Chapter II

SECRET TREATY OF FONTAINEBLEAU. INVASION OF PORTUGAL. REMOVAL OF THE ROYAL FAMILY TO BRAZIL. STATE OF PORTUGAL UNDER THE FRENCH USURPATION.

♦1807. Conjectures concerning the projects of Buonaparte.♦

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.

♦Rise of D. Manuel de Godoy.♦

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.

♦Godoy created a prince for making peace with France.♦

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.

♦The court of Spain not willingly subservient to France.♦

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.

♦The Prince of Asturias inimical to Godoy.♦

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.

♦Unpopularity of Godoy.♦

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.

♦11 Oct. The prince applies secretly to Buonaparte.♦

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.

♦Spanish troops sent to the North of Europe, and to Tuscany.♦

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.

♦August. Portugal required to act against England.♦

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.

♦Preparation for occupying Portugal.♦

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.

♦Secret treaty of Fontainebleau.♦

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.

♦November. A Russian squadron enters the Tagus.♦

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.

♦Buonaparte endeavours to seize the royal family.♦

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.

♦Neves, i. 160.♦

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.

♦Conduct at Abrantes.♦

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.

♦Representation of the British embassador.♦

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.

♦The Prince determines upon removing to Brazil.♦

The Prince’s determination was anticipated at Abrantes before it was known, and perhaps before he himself had decided how to act. Rumours were current there that he had already embarked part of the royal family, that many fidalgos had gone on board to accompany the court in its removal, and that the army which had bombarded and taken Copenhagen was on board the British squadron. These reports made Junot fear that the prey would escape him; and he was the more uneasy, because at a moment when every thing depended upon celerity, his march was impeded. There was the Zezere to cross, a river which in former wars had been considered as protecting Lisbon on this side, ... its depth and rapidity, and the height of its banks rendering it easy to defend the passage. A bridge of boats had been constructed at Punhete in the campaign of 1801, and afterwards broken up. Every exertion was now made to re-establish it; and in the meantime Junot sent off a courier with a confidential dispatch to the minister of war and foreign affairs, Antonio de Araujo de Azevedo, framed for the purpose of being communicated to the Prince. Intrigue and protestations, however, would no longer avail; the entrance of the French was an act of such unequivocal outrage, that its object could not be doubted, and the Prince prepared immediately for his removal. Europe had never yet beheld one of its princes compelled to seek an asylum in his colonies; such an intention had once been formed by the Dutch, but it was reserved for Portugal to set the first example in modern history.

♦He refuses to let the people and the English fleet defend the city.♦

Had there been a previous struggle, like that of the democratic cantons in Switzerland, or of the Tyrolese, such a termination would have been not less glorious than the most signal success. Preceded as it had been by long misgovernment, and all the concessions and vacillations of conscious imbecility, still it is among the most impressive as well as most memorable events in the annals of a kingdom fertile beyond all others in circumstances of splendid and of tragic story. The Prince had uniformly declared that to this measure he would resort, if the French entered Portugal; but he had not expected to be driven to it, and was not prepared for it. ♦Neves, i. 171.♦ So completely indeed had he relied upon the assurance of the French legation, and of Dom Lourenço de Lima, that he had publicly assured the people all had now been settled, and there no longer existed any cause of apprehension from France. The dismay and astonishment of the Lisbonians, therefore, may well be conceived, when a few days only after this declaration, they learnt that the French were at Abrantes, and saw the court making ready for immediate flight. The hurry and disorder of Junot’s march was not unknown; his artillery had been damaged, having been dragged by oxen and peasantry over mountainous roads, a great number of his horses had died upon the way overworked, and the men themselves had been marched so rapidly and fed so ill, that a large proportion of them were more fit for the hospital than for active service. The greater part of the Portugueze army was near the capital, and wretched as the state was to which it had fallen, neither the will nor the courage of the men was doubted. The English in the fleet, with a right English feeling, were longing to be let loose against the enemy: Sir Sidney offered to bring his ships abreast of the city, and there, seconded by the indignant populace, dispute every inch of ground with the invader: “Surely,” he said, “Lisbon was as defensible as Buenos Ayres!” Well might he thus feel and express himself who had defended Acre; and certain it is that Junot and all his foremost troops might have been put to the death which they had already merited at the hands of the Portugueze, if the Prince had given the word. ♦Manifesto of the court of Portugal.♦ But such an act of vengeance, just as it would have been, would have been advantageous to Buonaparte, by giving him a colourable pretext for treating Portugal as a conquered country: this the Prince knew; and it was in reliance upon his gentle and conscientious character, that Junot advanced in a manner which would else have appeared like the rashness of a madman.

♦Embarkation of the royal family.♦

The royal family had for some time past resided at Mafra; as soon as the emigration had been determined, they removed to Queluz, where they might be nearer the Tagus, and less exposed to any sudden attempt of the enemy. The Portugueze navy was ill equipped for sea; no care had been taken to keep it victualled, and it was now found that many of the water casks were rotten, and new ones were to be made. The morning of the 27th had been fixed for the embarkation, and at an early hour numbers of both sexes and of all ages were assembled in the streets and upon the shore at Belem, where the wide space between the river and the fine Jeronymite convent was filled with carts and packages of every kind. From the restlessness and well-founded alarm of the people, it was feared that they would proceed to some excess of violence against those who were the objects of general suspicion. The crowd however was not yet very great when the Prince appeared, both because of the distance from Lisbon, and that the hour of the embarkation was not known. He came from the Adjuda, and the Spanish Infante D. Pedro in the carriage with him; the troops who were to be on duty at the spot had not yet arrived, and when the Prince alighted upon the quay, there was a pressure round him, so that as he went down the steps to the water-edge, he was obliged to make way with his hand. He was pale and trembling, and his face was bathed in tears. The multitude forgot for a moment their own condition in commiseration for his; they wept also, and followed him, as the boat pushed off, with their blessings. There may have been some among the spectators who remembered that from this very spot Vasco de Gama had embarked for that discovery which opened the way to all their conquests in the East; and Cabral for that expedition which gave to Portugal an empire in the West, and prepared for her Prince an asylum now when the mother country itself was lost.

A spectacle not less impressive presented itself when the royal family arrived from Queluz. The insane Queen was in the first carriage; for sixteen years she had never been seen in public. It is said that she had been made to understand the situation of affairs, so as to acquiesce in what was done; and that when she perceived the coachman was driving fast, she called out to him to go leisurely, for she was not taking flight. She had to wait some while upon the quay for the chair in which she was to be carried to the boat, and her countenance, in which the insensibility of madness was only disturbed by wonder, formed a striking contrast to the grief which appeared in every other face. The widow Princess, and the Infanta D. Maria, the Queen’s sister, were in the next carriage, both in that state of affliction and dismay which such a moment might well occasion. The Princess of Brazil came next, in the octagon coach, with all her children, the nurse of the youngest babe, and the two Camareiras mores, or chief ladies of the bedchamber. She had been indefatigable in preparing for the voyage, and now she herself directed the embarkation of the children and domestics with a presence of mind which excited admiration. The royal family were distributed in different ships, not merely for the sake of being more easily accommodated, but that if shipwreck were to be added to their misfortunes, a part at least might probably be preserved.

The apprehension of this danger would occur more readily to the Portugueze than to any other people, because their maritime history is filled with the most dreadful and well-known examples; and the weather at the time of the embarkation gave a fearful specimen of what might be expected at that season. It blew a heavy gale, the bar was impassable, and continued so during the whole of the succeeding day. In the evening M. Herman, and a Portugueze, by name Jose de Oliveira Barreto, came with fresh dispatches from Junot; he had sent them down the river in pursuance of that system of deception which was to be carried on to the last. Their arrival produced no effect upon the determination of the Prince; but every hour added to the alarm and danger of his situation, and orders were given to dismantle the fortresses which commanded the river, and spike the guns in the batteries. During the night the storm abated, the weather was fair at daybreak on the 29th, a favourable wind sprung up, and the fleet crossed the bar when the enemy were just near enough to see their prey escape.

The fleet consisted of eight sail of the line, three frigates, and five smaller ships of war; besides these there were all the merchant-vessels that could be made ready, making in all a fleet of six-and-thirty sail. The nobles who accompanied the royal family, were the Duke of Cadaval, the Marquesses Angenja, Vago, filho, Lavradio, Alegrete, Torres Novas, Pombal, and Bellas; Counts Rodondo, Caparica, Belmonte, and Cavalleiro, Viscount Anadia; ♦Observador Port. 18.♦ Araujo, whom the public voice loudly, but erringly accused of treason, embarked with the other ministers. All the ships were crowded with emigrants, ... for every one who had the means was eager to fly from the coming ruin. The confusion had been so great, that families were separated; wives got on board without their husbands, ... husbands without their wives; children and parents were divided; ♦Neves, i. 180.♦ many were thus left behind, and many had the joy of meeting in Brazil when each believed that the other was in Portugal.

♦Regency appointed by the Prince.♦

The Prince had appointed a regency the day before his embarkation, and the edict was made public on the next morning. Having endeavoured, he said, by all possible means to preserve the neutrality which his subjects had hitherto enjoyed, having exhausted his treasury, and after all other sacrifices, gone the length of shutting his ports against his old and faithful ally, the King of Great Britain, exposing thus the commerce of the country to total ruin, ... he saw that the troops of the Emperor of the French, to whom he had united himself on the continent in the persuasion that he should be no farther disquieted, were marching towards his capital. To avoid, therefore, the effusion of blood, for these troops came with professions of not committing the slightest hostility, ... knowing also that his royal person was their particular object, and that if he himself were absent, his subjects would be less disturbed, he had resolved for their sakes to remove, with the whole royal family, to his city of Rio de Janeiro, and there establish himself till a general peace. The persons whom he appointed to govern during his absence, were the Marquez de Abrantes, Francisco da Cunha de Menezes, lieutenant-general, the Principal Castro of the royal council, and Regidor das Justiças, Pedro de Mello Breyner, also of the council, and President of the treasury during the illness of Luiz de Vasconcellos e Souza, and Don Francisco de Noronha, Lieutenant-general, and President of the Board of Conscience. In failure of any of these, the Conde Monteiro Mor was appointed, who was also named for president of the Senado da Camara, with the Conde de Sampaio, or in his place Dom Miguel Pereira Forjaz, and the Dezembargador do Paço and Procurador da Coroa, Joam Antonio Salter de Mendonça, for the two secretaries. These governors were instructed to preserve, as far as possible, the kingdom in peace; to see that the French troops were well quartered and provided with every thing needful during their stay, to take care that no offence was offered them, or if offered, to punish it severely, and to preserve that harmony which ought to be kept with the armies of two powers to which Portugal was united on the continent.

♦Junot advances rapidly.♦

Junot meantime had re-established the bridge over the Zezere, but not without difficulty. The river, at all times a strong and rapid stream, was swoln with rains; the work was more than once frustrated, and some of the workmen drowned. So impatient was he to proceed, that he had begun to pass over his men in boats. Hastening on with his usual rapidity over the marshes of Gollegam, he reached Santarem to dinner on the 28th. Here he met the messenger on his return whom he had dispatched from Abrantes, and the report of this person increased his anxiety. He ordered the Capitam Mor de Aviz, at whose house he was entertained, to provide him a horse: this gentleman happened to possess a very beautiful one, and Junot discovering that he had attempted to conceal the animal, was only dissuaded from putting him to death by the supplications of his wife; but he made him walk beside him, bare-headed, to the jail, and then dismissed him with every mark of ignominy. Time was when a Portugueze officer would have wiped out such an injury in the blood of him who inflicted it; it is fortunate that in this instance a forbearance suited to the times was shown. The French general reached Cartaxo that night; about an hour after midnight he was awakened with intelligence that the royal family had actually embarked, and it produced a fit of rage like madness.

♦The French enter Lisbon.♦

The next day he was met by a deputation whom the governors sent to compliment him on his approach, a measure upon which the people commented with just severity. ♦Neves, i. 134.♦ A few persons volunteered on the same obsequious service; men, probably, who having adopted the principles of the revolution in its better days, adhered to the French party under all its changes. In the course of the day the advanced guard arrived in the immediate vicinity of the city, and Junot himself saw the ships with that prey on board in the hope of which he had advanced with such rapidity, conveying the family of Braganza beyond his power, and beyond that of his mighty master. ♦Obs. Port. p. 19.♦ The troops arrived without baggage, having only their knapsacks, and a half gourd slung from the girdle as a drinking cup; their muskets were rusty, and many of them out of repair; the soldiers themselves mostly barefoot, foundered with their march, and almost fainting with fatigue and hunger. The very women of Lisbon might have knocked them on the head. Junot reached Sacavem between nine and ten at night. The next morning the royal guard of police went on to meet him at an early hour. Without halting in Lisbon, he hurried on to Belem, and entering the battery of Bom-successo, satisfied himself by ocular demonstration that the Portugueze squadron was beyond his reach; ♦Neves, i. 215.♦ he fired, however, upon those merchant-ships, which not having been ready in time, were now endeavouring to escape. Very many were thus detained, for the Prince’s orders to spike the guns had only been partially obeyed, having been countermanded by the governors; ♦Neves, i. 184.♦ and this was another of their acts for which the people could assign no adequate or excusable cause. Junot immediately sent a battalion to garrison Fort St. Juliens, and then returned to Lisbon, with hardly any other guard than some Portugueze troops whom he had met on the way and ordered to follow him; thus accompanied, he paraded as in triumph through the principal streets. It was raining heavily, yet the streets were filled with a melancholy and wondering crowd. The shops were shut, the windows and varandas full of anxious spectators. The gestures of all those who saluted him as he passed, either for former acquaintance, or flattery, or fear, he returned with studied courtesy and stateliness. In this manner he proceeded to the house of Baraō de Quintella, in the Rua d’Alegria, one of the most opulent of the Portugueze merchants. The palace of Bemposta had been prepared for him, and the Senado da Camara assigned for his household expenses a monthly contribution of 12,000 cruzados. ♦Neves, i. 216–7.♦ He received the money, and compelled Quintella to be at the whole charge of his establishment.

During the night before his entrance the streets had been placarded with a proclamation in French and Portugueze, saying, “Inhabitants of Lisbon, my army is about to enter your city. I come to save your port and your Prince from the malignant influence of England. But that Prince, otherwise respectable for his virtues, has let himself be dragged away by the perfidious counsellors who surrounded him, to be by them delivered to his enemies: his subjects were regarded as nothing, and your interests were sacrificed to the cowardice of a few courtiers. People of Lisbon, remain quiet in your houses; fear nothing from my army, nor from me: it is only our enemies and the wicked who ought to fear us. The great Napoleon, my master, sends me for your protection; I will protect you.” This proclamation was not without effect upon that numerous class of the community who think little and know nothing. Only those persons, indeed, who were in the confidence of government, knew what was the real state of things; and many persuaded themselves the sole object of the French was to occupy the ports, that British commerce might be effectually excluded. ♦Miserable plight of the French who first entered.♦ The state in which the French entered, very much contributed to this short delusion; for they came in not like an army in collected force, with artillery and stores, ready for attack or defence, but like stragglers seeking a place of security after some total rout. Not a regiment, not a battalion, not even a company arrived entire: many of them were beardless boys, and they came in so pitiable a condition, as literally to excite compassion and charity18; foot-sore, bemired and wet, ragged and hungered and diseased. ♦Neves, i. 213.♦ Some dropped in the streets, others leant against the walls, or lay down in the porches, till the Portugueze, with ill-requited humanity, gave them food, and conveyed them to those quarters, which they had not strength to find out for themselves. Junot, however, well knew that he risked nothing by this disorder; his first object was speed, his next security; and while he was pushing on with the van of his army, Laborde, who had accompanied him as far as Santarem, ♦Neves, i. 213.♦ remained in that city to collect the following troops and provide the means of transport.

♦1807. December. Arrival of the second division.♦

The next day, December 1, was the anniversary of the Acclamation, ... of that revolution which in 1640 had restored Portugal to the rank of an independent kingdom, and given its crown to the rightful heir. What a day for those inhabitants of Lisbon who loved their country, and were familiar with the history of its better ages! The second division was now come up, with the artillery and baggage; ... powder waggons creaked along the streets; thousands, and tens of thousands, whom the destruction of trade and the dissolution of government had thrown out of employ, were wandering about the city, and the patroles and the whole force of the police was employed in calming and controlling the agitated multitude. The parish ministers went from house to house, informing the inhabitants that they must prepare to quarter the French officers, and collecting mattresses and blankets for the men. In the midst of all this so violent a storm of wind arose19, that it shook the houses like an earthquake, and in the terror which it occasioned many families fled into the open country: windows were blown in, and houses unroofed; the treasury and arsenal were damaged, and the tide suddenly rose twelve feet. ♦Obs. Port. 22.♦ The troops entered Lisbon mostly by night, and without beat of drum. On the 3rd, 11,000 men were posted in the city, from Belem to the Grilo, and from the castle to Arroios; and as the first fruits of that protection which the religion of the country was to experience, all persons in the great convents of Jesus, the Paulistas, and St. Francisco da Cidade, who had any relations by whom they could be housed, were ordered to turn out, that the French soldiers might be accommodated in their apartments. This measure produced a great effect upon those who had for a moment been deluded by the professions of the enemy. The generals of division and brigade took possession of the houses of the principal merchants, and of those fidalgos who accompanied the Prince.

♦Forced loan required, Dec. 3.♦

Every day, almost every hour, brought with it now some new mark of French protection. No sooner had troops enough been introduced into Lisbon to enforce the demand, than the merchants were called on for a compulsory loan of two million cruzados; and this at a time when their property, to an immense amount, had been seized in France, when a British squadron was blockading the Tagus, when the ships from Brazil were warned off by that squadron, and sent to England, foreign commerce utterly destroyed, and the internal trade in that state which necessarily ensued when the spring which gave motion to the whole was stopped. ♦A Frenchman added to the Regency.♦ M. Herman, who had been sent to demand satisfaction from the court of Lisbon in 1804, for having suffered the ambassador, General Lasnes, to depart in disgust, was added to the regency by an act of Junot’s pleasure, and made minister of finance and of the interior by an appointment of the Emperor; the date of which afforded decisive proof, if any proof had been wanting, that whatever the conduct of the Prince might be, Buonaparte had resolved to usurp the kingdom. ♦Obs. Port. p. 44. Neves, ii. 225.♦ Another Frenchman was nominated to the new office of Receiver-general of the contributions and revenues of Portugal. It was now plainly seen upon what tenure the people of Lisbon held their remaining property; and that they might fully understand upon what tenure they held their lives, the threatening proclamation which Junot had issued at Alcantara was now reprinted and circulated in the capital.

♦Dec. 5. Edict for confiscating English goods.♦

The next measure was an edict for confiscating English goods, ordering all persons who had any British property in their possession to deliver an account of it within three days, on pain of being fined in a sum ten times the amount of the property concealed, and of corporal punishment also, if it should be thought proper to inflict it. On the same day the use of fire-arms in sporting was prohibited throughout the whole kingdom: all persons detected in carrying fowling-pieces or pistols without a license from General Laborde, the French commandant of Lisbon, were to be considered as vagabonds and highway-murderers, carried before a military commission, and punished accordingly. ♦Use of arms prohibited.♦ The next day the use of all kind of arms was prohibited; and the wine sellers were ordered to turn out all Portugueze, French, or other soldiers, at seven in the evening, on pain of a heavy fine, and of death for the third offence. More troops came daily in; they were quartered in the convents, and their women with them, ... a fresh outrage to the religious feelings of the people. Complaints were made that the officers required those persons upon whom they were billeted to keep a table for them: an order was issued, in which Junot expressed his displeasure at this, saying, that the French officers in Portugal were to consider themselves as in garrison, and had no right to demand any thing more than their lodging, fire, and lights. He reminded them also that the Emperor had placed them on the same footing as the grand army, in consequence of which they would regularly receive extraordinary pay sufficient to defray all their expenses. This was intended for publication in foreign newspapers, as a proof of the good order which the French observed; ... while the superior officers not merely compelled those upon whom they had quartered themselves to furnish a table, but every kind of provision also for the entertainments which they thought proper to give. Many persons abandoned their houses to these imperious guests, and retired into the country; still they were required to support the establishment, and answer all the demands which the intruders chose to make.

♦Dec. 8. Pastoral letter of the Cardinal Patriarch.♦

There now appeared a pastoral letter from the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon, written in obedience to the desire of Junot, and according to his suggestions. The patriarch began by alluding to his age and infirmities; these, he said, prevented him from addressing his flock in person on the present occasion; but he could still, as their father and pastor, speak to them in this manner, so that in the day of judgment the Lord might not charge him with neglect of this important duty. “Beloved children,” he continued, “you know the situation in which we find ourselves; but you are not ignorant how greatly the divine mercy favours us in the midst of so many tribulations. Blessed be the ways of the Most Highest! But it is especially necessary, beloved children, that we should be faithful to the immutable decrees of his divine providence; and first we should thank him for the good order and quietness with which the kingdom has received a great army coming to our succour, and giving us the best founded hopes of prosperity. This benefit we owe equally to the activity and prudence of the general in chief, whose virtues have long been known to us. Fear not then, beloved children; live in security at home and abroad; remember that this is the army of Napoleon the Great, whom God hath destined to support and defend religion, and to make the happiness of the people. You know him, and the whole world knows him; confide implicitly in this wonderful man, whose like hath not been seen in any age! He will shed upon us the blessings of peace, if you obey his determinations, and if ye love each other, natives and strangers, with brotherly charity. Religion, and the ministers of religion, will then be always respected; the clausure of the spouses of the Lord will not be violated; and the people, being worthy of such high protection, will be happy. Demean yourselves thus, my children, in obedience to the injunction of our Lord Jesus Christ. Live subject to those who govern, not only for the respect which is due to them, but because conscience requires you so to do.” In conclusion, he entreated all his clergy, by the bowels of Christ Jesus, to concur with him in impressing upon the people the duty of resignation and submission. ♦Conduct of the Inquisitor general.♦ The Inquisitor general repeated the same strain of adulation and servility: some of the prelates followed the example, and the clergy were ordered in circular letters to enforce these principles from the pulpit and the confessional. Whatever may have been the secret wishes of these men, however their language may have belied their hearts, certain it is that they now betrayed their country, and as far as in them lay contributed to its degradation and destruction.

♦The French flag hoisted.♦

By such means and such agents Junot thought to prepare the minds of the Portugueze for fresh humiliation. On the day after the publication of this pastoral, he went on board the Russian admiral, and when he embarked the French flag was hoisted on the arsenal. This was the first time that it had been planted in Lisbon; all eyes were attracted to it by a salute which was fired on the occasion, and the sight exasperated a people who perhaps more than any other European nation are remarkable for national pride. The general feeling was sufficiently apparent in the murmurs and agitation of the populace; but they had no leaders, and in murmurs it seemed to spend itself. ♦Dec. 13.♦ Two days the French colours remained flying there. On the third a large body of troops was drawn up in the great square of the Rocio, and Junot with his staff, and a numerous train of officers, appeared in state. He thanked them in the Emperor’s name for the constancy with which they had endured the hardships of their march. They had rescued, he said, this fine city from oppression, ... they had saved it from disorder; and they had now the glory of seeing the French flag planted in Lisbon. He concluded with three cheers for Napoleon: the troops took up the cry; at the same moment the French colours were hoisted on the castle, and a salute of twenty-five guns was fired and repeated by all the forts upon the river. A deep and general murmur ran through the multitude of spectators: at this moment the Marquez d’Alorna entered the square; the people regarded him as one of the generals to whom they might look up in their hour of deliverance, and they repeatedly cheered him as he passed. A spark then would have produced an explosion, and Lisbon was never in such danger of a massacre: happily there was no man bolder than his comrade, to step forward and provoke it; the troops marched off, and the crowd dispersed. But the national spirit which had thus systematically been outraged was burning in every heart. It was Sunday, a day on which more people are always in the streets than on any other, and now the confluence was increased by the perturbed state of the general feeling. Towards evening some French soldiers, riding their horses to water through the Terreiro do Paço, were hooted by some of the populace, and they on their part returned insult for insult. A quarrel ensued, a Portugueze of the police guard interfered, and the French, thinking that he interfered as a party and not as a mediator, seized him and delivered him to their principal corps de garde which was in the same great square. The populace attempted to rescue him: they attacked the guard with sticks and stones, ... and were on the point of overpowering and disarming them, when some patroles of the police came up, and succeeded in appeasing the tumult.

♦Commotion in Lisbon.♦

Junot had given a grand dinner to celebrate the events of the day: the governors and the greater part of the nobles were present at this festival for the degradation of their country. He was repeatedly called out, as messenger after messenger arrived with news of the tumult; the cause of these frequent interruptions was indicated by his thoughtful manner, and the guests were presently informed that the people had mutinied, and that they themselves were to be considered as hostages. It was believed that he had invited them for that purpose, and it seems as if he had determined to provoke a tumult for the purpose of intimidating the Portugueze. The disturbance in the Terreiro do Paço had been put an end to, but the crowd had not dispersed, and the popular feelings were still in the highest excitement. Things were in this state when Junot adjourned with his guests to the opera; he had taken possession of the royal family’s box in the centre of the theatre, and from thence he ordered the French flag to be displayed over the pit during this night’s representation. The French who were present saluted it with shouts; many of the Portugueze left the theatre, and the news of this fresh insult increased the indignation of the people. The patroles could no longer restrain them; men, women, and boys ran through the streets, exclaiming “The five wounds for ever, and down with France!” It was fortunate for the Lisbonians that they had at this time a well disciplined police guard, raised by the Comte de Novion, a French emigrant, whom General Frazer, when he commanded the British forces in Portugal, had first patronized and recommended to the Portugueze government, and who having rendered essential service to the city by the establishment of this body, was now become one of the most active and efficient agents of the new tyranny. These guards formed the principal part of the force which was called out against the people, and they levelled their pieces so as to spare their countrymen. The firing continued between three and four hours; but for this cause, and because the mob, who had neither arms, nor plan, nor leaders, were more loud than dangerous, few lives were lost. The firing ceased about nine o’clock: the remainder of the night was actively employed by the French; when morning appeared, cannon were seen planted at the door of the commander in chief, 1200 men were drawn up in the square, with horses and artillery, and the streets were every where filled with patroles of soldiers. In the course of the day a few straggling Frenchmen were killed, and some seven or eight of the people. The mob saw the danger of attacking so overpowering a force, and did not venture to engage against musketry and cannon with their knives. Had they been armed, nothing could have preserved Lisbon from a massacre. The few native corps which still remained in the city were confined to their quarters during the tumult; they would else probably have taken part with their countrymen. A corps at Almada, hearing the stir and the discharge of musketry, endeavoured to get boats to cross over for this purpose. ♦Neves, i. 274.♦ The populace were in a state of frantic agitation; at noon-day groups were collected in the streets, looking at the sky, and affirming that they saw a blazing star which portended the vengeance of God against their abominable oppressors.

♦Precautions of the French.♦

These events convinced Junot at once of the disposition and the weakness of the people. He forbade immediately all assemblies of whatever kind, created a military tribunal, and decreed that every individual found with arms in an assembly should be carried before this tribunal, and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment, or to death if he had used his arms against any person whatever. Death was in like manner denounced against the leaders of any assembly or tumult. These regulations, he said, were made for the security of the good and honourable inhabitants of Lisbon, whom he did not confound with a few wretches. Those wretches who had seduced the people he knew, and they should pay with their heads for the insult which they had offered to the French flag. These words stood as a text to the proclamation, “Rebellion is the greatest of crimes.” Junot had neither principles nor feelings to deter him from committing any wickedness which might suit with his policy or his inclinations; in the present instance nothing was to be gained by cruelty, and therefore no execution followed the insurrection, nor were the persons who had been taken at the time proceeded against. This forbearance the Portugueze imputed to fear; for however he might despise their present means, their numbers and their temper made them formidable, and the sight of the English fleet continually excited their hopes and his uneasiness. He began immediately to take the most effectual measures for securing himself. New batteries were formed at the castle, and works thrown up there from which the city might at any time be laid in ruins: and the provincial troops whom the Prince had called to Lisbon to cover his embarkation were now ordered back to their respective provinces, as the first step toward that breaking up of the Portugueze army which was intended. On the 17th, which was the queen’s birthday, the guards and patroles were doubled, and Novion paraded the streets in person. The midnight ceremonies of the church at Christmas were forbidden; the bells also were forbidden to be sounded on any pretext during the night; and when the host went out, a hand-bell only was to be rung before it, and that but thrice; once at its going out, once to call good Christians to the aid of the dying person, and again at its return.

♦Regulations concerning English goods. Obs. Port. p. 52. Neves, i. 288.♦

The edict for the discovery and confiscation of English property and goods had produced little effect. The three days allowed for sending in the returns having elapsed, the term was prolonged for eight days more, with heavy denunciations against those who should attempt to evade it. That part of the edict which related to English property might easily be obeyed by those who chose to obey it; but the confiscation of all English goods in a city where half the goods were English, was as impracticable as it was oppressive; and the day after Junot had issued his second decree upon this subject, he found it necessary to publish a third, modifying the former two, and in fact confessing their absurdity. It appeared, he said, that under these decrees the merchants and shopkeepers could not dispose of many articles of British manufacture; that the want of these articles kept out of the market a great number of things which were in daily use, ♦Dec. 19. Obs. Port. p. 50.♦ and would raise the prices of those which were not prohibited: such articles, therefore, as were not actually the property of British subjects, might be sold, on condition that the owners gave in an account of the British goods in their possession, and obtained permission to sell them from the commissary at Lisbon, or some public functionary in the provinces; that this permission should not be granted unless the kind, quality, measure, quantity, and price of the articles for sale were specified; that the vendor should hold himself responsible for the amount of all which he disposed of, and should for that purpose enter in his books the quantity of the thing sold, the price, and the name of the purchaser; and give security for this if it were required.

♦Scarcity of corn apprehended.♦

The trade of Lisbon needed not these new shackles. The stagnation of commerce was indeed beheld by the French General with complacency, as tending to the accomplishment of Buonaparte’s desires against England; but in its more immediate effects he felt the security of his army in some degree implicated. Lisbon is dependent for great part of its corn upon foreign supplies: the failure of this supply had been contemplated by the Prince’s government as one of the consequences to be expected if he submitted to the demands of France; and when he gave orders to shut the ports against England, an edict was issued, prohibiting all kinds of cakes and biscuits, that flour might be reserved for bread alone. ♦Neves, 263.♦ Grievously as a scarcity of corn is felt when it occurs in our own country, in Portugal it is more literally a necessary of life; for the Portugueze consume little animal food, and the potatoe is hardly known among them; nor, indeed, is its culture successful. When Junot took possession of Lisbon, it was apprehended that in the course of two or three months there would be an actual want of bread. The Russians consumed about 10,000 rations daily; a consumption which made the French, as well as the inhabitants, regard them with an evil eye. Junot disliked them on another account: he suspected that they favoured the escape of British subjects and Portugueze emigrants to the British squadron; and the Russian officers kept aloof from the French, as if they were shocked at the profligacy of their conduct. But before the close of the year intelligence arrived that Russia had declared war against Great Britain; an event which excited as much exultation in the French and their few partizans, as grief in the great body of the people; for, notwithstanding the peace of Tilsit, many were they who still rested their hopes upon the strength of Russia, and the personal character of the Emperor Alexander.

♦Measures for providing the army.♦

Whatever jealousy had been felt upon this score was thus removed; but the danger of scarcity still remained, and Junot’s first care was to provide for the subsistence of the army, whatever might become of the inhabitants. Many of the provisional authorities, in their fear of famine, laid an embargo upon the corn within their respective jurisdictions: this the French General forbade by a timely edict. ♦Feb. 16, 1808.♦ The Portugueze magistrates found themselves under a government which exercised an unremitting vigilance, and made itself felt every where; ♦Observador Port. 175.♦ and the orders of that government were obeyed with a promptitude and activity which had long been unknown in Portugal. Full use was thus made of the resources of the country. Some corn he procured from Spain: it would have been a heavy cost had it entered into his system to pay any part of the expenses; ♦Neves, 264.♦ Spain having little to export, the distance being great, and the roads and the means of carriage equally bad. ♦December.♦ All farmers and corn-dealers who might be indebted to the crown were ordered to pay half the amount in grain, and deliver it to the French commissariat at reduced prices. The march of the French through the country had been like that of an army of locusts, leaving famine wherever they passed; the tenantry, some utterly ruined by the devastation, and all hopeless because of the state to which Portugal was reduced, abandoned themselves to the same kind of despair which in some parts of the New World contributed to exterminate the Indians, and at one time materially distressed and endangered the merciless conquerors. ♦The Portugueze leave their fields unsown.♦ They thought it useless to sow the seed, if the French were to enjoy the harvest; and so generally did this feeling operate, that the regency which acted under Junot found it necessary to issue orders, compelling them to go on with the usual business of agriculture. ♦Dec. 29.♦ The encouragement of agriculture served also as a pretext for breaking up the Portugueze army. ♦Dec. 22.♦ Every subaltern and soldier who had served eight years, or who had not served six months, was discharged, and ordered to return to his own province. A like order was issued by the Spanish general at Porto; and the Marques del Socorro, who commanded at Setubal as governor of the new kingdom in which the Prince of the Peace was to be invested, disbanded by one sweeping decree all the Portugueze militia, discharged all the married men from the regular army, and invited all the others to apply for leave of absence.

♦Spaniards under Carraffa at Porto.♦

In the partition and invasion of Portugal, the court of Madrid was as guilty as that of the Thuilleries; but the conduct of the Spaniards during the invasion was far different from that of their treacherous allies. The division of General Carraffa, which entered with Junot, and was under his command, separated from him at Abrantes to secure Porto, in case the army which was destined for that purpose should be delayed. This general had acquired the favour of Junot by his exertions at Alcantara, and had so far profited by his lessons, as to imitate him at humble distance; raising a contribution of 4000 cruzados at Thomar, and seizing 10,000 from the depositary at Coimbra; ... but he was the only Spaniard who thus disgraced himself. ♦Neves, i. 189.♦ The force with which he accompanied Junot was little more than 2000 men; it was doubled by the gradual arrival of reinforcements, and was then annexed to the division of D. Francisco Taranco, ♦Taranco takes the command there.♦ which, according to the convention of Fontainebleau, should have consisted of 10,000 men, but did not in reality exceed six, till its number was thus made up. Taranco’s army was formed in Gallicia, of which kingdom he was Captain-General: he entered on the side of the Minho, taking the Valença road; and having reached Porto, issued a proclamation, much in the style of that which Junot had sent before him, saying that he was come to deliver Portugal from the disgraceful yoke of England, and assist her in taking vengeance upon the English for their ferocious treachery toward all the nations of Europe: fair promises followed of strict discipline and just dealing, and bloody denunciations of punishment if resistance were attempted. ♦Good conduct of his troops.♦ The Spanish general’s conduct was wiser than his language; his promises were strictly observed, and no crime was added to that of the iniquitous attack and intended usurpation. He was, indeed, left at full liberty to act as his own disposition and principles might incline; for these provinces were, according to the treaty of Fontainebleau, to be formed into a kingdom for the former Prince of Parma, as an indemnification for Etruria; and as his consent had not been thought necessary to the arrangement which was to deprive him of one kingdom, neither were his instructions for the government of another.

♦Solano at Setubal.♦

The Spanish general who entered Alem-Tejo to take possession of Godoy’s kingdom was less fortunate; ♦Neves, i. 307.♦ for he was compelled to raise contributions from a ruined people, though in other respects considerable latitude seems to have been given him, in deference to his character and talents. This general was the Marques del Socorro, D. Francisco Maria Solano, destined to leave an unhappy name in the history of his country. During many years he had been governor of Cadiz, where he had employed an almost unlimited power in the most honourable and beneficial manner. It was his delight to ornament the city, and to promote the convenience and comfort of the inhabitants. One of the beneficial acts of his government was to abolish the practice of burying in the churches: this he accomplished, not without difficulty, during one of those contagious fevers which of late years have so frequently visited that part of Spain. ♦Jacob’s Travels.♦ He is also entitled to be remembered with respect for the manner in which he maintained the old humanities of war with the English squadron which so long blockaded Cadiz: this conduct was the more honourable, because Solano was decidedly a partizan of France, and had acquired a dangerous love of political experiments in the revolutionary school. He had now an opportunity of indulging this passion; and the measures which he attempted proved the goodness of his intentions, as well as the errors of his judgement. While Junot’s edicts were in one uniform spirit of tyranny, Solano was offering rewards to those who should raise the greatest crops, or breed the most numerous flocks and herds. ♦His schemes for the improvement of society.♦ He addressed circular instructions to the judges, enjoining each of them, when he had notice of any civil suit, to call the parties before him, hear their respective statements, and advise them to settle the dispute by arbitration. If they persisted in their appeal to the laws, he was then to require from each, before the process went forward, a written statement of the case, and the documents which were to support it. If the thing contested did not exceed eighty milreis in value, he might pronounce summary justice without farther examination: the losing party, however, retaining a right of appeal to the superior courts. If the value exceeded that sum, the parties were again to be exhorted to come to some accord, or at least to agree upon shortening the process, and avoiding all unnecessary delay and expense; and the judges were empowered to do this, even without the consent of the parties, and come as summarily as possible to the merits of the case. Another of his projects seems to have been borrowed from the policy of the Peruvian Incas, or the government of Japan. Every parish was to be divided into districts, containing not less than one hundred houses, nor more than two. Each district was to choose one among its inhabitants, with the title of Commissioner, whose duty it should be to make out a list of all the members of his district, their ages and occupations; to interfere in all family disputes, for the purpose of accommodating them; and to keep all persons to their respective employments. If they were not obedient to his admonitions he was to denounce them to the magistrates, that due punishment might be inflicted. ♦Observador Portuguez, 144–150.♦ He was also to walk his rounds for at least an hour every night, accompanied by four of the most respectable men of the district, to see that no prohibited games were played in the taverns, and that nothing was committed offensive to good morals.

♦Emigration from Lisbon.♦

Such were the projects with which Solano amused himself at Setubal! The conduct of his soldiers easily accommodated itself to the good disposition of their chief. Accustomed to the same habits of life, attached to the same forms of worship as the Portugueze, and speaking a language so little different that they mutually understood each other, the Spaniards lived among them like men of the same country; and, as long as the power remained in their hands, the people of Alem-Tejo and of the northern provinces experienced none of those insults and oppressions which the French inflicted wherever their authority extended. In Lisbon the burthen was at once heavier than in other places and more galling; and most persons who had the power of removing into the country retired from those daily and hourly vexations which aggravated their sufferings. The rapacity of the French leaders opened a surer asylum for others. Notice was given that all Brazilians who wished to return to their native land might obtain passports, and be permitted to embark in neutral ships. All who could invent any pretext for availing themselves of this permission hastened to purchase it; and the money which the French thus exacted was cheerfully paid as the price of deliverance. The ships which carried Kniphausen colours took out many emigrants in the dress of sailors, who smeared their hands with pitch, the better to disguise themselves. ♦1808. Jan. 5.♦ The Nuncio20, who during these transactions demeaned himself with great propriety, and repeatedly solicited passports for Brazil, that he might follow the court to which he was appointed, succeeded at last in getting on board a licensed vessel, unknown to Junot, and reaching England in safety, went from thence to Rio de Janeiro. Meantime the most rigorous measures were devised to prevent any person from escaping to the English squadron. All the fishing boats were arranged in divisions, which were denoted by letters, and the boats then numbered; and each had its letter and number painted on the bow and quarter in white characters a foot long. The master of every boat was bound to carry a list, specifying the letter of its division, the number of his boat, his name, his dwelling-place, and the number and names of the men on board. This paper was to be his passport at the different batteries, and his protection from the watch-boats which patrolled the river, and were charged to apprehend every person whose name was not inscribed in the list, and to seize every vessel by which any part of the edict was infringed, as a prize. The magistrate of every district was to deliver in a list of all the owners of fishing boats in the corresponding division, in order that their property might be answerable for any infraction of these rules: a counter list was to be kept on board the floating battery. All the owners of all the divisions were to appear every Saturday at this floating battery, there to have their papers verified. Every boat which had any communication with the English squadron was to be confiscated; and all were bound to be within the bar at sunset on pain of being fined one piece for the first offence, three for the second, and of confiscation and corporal punishment for the third.