Note 7 — Chapter XIX · INVASION OF PORTUGAL BY MARSHAL SOULT.

Marshal Soult’s historian expresses himself upon this subject in a manner altogether worthy of such a writer: “Le Français, si passionné pour la beauté, sacrifia ses plaisirs à l’honneur de protéger les femmes qui réclamèrent son appui.”

I believe that no other portion of history was ever so entirely and audaciously falsified as that of the peninsular war has been by the French. This writer asserts that few days have been so brilliant for the French arms as that on which Porto was taken; that they were astonished at their own success when they saw how many obstacles they had overcome; for that des officiers du genie Portugais et Anglais s’étaient occupés à reunir à l’avantage de la position, tout ce que l’art a inventé pour la defense d’un camp; and that these formidable works were manned by 70,000 men determined to defend them to the last extremity. Pp. 159–60–77.

There is another statement of this writer’s which deserves notice. He says that the former campaign in Portugal had been distinguished by cruelties on the part of the inhabitants (p. 56); and that in the present “pour animer le peuple contre les Français, on avait répandu les bruits les plus absurdes. La haine les peignait aux yeux de la superstition et de la crédulité, comme des hérétiques qui foulaient aux pieds tous les principes religieux, commes des barbares qui au mépris des lois divines et humaines, dévoraient les enfans, livraient le sexe à tous les outrages, et envoyaient les hommes dans le nord pour renforcer leurs armées.”—(P. 119.) The charges against which this contemptuous indignation is affected are true to the very letter, with the exception of that of eating the children, which, be it remembered, was never made. They did not eat children; ... they only butchered them sometimes, and sometimes (as will be shown hereafter) let them die of hunger before their eyes.