Note 449 — SECTION XXI: CHAPTER III

This seems proved by the ‘Table of Damages committed by the French Army in 1810-11,’ published by the Coimbra authorities in 1812, which gives the number of houses burnt and persons killed in each rural-deanery (arcyprestado) of the bishopric of Coimbra. Omitting the rural-deaneries south of the Mondego, where the damages were mainly done during the retreat of the French in March 1811, and taking only those north of the river, where no hostile column appeared after October 1810—the district having been protected by Trant and Wilson during Masséna’s return march,—we find the following statistics:—

Deanery of Mortagoa 108 murders 19 villages and 47 isolated houses burnt.

Deanery of Oliveirinha 102 murders 100 houses burnt.

Deanery of Arazede 99 murders 124 houses burnt.

Deanery of Coimbra city 14 murders 7 houses burnt.

The figures for the deaneries south of Mondego (Soure, Arganil, Redinha, Miranda do Corvo, Sinde, Cea) are enormously higher. See Soriano da Luz, iii. 203.