Even in this early stage of popular commotions a military usurpation is said to have been projected by Luiz Candido Cordeiro Pinheiro Furtado, in conjunction with Joam Manoel de Mariz. Both were esteemed good officers; the latter was a member of the Junta, the former offended that he had not been nominated, and still more so that another person had been made commander-in-chief. They designed to erect a military Junta under their own direction, and they proposed to raise a corps under the name of the Loyal Porto Legion, of which Candido was to have the command; the officers were named, the uniform designed, and worn by Candido with some of his associates; he took to himself also a guard of honour, which, from a small beginning, was gradually increased, till at length the armed attendance with which he always appeared in public was such as to excite reasonable apprehension. The city was in this state when Bernardim Freire arrived from Coimbra to take upon himself the command. He was received with great joy by the people; but Luiz Candido was evidently displeased at his coming, and Bernardim was soon apprised that a conspiracy was formed against him and against the Junta. He was careful therefore to keep Candido and Mariz as much about his person as possible. Among other precautions for preserving tranquillity in the city, he ordered the guns to be unloaded; persons were not wanting to represent this as being done with a treacherous design; and a priest, notorious for irregularities, at the head of a mob seized his bridle, and exclaimed that the people would have no such General. A dangerous stir had already begun, when some men of better mind came resolutely forward; one of them felled the priest to the ground; Bernardim spake to the crowd in a manner which conciliated their good ♦Neves, iv. 225–229.♦ will, the priest was thrown into prison, and the day was closed with an illumination in honour of the General.

Upon the arrival of D. Miguel Pereira Forjaz to assist his brother-in-law Bernardim, an attempt was made to establish a military Junta, in aid of the provisional government, and as a check upon the designs of Candido and his associates. This, however, proved ineffectual; and they proceeded so rapidly in organizing an armed party, that it was deemed necessary to secure Candido and Mariz without delay, lest the city should become a scene of bloodshed. They were accordingly summoned to a consultation at the Bishop’s palace, and there arrested. Their escort, which, as usual, had accompanied them, began to express displeasure at this; and three of the men entering the palace, demanded insolently that their commander should be delivered to them; if he were innocent, they said, they would set him at liberty; if he were a traitor, they would blow him to pieces from the mouth of a cannon. These men were secured, and Raymundo, with some other officers to whom this service had been assigned, disarmed their fellows. The agitation, however, continued the whole day, though this was at an early hour; and it was not till after midnight that the prisoners could be conducted without danger of a rescue to the jail. They were immediately proceeded against according to the forms of Portugueze law, and the evidence against them appeared so conclusive, that Candido was condemned to death, and Mariz to be degraded to Angola. The gallows accordingly was erected, Candido was led into the oratory to perform the last religious duties, the brethren of the Misericordia went out to attend the execution, and the crowd collected to witness it; when, after a while, it was announced that the two prisoners were removed to the fortress of S. Joam da Foz, to be embarked for Brazil, and there placed at the Prince’s disposal. So fickle is a multitude, that the crowd, which a few days before had almost mutinied because of the arrest of this man, became riotous now because he was not put to death. They were pacified by the personal exertions of the Bishop and two of his dignitaries, and by an official notification that the Junta having pronounced sentence of death against Luiz Candido upon full proof of a most ♦Neves, iv. 229–237.♦ atrocious crime, had thought it proper to lay the proceedings before the Prince, and remit the criminal to his mercy.

The populace at Porto were kept in some degree of submission by the vigorous measures of the provisional government, the respect which was paid to the episcopal character, and by the influence which men of property possess in a ♦Disturbances at Braganza.♦ flourishing commercial town. In remoter parts the local authorities were weaker, and tumults of the most disgraceful nature occurred. After the provinces beyond the mountains and between the rivers had been delivered from their first danger, by the failure of Loison’s expedition from Almeida, they were more seriously alarmed from the side of Castille and Leon; and indeed had it not been for the success of the Spaniards in Andalusia, Junot would probably have received powerful reinforcements from Marshal Bessieres after the battle of Rio Seco. The first disturbances arose at Braganza upon a rumour that this army was approaching. The people gathered together tumultuously, and when they learnt that no enemies were near, directed their vengeance against all whom they suspected; and in such times it is in the power of any wretch, however vile and worthless, to throw suspicion upon the object of his envy or resentment. The Junta, in hope of appeasing them, convoked a popular meeting, ... the readiest means of showing them their power, and teaching them how to abuse it; and the result was, that most of the members of the Junta were turned out, and such as the mob thought fit elected in their places. A shoemaker, and the keeper of a wine-house, who, because he was maimed in one arm, called himself o Loison Portuguez, were the kings of the rabble. The latter took upon himself the office of general, and was actually obeyed by the troops. Their chief vengeance was directed against the New-Christians, for Pombal’s law (the redeeming act of that tyrannical statesman) had not even in half a century produced a feeling of toleration in the populace. Any accusation, however preposterous, was believed; they gutted the house of one man, and threw him into prison, upon a charge of witchcraft, for having, it was said, made an image of General Sepulveda, and placed it over the fire in a frying-pan. When the city had thus continued three days under mob-rule, the magistrates took courage from despair, arrested the ruling demagogues during the night, and sent them prisoners to Chaves. Troops came from Villa Real, where Sepulveda at that time was, and tranquillity was restored; but it was necessary to gratify the people by making useless preparations for defence; and the popular opinion was, that nothing but what was right had been done, that the persons whose property had been destroyed, and their lives endangered, ♦Neves, iv. 238–245.♦ deserved the usage they had suffered, and that the magistrates were bribed by the Jews.

More serious disturbances occurred at Villa Nova de Foz-Coa, arising from the same popular intolerance and love of rapine. That town, one of the most flourishing in Beira Alta, owed in great part its prosperity to its position at the confluence of the Coa with the Douro. A considerable trade in silk, and in rice, salt-fish, and other articles of foreign importation, brought thither by the river from Porto, was carried on with the adjacent country, and with the Spaniards of the border. This trade was mostly in the hands of persons who, because they were of Jewish extraction, were believed by the vulgar to be still attached in heart to the Mosaic law. The cry of Down with the French, was coupled here with Kill the Jews; ... their houses were attacked, their goods plundered, their persons abused, their lives threatened and seriously endangered, and more than twenty of the wealthiest families in that country reduced to utter ruin by the complete destruction of their property. Some of these unhappy persons effected their escape to Moncorvo; and, because they were protected there, and the Junta of that town endeavoured to restore order at Villa Nova, hostilities ensued between the two townships. The evil spread; and if the Junta of Moncorvo had not arrested during the night some movers of sedition in their town, and seized also some of the ringleaders from Villa Nova, who had crossed the Douro, the province of Tras os Montes would soon have suffered all the evils of civil war, exasperated by a spirit of fanaticism, such as existed in the worst ages of superstition and ignorance. The New-Christians were accused of assisting the French with money, blaspheming God, cursing the Prince, ♦Neves, iv. 245–263.♦ defiling the crucifix, and finally, of Manicheism! When a judicial inquiry was afterwards instituted concerning the riots, depositions to this effect were made against them upon oath!

The troubles at Viseu, though less destructive in their consequences, assumed a more revolutionary character. The mob insisted upon having a Juiz do Povo, and elected a demagogue to that office, which had not before been known among them, which in quiet times is useless, and in turbulent ones dangerous. Florencio José Correa de Mello, the general of the province, and the Bishop, a good but timid man, instead of refusing to acknowledge this tumultuous and illegal appointment, ratified it by administering an oath to the chosen favourite of the mob, who from that moment became a person of more authority than either Bishop or General. The latter offended the military by refusing to double their pay, as had been so imprudently done at Porto; on this account they became mutinous, and a riot broke out in the city upon an absurd report that Loison was come to visit him. The demagogue, who was lord of the day, obtained from the intimidated Bishop an order for his arrest, his house was sacked, and he and the Juiz de Fora were thrown into prison amid the insults of a multitude who knew not what they did. A meeting of the people was then held, at which the magistrates were deposed, new ones ♦Neves, iv. 263–273.♦ appointed, and the Bishop was declared Generalissimo, with Silveira, who happened to be passing through Viseu, for his adjutant-general.

Proceedings equally outrageous, and of more perilous tendency, occurred in the town of Arcos de Val de Vez. The bells in that town and in the surrounding villages rung the alarm upon a report that 20,000 French had landed at Espozende, and were entering Ponte de Lima. ♦Riotous proceedings at Arcos de Val de Vez.♦ A disorderly multitude collected, and set out in search of the enemy; their courage was easily roused, and soon spent; for when they had ascertained that the report was without foundation, and were returning home, they learnt that a body of men from the north were in possession of their town, and instead of hastening thither to protect their property, and restore order, they took to flight, each seeking a place of refuge where he thought best. The people in fear of whom they fled were peasantry, who, like themselves, had set out to fight the French, in utter disorder; hurrying along in scattered parties, some with a soldier for their leader, some with an abbot, provided neither with ammunition nor bread, increasing their numbers as they went along, and expecting that the magistrates were to issue orders for supplying them wherever they came. The Vereadores exerted themselves to feed this rabble, and be rid of them; the Juiz de Fora, dismayed at such a visitation, and in despair of satisfying such visitors, absconded, and his disappearance was imputed to a consciousness of treason. While they were seeking him every where, an unlucky messenger entered the town with dispatches from the Corregedor of Barcellos, and as he happened to have lost an arm, the senseless multitude took him for Loison; and even when they had examined his papers were still so possessed with this preposterous notion, that they placed him in confinement. Another messenger with letters fell into their hands, and was seized in like manner; and they were demanding a warrant for the apprehension of the Juiz de Fora, when he was brought in from the country, by an inhuman rabble, in a condition which would have excited pity in the poor unthinking wretches themselves who were his tormentors, if they had beheld him separately, and if men did not seem to be divested of all compassion when they act in mobs. With great difficulty they were prevailed upon not to finish killing him, but to lodge him in prison. Presently the thirst for blood returned, and they ordered a young priest to go and prepare him for death. The priest objected that he had not yet received that order in the church which empowered him to officiate in the sacrament of confession; upon which they replied, that they ♦Neves, iv. 279–287.♦ conferred the order. The young man then entered the prison, and with great presence of mind advised the Juiz to feign himself dead; then going out, he asked the mob, with a tone of anger, why they had sent him to confess a man whom they had already killed? They made no farther inquiry; ... the bells tolled for his death, and by this artifice his life was saved.

The rabble now took upon themselves to reform the state; they began by turning out the members of the Camara, throwing the chairs out of window, demolishing the seat of the Judge, and burning the public papers. They displaced officers, deposed two or three abbots, and nominated a Capuchin friar to be their General. They appointed a Junta, and made laws whereby they abolished the recruiting system, fixed the prices of milk, meat, and wine, prohibited the exportation of bread, forbade all processes for debt, suspended all law-suits during the war, abolished the fees of the parochial priests, and were hardly persuaded to spare the tithes, and, finally, exempted all tenants from payment of manorial rights; and these laws were enacted not for their own district alone, but for the whole kingdom. This was the only indication of a revolutionary disposition which manifested itself during these unhappy times. By good hap the persons whom they had chosen to form their Junta were prudent and well-intentioned men, who temporized with them, and accepted an illegal authority in the hope of restoring order. The anniversary of a religious procession occurred at this time, and they took advantage of it. The Host was borne through the streets, a sermon adapted to the circumstances was preached with good effect, and the reformers, tired of their work, and willing to secure what they had gained by pillage, broke up, and returned to their own part of the country. The people of the land then enrolled themselves, established patroles, and subjected themselves to ♦Neves, iv. 287–293.♦ good discipline; so that when a second visit of the same kind was attempted, they seized the ringleaders. Troops at length came from Viana, and many of the criminals were apprehended and sent prisoners to Porto.

The authority of the provisional government at Porto would not have been generally acknowledged, and with so little reluctance, throughout these provinces, if that city had not been looked to as a capital, because of its great commercial importance. But so little intercourse was there between the north and south of Portugal, that both had been in insurrection against the French more than a month, before it was known in one part that any resistance had commenced in the other. Vague reports indeed were in circulation, which could be traced to no authentic source; but no intelligence upon which any reliance was placed arrived in Alem-Tejo, till a student from Coimbra, who had enlisted in the academic corps, came to Campo-Mayor on his own concerns, and gave a clear account of the transactions in which ♦July 18.♦ he had borne a part. The news was immediately dispatched to Badajoz; tidings of the battle of Baylen reached that city at the same time; and messengers, accredited by the governors of Badajoz and Campo-Mayor, were sent to Coimbra, to communicate the joyful accounts from Spain. They were received not merely with transports of exultation, but with as much surprise, says the Portugueze historian of these events, as if they had come from another world, ... in such utter ignorance were the people of Beira of what had been going on in Alem-Tejo, though the two provinces, along an extent of some forty miles, are only separated by the Tagus. The messengers on their part with equal surprise learnt that the legitimate government was restored in Tras os Montes, and Entre Douro e Minho. Being thus referred to Porto, thither they proceeded; and returned from thence with letters from the Bishop and the General to the Archbishop of Evora and the Junta of Badajoz, recommending the establishment of a provisional government under the Archbishop, similar to that at Porto, that the same system might be pursued in the south as in the north. When they reached Coimbra on their way, they learnt the fate of Evora, that news having been circulated by the French without delay. Proceeding on their journey, when they drew near Castello-Branco they found the roads full of fugitives, removing with their children and families, and such goods as they could carry away, in fear of Loison, so far had the terror of his name extended. It was not then known that he had marched toward Abrantes; and the messengers, to avoid the ♦Neves, iv. 197–205.♦ danger of falling in with his troops, entered Spain by Zebreira, and so proceeded to Badajoz and Campo-Mayor.

Things were in this state when a British expedition arrived upon the north coast. General Leite was collecting at Olivença the troops which had escaped from Evora. The Conde de Castro-Marim was raising and embodying forces in Algarve; and the Junta of Porto were hardly less perplexed by the perilous spirit of insubordination which prevailed both in the city and in the remoter parts of the provinces, than by the deficiency of money and means for the men who willingly came forward to serve against the invaders. There were numbers, and courage, and good will, but every thing else was wanting.