudulent extortion of his own, or a courteous mode of robbery on the part of the general. The night which the French passed in Castello-Branco is described by the inhabitants Neves, i. as an image of Hell. Junot had pledged his honour for their good conduct; but men and officers were, like their commander, as rapacious and as unprincipled as the government which they served. They were passing through a country where they experienced no resistance, and which they protested they were coming to defend ; but they added wanton havoc to the inevitable devastation which is made by the passage of an army; the men pillaged as they went, and the very officers robbed the houses in which they were quartered; olive and other fruit trees were cut down for fuel or to form temporary barracks, houses and churches were plundered; and as if they had been desirous of provoking the Portugueze to some act of violence which might serve as a pretext for carrying into effect the threats which Junot had denounced, they burnt or mutilated the images in the churches, and threw the wafer to be trodden under foot. 199. Neves, 190-199. CHAP. II. November. Conduct at Abrantes. The vanguard of the French reached Abrantes on the afternoon of the 23d, and Junot arrived the next morning. The 1807. generals entered that city with all the cattle which they had been able to collect on the way, like border-men returning from a foraging party, and the booty was sold for their emolument. A detachment was immediately sent to secure Punhete, a town situated on the left bank of the Zezere, where it falls into the Tagus. Means also were taken to supply some of the wants of the army, after the manner of the French in a country where they called themselves friends, protectors, and allies. The Juiz de fora was ordered to collect rations for 12,000 men, and 12,000 pair of shoes; a threat was added of imposing upon the town a contribution of 300,000 cruzados novos; and the manner in which these orders were intimated, seemed to imply such consequences to the magistrate in case of non-performance, that he thought it prudent to consult his own personal safety by flight. Junot then ordered the son of the person in whose house he had taken up his quarters to assume the vacant office, though the young man was not only not qualified for the office, because he had not taken the degrees which are required for it, but was positively disqualified, being a native of the place. The whole city was in consternation, apprehending the most dreadful results if the demands of the French were not complied with. Messengers were despatched to Thomar and through all the country round, to purchase all the shoes which could be found, and set all the craft to work by these means, and by taking them from individuals, between 2 and 3000 pair were collected; with which Junot was fain to be satisfied, because he saw that no possible exertions could have procured more. These exactions were less intolerable to the Portugueze, than the insults and irreligion with which they were accompanied. A colonel who was quartered in a Capuchin convent made the Guardian pull off his boots, and after II. robbing the convent of the few valuables which it contained, CHAP. threatened to fusilade him if he did not bring him money; the friar had no other resource but that of feigning to seek it, and 1807. taking flight. In the church of St. Antonio the altars were used as mangers for the horses. November. Neves, 200-2. bassador. Portugues, Junot was at Abrantes, within ninety-two miles of Lisbon, Representabefore the Portugueze government received any certain intel- British amligence that the French had passed the frontier. The first advices came from Lecor, orderly adjutant to the Marquez d'Alorna, and a truer Portugueze than his commander. At the same time Observador a flag of truce from the British squadron entered the Tagus; and P. 12. the secret treaties of Fontainebleau were communicated to the Prince by Great Britain. D. Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho urged him to execute his resolution of removing to his possessions in Brazil, the only course which he could pursue with honour or with safety. Lord Strangford came on shore, and assured him on the word of a British ambassador and a British admiral, that the measures which had been taken against Great Britain were considered as acts of compulsion on his part, in no ways abating the friendship of that old ally, if he would avail himself of her friendship. In Brazil he had an empire to the growing prosperity of which he might now add by his presence; or he must inevitably be cut off from it by the nature of the maritime war, against which the combination of all the continental powers must be ineffectual. determines moving to The Prince's determination was anticipated at Abrantes The Prince before it was known, and perhaps before he himself had decided upon rehow to act. Rumours were current there that he had already Brazil. embarked part of the royal family, that many fidalgos had gone on board to accompany the court in its removal, and that the army which had bombarded and taken Copenhagen was on board the British squadron. These reports made Junot fear that the |