General Margaron had been sent from Lisbon with between 4000 and 5000 men, to check the progress of the insurrection in Estremadura, and learn some intelligence of Loison, from whom nothing had been heard for a considerable time. Though the disposition of the people was every where the same, they were kept down by the presence or by the neighbourhood of the enemy, every where within reach of the capital; and he met with no opposition till he approached Leiria. That city, which is the most considerable place on the road to Coimbra, is built upon the little rivers Liz and Lena, in a beautiful country, an hundred miles from Lisbon. It is believed to have been built from the ruins of Colippo, a Lusitanian city which the Romans destroyed; and it has been asserted, that Sertorius planted a colony there whom he brought from Liria in Spain. Affonso Henriquez fortified it as a strong hold against the Moors, who then possessed Santarem, and recovered it after they had captured it. Some of his successors occasionally resided there, and its fine castle was enlarged and beautified by Queen St. Isabel, wife of the magnificent King Diniz. At the beginning of the last century it contained 900 houses and 2150 communicants. Its population had increased, and might at this time have been estimated at about 5000. The adjacent country has been made the scene of pastoral romance by Francisco Rodriguez Lobo, for which it is precisely adapted by its wild yet beautiful and peaceful character.

The people of Leiria and the peasantry who had collected there had had little time for preparation when they heard that the French were approaching. They had paraded through their streets the banner of the city, bearing for its device a crow upon a pine tree; in memory of one which, when Affonso Henriquez attacked the city, perched there in the midst of his camp, and clapped its wings and croaked in a manner that was accepted as a good omen. They had proclaimed the Prince, restored and repainted the royal arms, and assisted at the performance of Te Deum in the cathedral; but school-boys in a rebellion could not have been more unprepared with any plan of defence, or unprovided with means for it. They were in an open city. They had not a single piece of cannon. Of some 800 men who were stationed at outposts and other points of danger, scarcely a fourth part were armed with muskets, and for these three or four round of cartridges were all that could be found. To persons unacquainted with the character and condition of the Portugueze it might appear almost incredible that resistance should have been attempted under circumstances thus absolutely hopeless. But the people were goaded by insult, and stung by the feeling of insupportable wrong. They had been wantonly invaded, ... grievously, inhumanly, and remorselessly oppressed. They knew that the nation was rising against its oppressors: they felt instinctively what the strength of a nation is; and were too ♦Neves, iv. 31–36.♦ much exasperated to consider, or too little informed to understand, that without order and discipline numbers are of little avail, and even courage not to be relied on.

The higher orders were perfectly sensible of their imminent danger, but they would have exposed themselves to certain destruction if they had attempted to reason with the infuriated multitude. The magistrates therefore, and the person who had been appointed to the command, withdrew secretly from the city during the night, and fled. In the morning five Frenchmen, who had been surprised upon a marauding party, were ♦July 5.♦ brought in prisoners. A short-lived and senseless exultation was excited at their appearance. At noon it was known that the enemy were close at hand; they sent forward a peasant who had fallen into their hands, and whom, contrary to their custom, they had spared, to offer pardon to the people if they would return to their obedience; that offer being refused, they attacked the insurgents. By their own account the resistance was so momentary, that there was no time for the artillery, nor for half the troops to take part in the action. The insurgents threw away their arms, like terrified villagers, imploring the clemency of an irritated conqueror. From 800 to 900 were left upon the field. The city was ♦3d Bulletin. Observador Portuguez, 357.
Thiebault, 143.♦ entered on all sides. But, by their own account, the moment the action was over, General Margaron restrained the indignation of his troops; their moderation was equal to their valour, and victory was immediately followed by order. Margaron, in a proclamation to the inhabitants, dwelt upon his clemency. “A decree had been issued,” he said, “commanding that every town where the French were fired upon should be burnt, and its inhabitants put to the sword.” They had incurred that penalty, and his duty required him to inflict it. Nevertheless he had prevented the massacre and the conflagration; not a house, not a cottage had been burnt; he had protected their persons and their property, as far as was possible under such circumstances; and instead of seeking for the guilty, he repeated to them his offers of peace and union. He called upon them to learn who were their real friends, and ♦Thiebault, Pièces Justificatives, No. 10.♦ lay aside their arms. “Leave,” said he, “the noble task of protecting and defending you to the soldiers of the great nation. Submit yourselves to the power which Heaven supports, and obey our holy church as I do, ... you in renouncing your projects of exterminating the French, I in forgiving all that you have done against them.”

This is what the French relate of their conduct at Leiria. “Sepulchres of Leiria,” exclaims the Portugueze historian of these events, “prove ye the falsehood with which these robbers, as cruel as they are perfidious, have deceived the world!” What they have not related is now to be recorded. It is not dissembled by the Portugueze that the defence was as feeble and as momentary as the enemy describe it. They entered the city on all sides, and began an indiscriminate butchery; old and young, women and babes, were butchered, in the streets, in the houses, in the churches, in the fields. The most atrocious acts of cruelty were committed, and not by the common soldiers only. One of the superior officers related of himself, that a feeling of pity came over him when upon entering the town he met a woman with an infant at her breast, but calling to mind that he was a soldier, he pierced mother and child with one thrust! Free scope was given to every ♦Memoir of the early Campaigns of the Duke of Wellington, p. 8.♦ abominable passion; and in the general pillage the very graves were opened, upon the supposition that treasure might have been hidden there, as in a place where no plunderer would look to find it. When the slaughter in the streets had ceased, they began to hunt for prisoners, and all who were found were taken to an open space before the Chapel of S. Bartholomew, there to be put to death like the prisoners at Jaffa. The greater number of these poor wretches fell on their knees, some stretching their hands in unavailing agony toward their murderers for mercy; others, lifting them to heaven, directed their last prayers where mercy would be found. The murderers, ♦Neves, iv. 37–42.♦ as if they delighted in the act of butchery, began their work with the sword and bayonet and the but-end of the musket, and finished it by firing upon their16victims.

On the same day actions of the same devilish character were committed by Loison’s division on their way from Almeida. Leaving a garrison of 1250 men in that place, and having blown up the works of Fort Conception, he set out towards Lisbon, in pursuance to the orders which he had received, with between 3000 and 4000 troops. The next day he approached the city of Guarda; it happened to be Sunday, and also the annual festival of Queen St. Isabel, whose name, stripped of all fable and idolatrous observances, deserves always to be held in dear and respectful remembrance by the Portugueze. The assemblage of people was therefore much greater than at other times; but they were assembled to keep holyday, not to provide for their defence. A Junta had been constituted there two days before; and with that miscalculation of strength, or ignorance of the state of things, which prevailed so generally among their countrymen, they seem not to have considered themselves as in danger of an attack till Loison was within two miles of the city. An old iron gun, rusty and dismantled, and lying useless in the ruins of the castle, was their whole artillery; ... a few peasants mounted it upon a cart, and so carried it to a rising ground near the road, as if the sight of it would deter the French from advancing. According to the ♦Bulletin 4.
Observador Portuguez, 366.♦ French official account, the rebels, as they insolently styled the Portugueze, drew up in two ♦Thiebault, 153.♦ lines, having their flanks well supported, and two pieces of cannon to protect their centre; their lines were forced at all points, their guns taken, themselves surrounded as well as routed; the disorder was general, the slaughter dreadful; more than a thousand dead were left upon the field, and Loison in pursuit of the fugitives entered the city. The truth is, that a disorderly multitude fled as soon as they were attacked; and that, as all who could not escape were cut down, the number of the slain has not perhaps been much exaggerated. A night of licentiousness and pillage followed, and Loison then proceeded. The ancient and flourishing town of Covilham escaped a similar visitation, because it lay somewhat out of the line of his march, and he had no time to spare. Alpedrinha, a place containing between two and three thousand inhabitants, was not so fortunate. On the same day that Margaron entered Leiria, and with as little resistance, General Charlot entered this ♦July 5.♦ unhappy town; that General was one of the few commanders who had hitherto obtained a character for honour and humanity, ... here, however, all horrible crimes and cruelties were committed; one inoffensive old man was taken out of the town, and burnt alive within sight and hearing of the fugitives upon the mountains; and the French, having carried off every thing ♦Neves, iv. 77.♦ that was portable, set the place on fire. They proceeded, plundering as they went, by Sarzedas, Cortiçada, and Sardoal to Abrantes.

The French stated in their bulletin that they had lost upon their march twenty killed, and from thirty to forty wounded, whereas the rebels had left at least three thousand upon the different fields of battle17. The character of the intrusive government would be imperfectly understood hereafter, if its language as well as its acts were not faithfully recorded. The bulletin which announced this statement to the Portugueze, and to that great portion of the civilized world in which the events of the war were anxiously observed, proceeded to say, “this is the mournful result of a frenzy which nothing can justify, which nothing can excuse, and which obliges us to multiply the number of victims who excite sorrow and compassion, but upon whom a terrible necessity compels us to inflict the strokes of just vengeance. Thus it is that the Portugueze people, blind instruments of the unfeeling calculations of the British cabinet, destroy with their own hands the happiness which we with all our power were endeavouring to make them enjoy! Thus it is that from the bosom of tranquillity, of good order, and of repose, they draw upon themselves the destructive scourge of war, and bring devastation even upon the very fields where God had given abundance! Thus it is that deluded men, ungrateful children as well as guilty citizens, change all the claims which they had to the benevolence and protection of government, for deserved misfortune and wretchedness, ruin their families, carry desolation, flames, and death, into their dwellings, transform flourishing cities into heaps of ashes and vast tombs, and by their fatal union draw upon the whole country the calamities which they provoke, which they deserve, and from which (weak victims as they are) they cannot escape, covering themselves with shame, and completing her destruction. Thus it is that no other resource remains to them than the clemency of those whom they sought to assassinate, ... a clemency which they do not implore in vain, when, acknowledging their crime, they ask pardon from the French, who, incapable of belying their noble character, are ♦Bulletin 4.
Observador Portuguez, 368.♦ always as full of generosity as of valour.” This was the18language of Buonaparte’s governor in Portugal! “To be the victim,” says Mr. Wordsworth, commenting upon these things and words at the time, in that strain of profoundest feeling and philosophy by which his higher compositions are so eminently distinguished, “to be the victim of such bloody-mindedness, is a doleful lot for a nation; and the anguish must have been rendered still more poignant by the scoffs and insults, and by that heinous contempt of the most awful truths, with which the perpetrator of those cruelties has proclaimed them. Merciless ferocity is an evil familiar to our thoughts; but these combinations of malevolence historians have not yet been called upon to record; and writers of fiction, if they have ever ventured to create passions resembling them, have confined, out of reverence for the acknowledged constitution of human nature, those passions to reprobate spirits. Such tyranny is, in the strictest sense, intolerable; not because it aims at the extinction of life, but of every thing which gives life its value, ... of virtue, of reason, of repose in God, or in truth.”

Loison, for the sake of intimidating the country, and thereby preventing the danger of such resistance as he had experienced in Tras os Montes, had sent before him a report that he had been reinforced by 16,000 men from the army of Marshal Bessieres; and this news was officially transmitted to Junot by the Corregedor of Abrantes. At first the French received the tidings with entire belief, and with a joy proportionate to the danger from which they now thought themselves delivered. A comparison of dates and distances occasioned some uncomfortable doubts, and the next day advices came that Loison had arrived at Abrantes with no other force than his own. But even this was of no inconsiderable importance: it relieved them from their anxiety concerning him, it brought the whole of their disposable force within reach and within command, for Kellermann had now arrived with the troops from Alem-Tejo; and Junot determined upon striking a great blow before the English should appear. Kellermann had been sent to Alcobaça, where the troops under General Thomières, who covered Peniche, and those of Margaron (who had received the submission of the people of Thomar, and exacted from them ♦Neves, iv. 64.♦ 20,000 cruzados) were to be under his orders. Loison was now instructed to form a junction with them and take the command; crush the insurgents in that part of the country, march against Coimbra, subdue and chastise that city, thus quenching one great furnace of the insurrection, ♦Thiebault, 146.♦ and return to Lisbon. Before he reached Alcobaça part of these instructions had been fulfilled by Thomières.

That General had advanced with a few hundred men to Obidos, with the intention of relieving the fort at Nazareth; but a reconnoitring party which he sent forward to Barquinha was driven back, four of his scouts were made prisoners and sent on board an English vessel, and a report that a considerable body of English had landed there to assist the insurgents deterred him from proceeding in time. The Portugueze themselves raised this report; in reality they had applied for aid to the English, who, some time before, had taken possession of the Berlengs; a few pieces of cannon were given them, but the garrison was so scanty that no men could be spared; and the short respite which they obtained by deceiving the enemy would have been better employed in providing for escape, than for a feeble and disorderly resistance. Nine days after their triumph Thomières proceeded against them ♦July 14.♦ with 3000 men, in the belief that some English had joined them. One column, under cover of the darkness, got under the ill-served guns of the insurgents before they were perceived; the Portugueze fired in haste without aim and without effect, and then took to flight. A few drunken fellows, who had undertaken to serve the guns, remained by them, with a woman and a few old men, and these were put to death. The town of Nazareth was sacked, and set on fire. The jewels which they took from the church of N. Senhora de Nazareth were estimated at more than £20,000; for of the innumerable and many-named idols of Our Lady in Portugal, this was the most celebrated. It is the very image which, according to the legend, St. Jerome sent from Bethlehem to St. Augustine, and St. Augustine to his monks at the Caulian monastery, from whence, at the destruction of the Goths, it was brought by King Roderick and Romano to this spot. It is said, that during the last century the idol has sometimes been visited by not less than 20,000 devotees on the day of its festival. The enemy then descending to the beach, burnt the lower town, consisting of some 300 houses, of which only four escaped the flames; they burnt also the nets and vessels, upon which the inhabitants, ♦Neves, iv. 84–87.♦ being fishermen, depended for their subsistence: they then plundered Pederneira, and set it on fire, and returned with their booty to Alcobaça19.

Loison having taken the command, proceeded, in pursuance of his instructions, towards Coimbra; but he had hardly got beyond Leiria when he was recalled, in consequence of an alteration in Junot’s plans, which the events in Alem-Tejo had rendered necessary. In the north of that province the insurrection was spreading far and wide, while Beja was in flames; and when Kellermann marched for Lisbon, leaving only a garrison in Elvas, it spread with equal rapidity in the south. Beja had not been destroyed by the fire; houses with little furniture and little wood-work are not easily burnt. The Corregedor returned there from Ayamonte with a supply of arms; a Junta was formed, which assumed great authority, and acted with unusual promptitude and vigour. Men were raised, the regular taxes claimed in the name of the rightful government, and a detachment under Sebastiam Martins Mestre, who had taken an active part in Algarve, was sent to guard against the French at Setubal, by forming a cordon to guard the river Sadam. Having raised a few men for this purpose in the districts of Grandolo and Santiago de Cacem, he proceeded to Alcacer do Sal, established a Junta there, and brought four iron guns from Melides for the defence of this town, a point of great importance to the province while there was an enemy’s force ♦Neves, iv. 92–95.♦ at Setubal: Setubal and Palmella were the only places which they now occupied on that side the Tagus.

Lobo meantime, leaving Moretti in Jurumenha, formed Juntas at Borba and at Villa-Viçosa, where he placed the palace and park upon their former establishment. These Juntas readily acknowledged the supremacy of Estremoz, where one was at this time formed, which endeavoured to make its authority recognized as supreme in Alem-Tejo, and was supported in its pretensions by the Spanish government at Badajoz. The claim was admitted by all the smaller places in the surrounding country, but not at Beja nor at Campo-Mayor, in which latter place considerable activity had been displayed. Instead of doubling the soldiers’ pay, which had been rashly done at Porto, the officers who assembled at Campo-Mayor resolved that those whose means rendered it possible should serve for half-pay, or without pay; they raised loans and donatives, levied a third of the rent upon the entailed estates, and took from the property of the church contributions in kind; and having thus acquired considerable funds, they undertook, and for a time sustained, the improvident expense of paying their Spanish allies. The ready obedience shown to its authority, when these imposts were demanded, and the power which it derived from the distribution of the money thus raised, gave the Junta of Campo-Mayor exaggerated notions of its own importance, and when tidings arrived that a Junta of higher or equal pretensions had been formed at Estremoz, that of Campo-Mayor sent to propose a reciprocal alliance, as if one sovereign power were treating with another. But in reply a paper in the form of a decree was sent, declaring, that the primacy of the Junta of Estremoz should be acknowledged by all others in the province, because of the position of that place, and because it was a fortified town; that the members of that Junta should have the title of Highness, because they represented the august person of the Sovereign; and that there should be a subordinate Junta in every town, and one deputy from each sent as a representative to assist in the Supreme Junta of Estremoz. Obedience ♦Neves, iv. 92–116.♦ to this decree was required from Campo-Mayor, till a Supreme Junta should be established, as it was about to be, at Evora, whither head-quarters were to be removed.

The transfer of the supreme provincial authority to Evora was concerted by Moretti and by the Portugueze General Francisco de Paula Leite, who had refused to concur in the first hasty tumult at Villa-Viçosa, but who now, when the insurrection had become general throughout the province, felt himself bound to resume the charge with which the Prince Regent had intrusted ♦A Supreme Junta formed at Evora.♦ him. The object of this transfer seems to have been a persuasion, that as Evora was the most populous city in the province, and the seat of the Archbishop, its authority would at once be acknowledged, and all disputes for precedency, which might otherwise prove so prejudicial to the common cause, would thus be terminated. This object was effected: in other respects the measure was incautious, and contrary to the judgement of the most judicious inhabitants; for when Moretti had by letter proposed it to them, they replied, that the richest city of Alem-Tejo, lying as it did so near Elvas, ought not to declare itself, unless it could reckon upon a force of 8000 men for its defence. It was not that the will was wanting; this General Leite knew; and without farther demur, he and Moretti and Lobo, with ♦July 20.♦ 200 foot soldiers and 100 cavalry, entered Evora. They were received with enthusiasm; a Junta was formed under two presidents, Leite being one, and the Archbishop, D. Fr. Manoel do Cenaculo Villas Boas, the other, a man then in extreme old age, distinguished for his erudition and his exemplary virtues. Circular letters were dispatched to all the other Juntas in Alem-Tejo, requiring a recognition, and the troops which had been embodied were ordered to Evora. Before the new machine of government could be ♦Neves, iv. 118–126.♦ put in motion, Loison had crossed the Tagus on his way to destroy it.

Notwithstanding the contempt with which the French government, and its agents in Portugal, regarded the Portugueze, Junot knew how easily brave men might be made good soldiers, under due instruction; and he seems to have apprehended, that better officers would be found to train and command them than either Portugal or Spain at that time could supply. He apprehended that the force in Alem-Tejo would soon become strong enough not only to seize Setubal, but to occupy the heights of Almada, and render useless all the batteries on the left bank of the Tagus; while at the same time another division of their troops, acting higher up the river, would co-operate with the insurgents from Coimbra. To prevent this combination, he resolved to attack the weaker and nearer body first. For this purpose Loison had been recalled from Leiria, Solignac and Margaron were placed under his command, with 5000 men, and it was thought, that after quelling the insurgents in Alem-Tejo, he might send a supply of food to Lisbon, especially of meat, ... victual Elvas, strike a blow against the Spaniards at Badajoz, and then, recrossing the Tagus at Santarem or Abrantes, proceed against Coimbra; operations from which, at any time, in case of need, he could speedily turn back to join the main body of the French at Lisbon. There was, in fact, so little combination ♦Thiebault, 156.♦ among the Portugueze at this time, that the insurgents in the northern provinces, and those in Alem-Tejo, knew nothing whatever of each other’s proceedings, and the first news which reached the latter of the insurrection at Porto was communicated to the people of Sines by an English frigate.

The first tidings of Loison’s movement which reached Evora were, that he had crossed the Tagus, and was in full march towards that city. No time was lost in transmitting this from Aldea Gallega; any previous intelligence had been rendered impossible by the secrecy with which the French prepared their measures. Moretti applied for reinforcements to Badajoz; orders were sent for the forces from Campo-Mayor and the other places in the north of the province, to hasten to Evora, and General Galluzo was requested to occupy the posts which would be left unprotected by their absence; but no assistance came from Badajoz, and Galluzo, instead of acting as was expected, forbade the Portugueze to leave Campo-Mayor. An advanced guard of 700 men had been stationed at Montemor o Novo, twenty miles from the city. General Leite ordered 400 men to reinforce this post. They met the corps which they had been sent to support in full retreat, the commander, not knowing that succours were on the way to him, having thought himself too weak to await20 an attack. Instead of deriving confidence or hope from the meeting, they hastened to Evora, and entered the city in alarm, exclaiming that they were betrayed. That cry, in such miserable times, is sure to be eagerly taken up. The people had been assured that the French who were coming against them did not exceed 800 men; this had been said either in a most erroneous policy, to keep up the spirits of the inhabitants, by deceiving them as to the extent of their danger; or more probably in good faith, all ranks being credulous in believing what they wished; the natural effect, when the truth now became known, was to give the populace apparent ground for believing the vague charge of treason; their tumultuous movements were with difficulty suppressed, and the Corregedor found himself so marked an object of suspicion, that, in the hope of securing himself, he secretly left the city. Order being in some degree restored, piquets of cavalry and patroles were stationed for the night. In the morning a company of Miquelets arrived from Villa-Viçosa (that term having been borrowed from the Catalans), and the legion of Foreign Volunteers in the Spanish service, under Sargento-Mor D. Antonio Maria Gallego: both came by forced marches; the latter had left Jurumenha the preceding evening, a distance of four-and-forty miles. With these succours the whole force collected then amounted to 1770 ♦Neves, iv. 126–131.♦ men, of whom about half were regular troops, the others being volunteers newly-raised and undisciplined.

The city of Evora is so ancient, that fabulous history has laid its foundation more than two thousand years before the Christian era. Certain it is, that it was a flourishing city in the days of Viriatus. Sertorius chose it for his residence; some of the buildings with which he adorned it are still remaining, and the inhabitants are still supplied with water by his aqueduct, which Joam III. repaired. Cæsar made it a municipal town, and from him it was called Liberalitas Julia. Under the Visigoths it continued to flourish, and Sisebut coined money there. It was recovered from the Moors in the reign of Affonso Henriquez, the first king, by the romantic enterprise of Giraldo the Fearless, then an outlaw. King Fernando rebuilt or repaired its walls; and Cardinal Henrique founded an university and established an Inquisition there; but the university had been suppressed. In the war of the Restoration it was besieged and taken by D. Juan de Austria, but it was soon recovered, and the Spaniards in retreating toward their own frontier suffered one of the most signal defeats which they sustained during that long contest. Its population, once amounting to 40,000, had declined to about half that number at the beginning of the eighteenth century; since which time it had varied so little, that there had neither been any apparent diminution nor increase. The city was populous enough to have defeated the force which was now marching against it, if it had been prepared for a Zaragozan defence. There is courage enough for any thing in the Portugueze character; but that individual and commanding genius was wanting by which alone the inhabitants of a large city can be made to act steadily with one will, and thereby capable of heroic valour. They prepared for a military defence in the field, which was exposing peasantry and half-disciplined troops to certain defeat.

About seven in the morning the vedettes announced that the enemy were in sight, and the Portugueze took their ground in better order than might have been expected, considering the alarm and insubordination which had lately prevailed, and the real inequality of the contest. Their right rested upon the Mill of S. Bento, about a mile from the city, the centre was posted upon the hill of S. Caetano, the left rested upon the Quinta dos Cucos. Having reconnoitred this position, Loison directed General Solignac to attack the enemy’s right, and Margaron to break the centre with one part of his brigade, while the other attacked the left; they were to unite behind the city, occupy the roads to Arrayolos and Estremoz, and thus cut off the fugitives from all retreat, the cavalry being ready for pursuit upon the right and left, ... so sure and easy a victory was anticipated. The action began about eleven. The Portugueze had four four-pounders in their right wing, one three-pounder in the centre, and two howitzers in the left; there was no want of artillerymen, and if the other troops had understood their business and performed their duty like these, the event might have been doubtful; but the cavalry could not by any exertion of their commanders be brought into action; they hung back and retired, while the infantry stood their ground. When the latter were defeated, instead of flying, as the French had expected, in all directions, they retreated into the town. The defeat, however, was thought so irreparable, that General Leite and his staff made the best of their way to Olivença, and Moretti hastened to the Archbishop, to bid him provide for saving his own life without delay, in the imminent danger which threatened it. The venerable prelate calmly told him in reply, to think of preserving his own, which might yet be useful and honourable to his country; for himself, he said, the remainder of his days, few and useless as they needs must be, did not deserve a thought. The city had five gates, three of which had been walled up; the breaches which time had made in the walls had also been closed, but the walls were old and ruinous, and the French forced their entrance at many points, and then most of the defendants took flight: ... Moretti and the ♦Neves, iv. 132–138.
Observador Portuguez 382–387.
Thiebault, 158–165.♦ Spaniards to Jurumenha, the company from Villa-Viçosa to their own town; others dispersed; time was gained for them by the resistance which Lieutenant-Colonel Franco made at one of the gates, and the brave conduct of the foreign volunteers under21Gallego, who fought desperately in the streets, and suffered great loss.

The horrors which ensued will be remembered in Portugal while any record of past times shall be preserved there. Though even a military pretext was wanting for delivering up the city and the inhabitants to the will of the soldiers, the whole proceedings of the Portugueze and their Spanish allies having been those of regular war, to them it was abandoned. A resolution had been taken in the Junta that those persons who feared the event should provide for their safety by retiring in time; ... from some unexplained cause, most probably from a well-grounded fear that any persons who attempted to remove would be regarded as traitors by the furious populace, few or none availed themselves of this ominous warning; when it was too late great numbers got over the walls, but the French horse surrounded the city, and showed as little mercy to the fugitives without, as the infantry did to the ♦Inhumanity of the conquerors.♦ inhabitants within. The convents and churches afforded no asylum; not those who had borne arms alone, but children and old men, were massacred, and women were violated and slaughtered. The lowest computation makes the number of these victims amount to 900. The clergy and religioners were especial objects of vengeance: they were literally hunted from their hiding-places like wild beasts: eight-and-thirty were butchered; among them was the Bishop of Maranham. The Archbishop’s intercession with Loison obtained only a promise that a stop should be put to these enormities; no attempt was made to restrain them that day, nor during the whole night, nor till eleven on the following morning, and then by an order of the General, what he called the lawful pillage was declared to be at an end; but he contented himself with ♦Observador Portuguez, 387.
Neves, iv. 138–142.♦ issuing the order; no means for enforcing it were taken, and the soldiers continued their abominations till every place had been ransacked, and their worst passions had been22 glutted.

According to the statement of the French, 8000 of the allies were killed or wounded in the battle and in the capture of the city, and 4000 made prisoners, the latter being chiefly peasants. Their own loss they stated at 90 killed, and more than 200 wounded. The intimidation of that part of the country which was within the immediate reach of the victors was such as might be expected after such a blow. At the first rumour that reached Estremoz, the populace became ungovernable; their first impulse was that of rage, which would willingly have found any victim on which to sate itself. An officer had just arrived from Portalegre; they fancied that he had prevented the coming of some regular troops, which they had looked for; an attempt was made to murder him in the hall of the Junta, whither he fled for refuge, and in the presence of the members; and there was no other means of saving him but by concealing him from the ferocious rabble. Presently a dispatch came, announcing the total defeat at Evora, the capture of the city, and the loss of every thing. Such was the temper of the people, that it was a service of the utmost danger to communicate this news; and the member who attempted to read the dispatch to them from a varanda found his life in danger, and drew back. But it was not possible either to conceal the fatal intelligence or to delay it. Estremoz would assuredly be the next object of the enemy, and Evora was only six leagues distant; if they had hitherto dreamt of defending the town, the fate of Evora was now before their eyes: they knew that even the unreasonable multitude would feel this near and imminent danger, though they would not endure to be told of it; and the members of the Junta determined to take measures for immediate submission. The melancholy manner with which they passed through the crowd confirmed the worst apprehensions of the people; and as they went along they spake each to those persons on whose prudence he could rely, telling them what had occurred, and what must now of necessity be done; thus they thought the news might pass from one to another with the least danger, and every one take such measures for himself as he deemed best. There was a cry of treason at first, when it was seen that of the three guns which had been mounted to defend the walls, one was cast into the ditch, and the other two sent off to Olivença. The Juiz de Fora became the object of suspicion, and could he have been found at that moment, would have been murdered; ... so fickle is popular feeling, that this very man was presently sought for as the ♦Neves, iv. 145–149.♦ fittest person to give counsel. A meeting was held, and a messenger deputed to solicit Loison’s clemency.

Loison received the messenger well, thinking that severity enough had been shown to secure the submission of Alem-Tejo. He constituted a provisional government in Evora, at the head of which the Archbishop was compelled to act, and he set off for Estremoz on the fourth day ♦August 2.♦ after the action. He raised no contributions there, permitted no pillage, and paid for every thing which the troops consumed; he also set at liberty some of his prisoners. But when he proceeded to Elvas he ordered two Swiss prisoners to be shot, condemned four others to work in chains for five years, threw the Spanish commander Gallego into a dungeon, and condemned the Portugueze Lieut.-Colonel Franco to death, for bearing arms against the French. The Bishop of Elvas interceded earnestly for this officer, and finding all intercession vain, concluded by saying, if this favour were refused him, he had still one to ask, which was, that the General would sentence him to the same fate, seeing life would be hateful to him if he could not save his countryman under such circumstances. Loison was ♦1808.
August. Neves, iv. 149, 156–158.
Observador Portuguez, 397.♦ touched at this, and revoked the order for execution. That General has left a name in Portugal which will be execrated to the latest generations; here, however, is an instance which evinces some sense of generosity, as if his heart had not been naturally bad; but it was the tendency of the Revolution, and of Buonaparte’s system, to make men wicked whom it did not find so.

The less portable part of the plunder of Evora was sold at Elvas, a sort of fair being held for the purpose; and many persons purchased church vessels for the sake of restoring them to the altars from whence they had been taken. Loison made a movement upon Badajoz, and believing that the troops in that city had been called off to the Spanish armies, and that his recent success had occasioned great consternation there, endeavoured to introduce officers under a flag of truce, for the purpose of observing the state of the place; but they were refused admittance. The commandant of Elvas, Colonel Miquel, had made himself odious in that city, especially for executing a German as an emissary of the Spaniards, the main proof against him being some thirty pieces of gold which were found in his possession. Some fugitives from Elvas, with a few comrades from Campo-Mayor, waylaid this commandant as he went from the city, intending to sleep in Fort La Lippe, for greater security; they fired upon him and an officer in his company; the officer escaped, but Miquel lay all night upon the ground, the soldiers not venturing to seek him in the darkness, and being removed to Lisbon, he died there of his wounds. ♦He is recalled to the neighbourhood of Lisbon.♦ This was some days before Loison’s arrival. That General appointed M. Girod de Novilard of the engineers to succeed him, and marched upon Portalegre. The Spaniards had already retired from thence, and the Bishop, with most of the principal persons, withdrew also in time. The city was plundered, and a contribution of 100,000 cruzados demanded from the district; about 40,000 were raised, and six persons were carried away as pledges for the remainder. He then ♦Neves, iv. 156–164.
Thiebault, 168–172.♦ marched for Abrantes, having received dispatches which ordered him to hasten his return toward Lisbon by that route, it being now certain that an expedition from England was off the coast.

Those provinces, meantime, which had not felt the vengeance of the French were in a state of anarchy. The temporary dissolution of order, even though no revolutionary opinions were at work, produced evils little less alarming than the actual presence of the enemy. The cry of an inflamed multitude is always for blood. The Intendant of Police at Porto addressed a manly proclamation to the people, reproving them for eagerly demanding the death of a few suspected persons, who were already in the hands of justice, and from whom they had nothing to fear. In the processes against them, he said, there ought to be nothing precipitate, nothing that could be accused of inhumanity; he must see that all the proofs of their guilt were brought forward, that his own honour might suffer no stain. If they were dissatisfied with him, he would gladly lay down an office which he had never solicited; more willingly would he accompany his son to the army, than occupy a station for which, even in quiet times, he should have thought himself unqualified; and though life was dear to him, he would rather lose it in the service of his country than in a tumult. But mobs are as seldom capable of reason as of compunction. It was necessary, for the sake of preventing wider evils, to accelerate the processes, and to promise blood. No person, however innocent of any connexion with the French, however distinguished for his exertions against them, was safe from suspicion; no place, however sacred, was secure from search. Upon a report that a suspected person had concealed himself in a burial-vault, it was proposed to open all the vaults in the church till he was found. Upon another rumour that he was concealed in a nun’s habit in a Carmelite nunnery, the mob proposed to break in and examine the sisterhood. Raymundo exerted himself to prevent this scandalous outrage. Some one charged him also with treason, and his life was for a moment in danger. But Raymundo, who knew how little in such times any popularity, however deserved, was to be trusted, had provided himself with a crucifix in case of need. He displayed ♦Neves, iv. 209–224.♦ it in this emergency, and by an exclamation according with the display, induced the rabble to join with him in a shout of loyalty, and succeeded in dissuading them from entering the convent.