All opposition to Napoleon Buonaparte being at an end upon the continent of Europe, men began to inquire what would be the next object of his restless ambition. Would he execute his long meditated designs against the Turkish empire, parcel out Greece in tributary dukedoms, principalities and kingdoms, and make his way again to Egypt, not risking himself and his army a second time upon the seas, but by a safer land journey, conquering as he went? The imbecile policy of the English in Egypt, the state of that country, and the importance of which it might become in the hand of an efficient government, seemed to invite the French emperor to direct his views thitherward, if he understood his real interests as a conqueror. The scene also which had recently been enacted at Paris by the Jews in Sanhedrim assembled, under his command, appeared to have more meaning than was avowed. It was little likely that he should have convened them to answer questions which there was no reason why he should ask; or to lend their sanction to the conscription, which requiring no other sanction than that of his inexorable tyranny, set all laws, principles, and feelings, at defiance. And though doubtless the deputies indulged gratuitously in impious adulation, yet it was apparent that in some of their blasphemies they echoed the pretensions of the adventurer whom they addressed. When in their hall of meeting they placed the Imperial Eagle over the Ark of the Covenant, and blended the cyphers of Napoleon and Josephine with the unutterable name of God; impious as this was, it was only French flattery in Jewish costume. But when they applied to him the prophecies of Isaiah and Daniel, when they called him “the Lord’s anointed Cyrus,” ... “the living Image of the Divinity,” ... “the only mortal according to God’s own heart, to whom He had entrusted the fate of nations, because he alone could govern them with wisdom;” ... these things resembled the abominable language of his Bishops and of his own proclamations, too much to escape notice. And when they reminded him that he had subdued the ancient land of the eternal pyramids, the land wherein their ancestors had been held in bondage, that he had appeared on the banks of the once-sacred Jordan, and fought in the valley of Sichem in the plains of12 Palestine, such language seemed to indicate a project for resettling them in the Holy Land, as connected with his views concerning Egypt. Nay, as he had successively imitated Hannibal, and Alexander, and Charlemagne, just as the chance of circumstances reminded him of each, was it improbable that Mahommed might be the next object of his imitation? that he might breathe in incense till he fancied himself divine; that adulation, and success, and vanity, utterly unchecked as they were, having destroyed all moral feeling and all conscience, should affect his intellect next; and that, from being the Cyrus of the Lord, he would take the hint which his own clergy had given him, and proclaim himself the temporal Messiah? Nothing was too impious for this man, nothing too frantic; ... and, alas! such was the degradation of Europe and of the world, England alone excepted, that scarcely any thing seemed to be impracticable for him.

Another speculation was, that, in co-operation with the Russians, he would march an army through Persia to the Indies, and give a mortal blow, in Hindostan, to the prosperity and strength of England; for it was one of the preposterous notions of our times, that the power of England depended upon these foreign possessions, ... the acquirements, as it were, of yesterday! An ominous present was said, by the French journalists, to have been sent him by the Persian sovereign, ... two scimitars, one of which had belonged to Timur, the other to Nadir Shah. The intrigues of his emissaries at the Persian court, and with the Mahrattas and Mahommedan powers in Hindostan, were supposed to render this project probable; and the various routes which his army might take were anxiously traced upon the map, by those whose forethought had more of fear in it than of wisdom and of hope. But Buonaparte was now enacting the part of Charlemagne, and had not leisure, as yet, to resume that of Alexander. He had determined upon occupying the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, believing that because of the helplessness of one country, and the state of the court in the other, he might obtain possession of both without resistance, and become master of Brazil and of the Spanish Indies.

Don Manuel de Godoy, Duke of Alcudia and Prince of the13 Peace, was at this time minister in Spain. He was an upstart, who, because he had been the Queen’s paramour, had attained the highest power in the state, and by whatever qualities he ingratiated himself with the King, possessed his confidence and even his friendship. There was no jealousy in the Queen’s attachment to this minion; she gave him one of the royal family in marriage, but the private life of the favourite continued to be as infamous as the means whereby he had risen. It is said that there was no way so certain to obtain promotion, as by pandering to his vices; and that wives, sisters, and daughters, were offered him as the price of preferment in a manner more shameless than had ever before been witnessed in a Christian country. Certain it is, that the morals of the Spanish court were to the last degree depraved, and that this depravity affected all within its sphere like a contagion. He was rapacious as well as sensual; but as his sensuality was amply fed by the creatures who surrounded him, so was his avarice gratified by the prodigal favour of the crown, and Godoy had nothing to desire beyond the continuance of the authority which he enjoyed. The cruel part of his conduct must be ascribed to that instinctive dread of wisdom and hatred of virtue which such men necessarily feel in their unnatural elevation.

Other ministers may have been as vicious; many have been more vindictive; and in ordinary times Godoy might have filled his station without more disgrace than certain of his predecessors, and even with some credit, for vanity led him to patronize arts and science in conformity with the fashion of the age. Pestalozzi’s scheme of education was introduced under his favour into Spain; and vaccination was communicated to the Spanish dominions in America, and to the Philippines by an expedition sent for that sole purpose. But his lot had fallen in times which might have perplexed the ablest statesman; and in proportion as he was tried his incapacity became notorious to all men. The measures for which he was rewarded with a princedom evinced his ignorance of the interests, and his insensibility to the honour of the country. ♦Disgraceful terms of that peace.♦ By the peace of Basle he ceded to the French republic the Spanish part of Hispaniola, which was the oldest possession of the Spaniards in the New World, and therefore, neglected and unproductive as it was, the pride and the character of the nation were wounded by the cession, a cession14 in direct contravention to the treaty of Utrecht. By the subsequent treaty of St. Ildefonso he contracted an alliance with France offensive and defensive against any power on the continent; now France was the only continental power with whom there was any probability that Spain could be involved in war; the advantage therefore was exclusively on the side of France: and at the time these terms were made, the French republic, notwithstanding its successes in the peninsula, would have been well contented with securing the neutrality of the Spaniards.

Under the reign of Charles IV. the whole machine of government was falling to decay. The navy which Charles III. left more formidable than it had ever been since the time of the Armada, was almost annihilated. The army was in the worst state of indiscipline and disorder; the finances were exhausted, and public credit at the lowest ebb: foreign commerce had been destroyed by the war with England; and France, meantime, insatiable in its demands upon a helpless ally, continued to exact fresh sacrifices of men and treasure. ♦Godoy not corrupted by France.♦ It has been loudly asserted that Godoy was corrupted by the French government; any thing was believed of one so profligate and so odious, as if because he would have scrupled at no wickedness, he was in like manner capable of any folly. But with what was France to purchase the services of one whose greediest desires were gratified? If Godoy had not felt and thought like his sovereign, he could not so entirely have obtained his confidence; now the disposition of the King could not be doubtful. Charles had been compelled to abandon the coalition, and ally himself with France, but he acted from his heart when he entered into that coalition, not when he withdrew from it. For the example of the French revolution could not but be regarded with fear by all crowned heads, and especially by those who were conscious that the state of their own kingdoms cried aloud for reform; and even when the frenzy fit of that revolution subsided, and anarchy in natural progress had ended in military despotism, it was not possible that princes who reigned by hereditary right should behold without secret apprehensions the establishment of a new dynasty upon an ancient throne. ♦Disposition to join with the allies before the peace of Tilsit.♦ At the first gleam of hope the court of Spain ventured to indicate its disposition: when Prussia began that war which the peace of Tilsit terminated, a rash proclamation was issued at Madrid, exhorting the nation not to be dismayed, for it yet possessed great resources, and a powerful armament was about to be formed. ♦De Pradt. Memoires sur la Revolution d’Espagne, p. 15.♦ This proclamation Buonaparte received upon the field of battle at Jena, and from that hour, as he afterwards declared, swore in his heart that the Spaniards should dearly abide it. That deep determination was, however, carefully dissembled. The French embassador presented a strong remonstrance upon the occasion, in reply to which, Godoy made the sorry excuse that the preparations were intended against an apprehended attack from the Emperor of Morocco. Shallow as this pretence was, it was allowed to pass, and no other immediate consequence ensued.

While Charles and his favourite were vainly wishing to free themselves from the yoke of France, that very disposition on their part induced the Prince of Asturias to regard Buonaparte with complacency and hope. The father’s favourite has seldom been the minister of the son. Those Spaniards who were excluded from any share in public affairs under the administration of Godoy, looked naturally to the Prince, and formed a party round him, in which men of the most opposite elements were combined. ♦Parties in favour of the French.♦ When the French revolution began, the young and the ardent in Spain, as in the rest of Europe, eagerly adopted principles which promised a new and happier order of things: they were comparatively far less numerous than in any other country, partly because of the state of the press, still more because of the feeling and devotion with which this nation is attached to its religion and all its forms. There were, however, many, and those of the best of the Spaniards, who hoped to obtain that reformation in their government by the assistance of France, which without such assistance they knew it would not only be hopeless, but fatal to attempt. The attachment which they had formed to the French republic, many of these men transferred to the French empire, with an inconsistency so gross and monstrous, that it might seem impossible, if we had not seen it exemplified among ourselves: having, because of their principles, at first acquired a party feeling, they deluded themselves by supposing that in serving their party they promoted their principles, till at last they had no other principle than the mere party interest itself. Another class of Spaniards had been hostile to the French revolution till its character was changed by Buonaparte: they felt no dislike to the system of his government, because they were accustomed to despotism, and the acts of personal atrocity which he had committed did not sufficiently alarm them. The unhappy circumstance with which the English war had commenced, irritated them against Great Britain, and that sentiment of indignation naturally biassed them toward France. There were some of a third description, who had neither heart nor understanding to feel for the honour, or to wish for any improvement in the state of their native land, but who desired a change for the mere sake of acquiring authority: these men were enemies to the Prince of the Peace, not for his vices, his injustice, and his political misconduct; they hated him because they envied him, and wished to exercise a like tyranny themselves.

The people felt the degradation of Spain, and imputed to Godoy not only their present difficulties, but the whole train of inveterate evils under which the country was groaning. Never had any former favourite been so universally detested. His administration would have been instantly at an end, if the Prince’s party could have appealed to public opinion; but being precluded by the nature of a despotic government from any other means of attempting his overthrow than those of intrigue15, and knowing that all intrigues against him at their own court would be dangerous, as well as ineffectual, they hoped to accomplish this object by help of a foreign power. ♦The French embassador advises the prince to solicit an alliance with Buonaparte’s family.♦ The Prince being a widower, Beauharnois, the French embassador at Madrid, seeing the disposition of the government to shake off its subjection to France, and that of Ferdinand and his friends to get the administration of affairs into their hands through the influence of France, hinted to him how advantageous it would be to connect himself by marriage with the new imperial family. Whether he was instructed to invite a proposal to this effect or not, it is believed that he acted with perfect good faith, and indeed he might well have imagined that in so doing he acted for the interest of both countries. It was at this time generally believed in Spain that Buonaparte, being justly offended with Godoy for the intention which he had manifested before the battle of Jena, would insist upon his dismissal from the government. The friends of Ferdinand therefore never doubted but that he would gladly contract the proposed alliance with the heir of the Spanish monarchy, a connection which would at once gratify his pride, strengthen his power, and secure a wavering ally. The better men of this party seem also to have been persuaded, that under the protection of Buonaparte they might relieve the country from some of its manifold grievances; nor would this persuasion have been unreasonable, if any ties could have restrained the merciless ambition of the man in whom they confided. For though it might be his policy now to keep Spain in her present weakness, and consequent dependence, yet when his own blood acquired an interest in the prosperity of that kingdom, it might fairly be expected that those salutary changes which were essential to its welfare would be promoted by him, and peaceably effected under his auspices.

Influenced by such considerations, the Prince addressed a secret letter to Buonaparte. It had long, he said, been his most earnest desire to express, at least by writing, the sentiments of respect, of esteem, and of attachment which he had vowed to a hero who eclipsed all those that preceded him, and whom Providence had sent to preserve Europe from the total subversion with which it was threatened, to secure her shaken thrones, and to restore peace and happiness to the nations. He was unhappy enough to be compelled by circumstances to conceal so just and laudable an action as if it were a crime, ... such were the fatal consequences of the excessive goodness of the best of kings. His father was endowed with the most upright and generous heart; but artful and wicked persons too often took advantage of such a disposition to disguise the truth from their sovereigns, and none but the Emperor Napoleon could detect the schemes of such perfidious counsellors, open the eyes of his dearly beloved parents, render them happy, and provide at the same time for his happiness, and for that of the Spaniards. “Therefore,” said the Prince, “I implore with, the utmost confidence your majesty’s paternal protection, to the end that you will not only deign to accord me the honour of allying me with your family, but that you will smooth all the difficulties, and remove all the obstacles which might oppose this object of my wishes.” ♦Buonaparte intends to seize the Peninsula.♦ When Buonaparte was thus entreated by the Prince to lend his influence for the removal of Godoy, he was carrying on secret negotiations with that favourite. Long before he received this letter, he had determined upon seizing Spain; his measures for subjecting it by force had been arranged. But it was necessary to begin by occupying Portugal, and to dupe the Spanish court into a co-operation against a friendly and unoffending power, a power too with which it was connected by the closest ties: thus would the purposes of France be every way served; for while she derived from Spain all the assistance that could be desired, the Spanish government would be preparing the way for its own destruction, and depriving itself at the same time of all claim to compassion when the hour arrived.

The first step toward the accomplishment of his design, was to remove the best troops from Spain; and accordingly, at the requisition of the French government, in conformity to treaty, 16,000 men, the flower of the Spanish army, were marched into the North of Germany, under the Marquis de Romana, and another division into Tuscany, under D. Gonzalo O’Farrill. The next business was to introduce French troops into Spain, and for this the occupation of Portugal afforded a pretext. Buonaparte, who was regardless of all other engagements, however solemnly contracted, was always, as far as his power extended, faithful to his vows of vengeance. Exasperated by the service which the Portugueze ships had rendered in blockading Malta, he had said in one of his Egyptian proclamations, that there would come a time when the Portugueze should pay with tears of blood for the affront which they had offered to the French republic. Heavy payments of a different kind had already been exacted. ♦Condition of the Portugueze government.♦ During many years the Prince of Brazil had submitted to insults which he had no means of resenting, and from time to time had bought off at a heavy price the threat of invasion, in the hope of preserving his kingdom by these expedients till peace should be restored to Europe. So often had these threats been renewed, and these respites purchased, that Portugal incurred the burden and the shame of paying tribute, without obtaining the security of a tributary state. Upon this, however, that poor government relied. They thought themselves safe because France obtained greater sums from them in this manner than could be drawn from Portugal as a conquered country; because much of the treasure from Spanish America, so large a portion of which found its way into France, reached Europe in safety by the assistance of the Portugueze; and because they had every reason to suppose that if an attack upon them should at any time be seriously intended, the court of Madrid would use its utmost influence to avert their danger for its own sake. Could any reliance have been placed either upon the understanding or the honour of the Spanish king, upon royal and national faith, the plainest common interest, and the closest ties of alliance, the Portugueze government would have reasoned justly. But Charles IV. was one of the weakest of sovereigns; his favourite had obtained the administration for his vices, not for his talents, which were of the meanest order; and it was easy for Buonaparte to deal with such men, and make them at once the instruments and the victims of his ambition.

A month after the peace of Tilsit had been concluded, the French and Spanish embassadors jointly informed the court of Lisbon that it must shut its ports to England, arrest the English subjects, and confiscate the English property in Portugal, or expose itself to an immediate war with France and Spain; if these propositions were not complied with, they were instructed to leave the country in three weeks. Without waiting for the reply, Buonaparte seized the Portugueze ships in his harbours. The crisis was now manifestly at hand; there no longer remained a hope of purchasing farther respite, and in the state to which the army had been reduced by long misrule, resistance was not thought of. The court of Portugal was weak even to helplessness, but it had the advantage of perfectly understanding the character of the two powers between which it was compelled to choose; knowing that every forbearance might be expected on the part of England, and on the part of France every thing that was oppressive and iniquitous. ♦Middle course proposed by the Portugueze government.♦ In full reliance therefore upon the justice and long tried friendship of Great Britain, the Prince informed the French government that he would consent to shut his ports, but that neither his principles of morality nor of religion would permit him to seize the persons and property of the British subjects, in violation of treaties and of the law of nations. At the same time the English were apprized that they would do well to wind up their affairs as speedily as possible, and leave the kingdom. A Portugueze squadron happened to be cruising against the Algerines, and the necessity of keeping on good terms with England till this should have re-entered the Tagus, was urged as a reason for temporising awhile, to which Buonaparte, eager as he was for ships, was likely to listen more readily than to any other plea. ♦Champagny’s report, in L. Goldsmith, v. iii. p. 253–255.♦ It was held out to him also, that as hostilities must be expected from England in case the rigour of the terms upon which France insisted were enforced, it would be prudent to send out the young Prince of Beira to Brazil, while the seas were still open, that his presence might secure the fidelity of the colonies.

The Portugueze ministers at Paris and Madrid have been accused of having betrayed their country at this time; more probably they were deceived and perplexed, and knew not how to advise; and thus the Portugueze government was left to act without any other information of the proceedings of the two hostile courts, than what it obtained from common rumour, or through the circuitous channel of England. Buonaparte’s intention was to secure the persons of the royal family if possible, but at all events to take possession of Portugal: this point was essential to his ulterior views. For this purpose a force had been collected under the title of the Army of Observation of the Gironde, ... a title which may have been intended to intimidate the government of Spain, for it was not even pretended that France could have any danger to apprehend in that quarter. Junot, who had been embassador at Lisbon, was appointed to the command, and he was on the way to Bayonne before the term expired which had been allowed to Portugal to choose its part. The Prince was prepared to make every sacrifice of interest and of feeling, so he might thereby save the country from an attack: the misery which the expulsion of the English, and the consequent loss of a flourishing and extensive commerce, must bring upon Lisbon and upon the whole kingdom, was yet less dreadful than the horrors of invasion at a time when defence appeared impracticable. He determined therefore, at the last, to comply with the demands of the besotted court of Spain, and of the tyrant who directed its suicidal measures, but not till the last. The French and Spanish legations were suffered to retire, because nothing but the last extremity could induce him, even in appearance, to commit an act of cruelty toward the English. ♦The French and Spanish embassadors leave Lisbon.♦ When these legations withdrew, the British residents were at the same time preparing with all speed for their compulsory departure: and so little did the Prince feel assured that he could preserve the country in peace by total submission to the iniquitous terms which were pressed upon it, that circular instructions were dispatched to the bishops and the heads of the religious orders, requiring them to register the plate of the churches, and send it to Lisbon or other places appointed for security.

While the Prince and his ministers were in this state of lamentable suspense, a secret treaty between France and Spain for the partition of Portugal was signed at Fontainebleau. By this extraordinary treaty, the King of Etruria ceding his Italian possessions in full and entire sovereignty to Buonaparte, was to have the province of Entre Minho e Douro, with the city of Porto for its capital, erected into a kingdom for him, under the title of Northern Lusitania. Alentejo and Algarve were in like manner to be given to Godoy16, in entire property and sovereignty, with the title of Prince of the Algarves; the other Portugueze provinces were to be held in sequestration till a general peace, at which time, if they were restored to the house of Braganza, in exchange for Gibraltar, Trinidad, and other colonies which the English had conquered, the new sovereign was, like the King of Northern Lusitania and the Prince of the Algarves, to hold his dominions by investiture from the King of Spain, to acknowledge him as protector, and never to make peace or war without his consent. The two contracting powers were to agree upon an equal partition of the colonial possessions of Portugal; and Buonaparte engaged to recognize his Catholic Majesty as Emperor of the Two Americas, when every thing should be ready for his assuming that title, which might be either at a general peace, or at farthest within three years therefrom; and he guaranteed to him the possession of his dominions on the continent of Europe south of the Pyrenees.

A secret convention, which was concluded at the same time, agreed upon the means for carrying this nefarious treaty into effect. Twenty-five thousand French infantry and 3000 cavalry were to enter Spain, and march directly for Lisbon; they were to be joined by 8000 Spanish infantry and 3000 cavalry, with 30 pieces of artillery. At the same time 10,000 Spanish troops were to take possession of the province between the Minho and Douro, and the city of Porto; and 6000 were to enter Alentejo and Algarve. The French troops were to be maintained by Spain upon their march. As soon as they had entered the country (for no opposition was expected), the government of each portion of the divided territory was to be vested in the Generals commanding, and the contributions imposed thereon accrue to their respective courts. The central body was to be under the orders of the French Commander-in-chief. Nevertheless, if either the King of Spain, or the Prince of the Peace, should think fit to join the Spanish troops attached to that army, the French, with the General commanding them, should be subject to his orders. Another body of 40,000 French troops was to be assembled at Bayonne, by the 20th of November at the latest, to be ready to proceed to Portugal, in case the English should send reinforcements there, or menace it with an attack. This army, however, was not to enter Spain till the two contracting parties had come to an agreement upon that point.

This nefarious treaty, whereby the two contracting powers disposed of the dominions of two other sovereigns, with whom the one was connected by the nearest and closest ties of relationship and alliance, and both were at peace, was carried on with a secresy worthy of the transaction. D. Eugenio Izquierdo, an agent of Godoy’s, was employed to negotiate it unknown to the Spanish embassador in France, and the whole business is said to have been concealed from the ministers17 in both countries. It was signed on the 27th of October. The convoy with the English factory on board had sailed from the Tagus on the 18th, and never had a day of such political calamity and general sorrow been known in Lisbon since the tidings arrived of the loss of Sebastian and his army. ♦The English residents expelled from Lisbon.♦ Their departure was followed by a proclamation for the exclusion of British commerce: it had ever, the Prince said, been his desire to observe the most perfect neutrality during the present contest; ♦Edict for the exclusion of British commerce. Oct. 22.♦ but that being no longer possible, and having reflected at the same time how beneficial a general peace would be to humanity, he had thought proper to accede to the cause of the Continent by uniting himself to the Emperor of the French and the Catholic King, in order to contribute as far as might be in his power to the acceleration of a maritime peace. Whatever hopes he might have indulged of satisfying France by this measure were soon dissipated, when the Portugueze embassadors at Paris and Madrid, having been formally dismissed, arrived at Lisbon. The former of these, D. Lourenço de Lima, is said to have travelled night and day, for the purpose of dissuading the Prince from removing to Brazil, ... a measure which the French apprehended, and which of all others would oppose the greatest obstacles to their projects. D. Lourenço is said to have represented that this step would make him the victim of the perfidious counsel of England, and at the same time provoke the utmost wrath of the great Napoleon. That emperor, he assured the Prince, had the highest respect for his virtues, and harboured no hostile intentions against him: he would be completely satisfied if Portugal would only sequester the British property, and arrest the few British subjects who remained. To this last sacrifice the Prince now consented, trusting to the generosity of England, and probably also, as has been well observed by a Portugueze historian, ♦Neves, i. 151.♦ secretly resolving to indemnify the sufferers whenever it should be possible, ... for this is consistent with his character. ♦Edict for registering the persons and property of the English.♦ Under these feelings he issued an edict for registering all English persons and property which were still to be found in his dominions. The order was reluctantly given, and leniently carried into effect; but it compelled the British minister, Lord Strangford, to take down the arms of Great Britain from his house: ♦The British minister leaves Lisbon.♦ he demanded his passports, and went off to a squadron under Sir Sidney Smith, which had been ordered to cruise off the mouth of the Tagus, and Lisbon was then declared to be blockaded.

While the court was waiting in the most anxious incertitude the result of its submission, the agitation of the Lisbonians was increased by the appearance of a Russian squadron in the Tagus. Admiral Siniavin with nine ships of the line and two frigates had been acting in the Archipelago against the Turks, in alliance with England; and now on his way home to act against England in conformity with the plans of Buonaparte, he found that he could not possibly reach the Baltic before it would be frozen. He would have put into Cadiz to winter there, but the British admiral who commanded upon that station would not permit him, rightly judging that as the disposition of the Russian government was now known to be unfriendly towards England, it was not proper that these Russian ships should be allowed to enter an enemy’s port, and thus effect a junction with an enemy’s fleet. Siniavin therefore proceeded to the Tagus; his unexpected arrival at such a juncture was naturally supposed to be part of the tyrant’s gigantic plans, and it was not doubted now that Buonaparte meant to make Lisbon one of the ports from which the British dominions were to be invaded. The circumstance was in reality accidental, but at such a moment it appeared like design, and the blockade was therefore more rigorously enforced.

If Buonaparte’s only object had been to force the Prince into hostilities with England, he would now have been satisfied. A courier had been immediately dispatched to inform him that all his demands were complied with, and the Marquis de Marialva speedily set out after the courier with the title of Embassador Extraordinary; ... while he was on his way the French troops had entered Portugal. The tyrant thought to entrap the royal family; but disdaining in the wantonness of power to observe even the appearances of justice or common decorum toward a country which he so entirely despised, the success of his villany was frustrated by his own precipitation. From the commencement of these discussions the Prince had declared that if a French army set foot within his territories he would remove the seat of government to Brazil. The French expected that the rupture with England would deter him from pursuing this resolution; should it prove otherwise they thought to prevent it by their intrigues and their celerity: and such was the treachery with which the Prince was surrounded, and the want of vigilance in every branch of his inert administration, that Junot was within an hundred miles of Lisbon before any official advices were received that he had passed the frontiers! Even private letters which communicated intelligence of the enemy’s movements and the rapidity and disorder of the march, were detained upon the road.

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. ♦Junot’s proclamation from Alcantara. Nov. 17.♦ From thence Junot issued a proclamation to the Portugueze people, in which 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 welcome which is due to the soldiers of the Great Napoleon; let it find, as it has a right to expect, the provisions which are needful.” The proclamation proceeded to denounce summary 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 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. ♦The French enter Portugal.♦ 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 the mountain streams. On the evening of the 20th there was a report in Castello-Branco that the French were at Zebreira: and at six o’clock, when it was hardly known whether the rumour 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. ♦Their rapacity upon the march.♦ The adjutants carried off some of the bishop’s valuables, overhauled his library 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. ♦Neves, i. 199.♦ The night which the French passed in Castello-Branco is described by the inhabitants 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, ♦Neves, 196–199.♦ they burnt or mutilated the images in the churches, and threw the wafer to be trodden under foot.

The vanguard of the French reached Abrantes on the afternoon of the 23d, and Junot arrived the next morning. The 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 dispatched 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 robbing the convent of the few valuables which it contained, 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 taking flight. ♦Neves, 200–2.♦ In the church of St. Antonio the altars were used as mangers for the horses.

Junot was at Abrantes, within ninety-two miles of Lisbon, before the Portugueze government received any certain intelligence 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. ♦Observador Portuguez, p. 12.♦ At the same time a flag of truce from the British squadron entered the Tagus; and 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.