Chapter II (3)

A second report of the same minister was published at the same time. The house of Braganza, it said, had delivered itself up to the English with all that it could carry away, and Brazil from henceforward would be only an English colony. But Portugal was at length delivered from the yoke of England. Her coasts had been left without defence; and England was at this time threatening them, blockading her ports, and wishing to ravage her shores. Spain, also, had had fears for Cadiz, and now was fearing for Ceuta. Toward that part of the world the English appeared to be directing their secret expeditions: they had landed troops at Gibraltar; they had assembled there those who had been driven from the Levant, and part of those whom they had collected in Sicily. Their cruisers upon the coast of Spain were become more vigilant; they seemed to wish to revenge themselves upon that kingdom for the disgrace which they had suffered in its colonies. The whole of the peninsula ought particularly to fix the attention of his Imperial Majesty, whose wisdom would dictate to him such measures as the state of things required. ♦JAN. 6.♦ This paper was followed by a report from General Clarke, the minister of war, who announced that the corps of observation of the Gironde under General Junot had conquered Portugal; ♦THE CONSCRIPTION FOR 1809 REQUIRED.♦ and advised that the conscription for the year 1809 should be called out, because of the necessity of shutting the ports of the continent against their enemy, and of having considerable forces at every point of attack, in order to profit by the fortunate circumstances which might arise for carrying the war into the heart of England, of Ireland, and of the Indies. “Although,” said the General, “the indignation of all Europe is roused against England, although France has at no time possessed such armies, this is not yet enough; English influence must be attacked wherever it exists, till the moment when the sight of so many dangers shall induce England to remove from her councils the oligarchs who direct them, and intrust the administration to wise men, capable of reconciling the love and the interest of their country with the interest and the love of the human race. A vulgar policy,” he pursued, “would have induced your Majesty to disarm, but that policy would be a scourge for France; it would render imperfect the great results which you have prepared. Yes, Sire, far from diminishing your armies, your Majesty ought to increase them, till England shall have acknowledged the independence of all powers, and restored to the seas that tranquillity which your Majesty has secured to the continent.... Doubtless your Majesty must suffer in requiring new sacrifices and imposing new burthens upon your people; but you ought to yield to the cry of all the French, ... no repose till the seas are set free, and till an equitable peace has re-established France in the most just, the most useful, and the most necessary of her rights.” ♦JAN. 21.♦ Accordingly, 80,000 conscripts, of the conscription of 1809, were, by a decree of the senate, placed at the disposal of government: they were to be taken from the youths born in the year 1789; according to the conscription laws, twenty was the age at which they were ripe for slaughter, but the practice of dispensing with a year had already been begun. ♦THREATS AGAINST ENGLAND.♦ The minister of state, M. Regnaud de St. Jean d’Angely, pronounced an harangue upon this occasion. “A holy and powerful league,” said he, “has been formed, to punish the English oligarchy, to defend the right of nations, to revenge humanity. From the Baltic to the Mediterranean, from the Nile to the Neva, there hardly remain for the ships of Great Britain any shores where they may land, any points where they are not forbidden to touch. But it is not enough, by a just reciprocity, to have pronounced against England this tremendous sentence of outlawry among nations; no rest must be given her in the seat of her iniquitous dominion, nor upon any of her coasts, nor in any of her colonies, nor in any of those parts of the globe where she is not yet interdicted. Repulsed from one part of the world, and menaced in all the other, England must not be suffered to know where to direct the little military force which she can command; and our armies, more formidable than ever, must be ready to carry our victorious and avenging eagles into her possessions. The pillage of the arsenal and port of Copenhagen, the emigration of the Portugueze fleet, have not left the continent without ships: our legions may yet reach the English militia; Ireland may still look for succours against oppression; India may still expect her deliverers.”

♦THE ROYAL ARMS OF PORTUGAL DEFACED.♦

Well might the French nation have shuddered at the prospect of interminable war which was thus held out by the ministers of a tyrant, whose ambition increased with his power. He found, however, implicit and servile obedience in the nation. Their crime brought with it its curse, new successes only served as pretexts for demanding more sacrifices; and at a moment when France had not an enemy upon the whole continent of Europe, and a larger military force than had ever before existed, more conscripts were thus called for in advance! But though Buonaparte at this time despised the military force of Great Britain as heartily as he hated its naval power, neither London, nor Ireland, nor India, were as yet his objects. His projects for seizing the whole Spanish peninsula were now mature, and these projects were probably communicated to Junot by dispatches which arrived from Milan the second week in January. A few days afterward that General went with more than his usual pomp to the Foundery, destroyed the portraits of the Braganzan kings, and gave orders that the Portugueze arms should no longer be placed on the cannon. He gave orders also to deface the royal arms which were carved in stone over the entrance, but no Portugueze could be tempted to commit this act of treason; and when some French soldiers broke the crown and defaced the shield, no sooner had they left the place than the women gathered up the fragments to preserve them as relics. The final act of usurpation was not long delayed. ♦FEBRUARY.♦ Early on the morning of the first of February the movements of the troops indicated that some great measure was about to be announced, for which the public mind was to be prepared by intimidation. Cannon were planted in the Rocio; the streets from thence to head-quarters were lined with soldiers; and Junot, with all the parade of military pomp and power, proceeded to the palace of the Inquisition, where the Regents held their sittings. ♦JUNOT DECLARES THAT THE PORTUGUEZE GOVERNMENT IS DISSOLVED.♦ Troops followed him, filling the lobbies of that execrable edifice, and extending even to the table where these poor puppets of authority were seated: amid this scene of noise and tumult and indecorum he read a paper, of which nothing more could be collected than that it pronounced the extinction of the Portugueze government, and the consequent dismission of the Regents from office. Rockets gave the signal when the General came out, and salutes of artillery from the castle and all the forts and batteries insulted the afflicted and groaning people. The city was soon placarded with a proclamation in French and Portugueze, saying that all uncertainty was now at an end, the fate of Portugal was decided, and her felicity secured, because Napoleon the Great had taken her under his omnipotent protection. The Prince of Brazil, in abandoning Portugal, had renounced all right to the sovereignty of that kingdom. The House of Braganza had ceased to reign, and it was the will of the Emperor Napoleon that the whole of that fine country should be administered and governed in his name, and by the General in chief of his army. ♦JUNOT APPOINTED GOVERNOR FOR THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON.♦ “The duties,” said Junot, “which this mark of benignity and confidence on the part of my master imposes upon me, are difficult to fulfil, but I hope worthily to discharge them. I will open roads and canals, that agriculture and national industry may once more flourish. The Portugueze troops will soon form one family with the soldiers of Marengo, of Austerlitz, of Jena, and of Friedland; and there will be no other rivalry between them than that of valour and discipline. The good administration of the public revenues will secure to every one the reward of his labours. Public instruction, that parent of national civilization, shall be extended over the provinces, and Algarve and Beira shall each have one day its Camoens. The religion of your fathers, the same which we all profess, shall be protected and succoured by that same will which restored it in the vast empire of France, but freed from the superstitions which dishonour it. Justice shall be equally administered, and disembarrassed of the delays and arbitrary will which paralysed it; the public tranquillity shall no more be disturbed by robbers, and deformed mendicity no longer drag its filth and its rags through this superb capital. Inhabitants of Portugal, be secure and tranquil! Resist the instigations of those who would excite you to rebellion, and who care not what blood is shed so it be the blood of the continent. Betake yourselves with confidence to your labours; you shall enjoy the fruits. If it be necessary that in these first moments you should make some sacrifices, it is that the government may be enabled to ameliorate your condition. They are also indispensable for the subsistence of a great army, which is required for the vast projects of the Great Napoleon. His vigilant eyes are fixed upon you, and your future happiness is secure. He will love you as he loves his French vassals: study therefore to deserve his goodness by your obedience to his will.”

♦COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENT FORMED.♦

A second decree, bearing date on the same day, was promulgated the next. It explained the form in which Portugal was from that time forward to be governed, in the name of the Emperor of the French, by the General in chief of the French army in that country. There was to be a council of government, composed of the General as president, a secretary of state for the administration of the interior and of the finances, with two counsellors of government, one for each department; a secretary of state for the departments of war and the marine, with a counsellor of government for the same departments; and a counsellor of government for the superintendence of justice and public worship, with the title of Regedor. The secretary-general of the council was to be keeper of its archives. M. Herman and M. Lhuitte were the two secretaries of state: the former had D. Pedro de Mello and the Senhor d’Azevedo for his secretaries; the latter had the Conde de S. Payo. The principal Castro was named for Regedor, and M. Vianez Vaublanc secretary-general. There was to be in every province an administrator-general, with the title of Corregedor Mor, to direct all the branches of administration, to watch over the interests of the province, and to point out to the government the improvements which ought to be made in it; on which subjects he was to communicate with the home secretary and the Regedor. The province of Estremadura was to have two of these Corregedores: one residing at Lisbon, whose jurisdiction was confined to that capital and its term; the other for the rest of the province, and residing out of it, at Coimbra. There was also to be in each province a general officer, to maintain order and tranquillity: his functions were purely military, but in all public ceremonies he was to take the right hand of the Corregedor Mor. This precedence was not required to prove to the people that they were under a mere military government.

♦WAR CONTRIBUTION IMPOSED.♦

The device of Buonaparte, an eagle upon an anchor, was now placed over the arsenal; the official seals were ordered to bear the same impress as those of the French empire, with this inscription, “Government of Portugal:” and on the same day that possession was thus taken, and protection promised, an edict was made public, dated from Milan Dec. 23, imposing a war contribution-extraordinary of an hundred million of francs upon the kingdom of Portugal, as a ransom for individual property of every kind. A second article of this memorable decree directed the French general to take the necessary means for promptly collecting this contribution; and a third declared that the property of the Queen, the Prince Regent, and all the royal family, should be sequestered, and that of all the fidalgos who accompanied him also, unless they should return by the 15th of February. The decree originally fixed the first, but as it was not published till the second, Junot ventured to extend the term: even then, however, it served only to show how little the framer of such decrees considered what was possible; how impudently he set even the forms of equity at defiance. It was now explained what those sacrifices were which the people had been told on the preceding day were necessary to enable the government to ameliorate their condition. The sum to be levied amounted in Portugueze money to forty million cruzados. Junot decreed that the two millions already paid, which he raised as a loan, and now called a contribution, should be accounted as part of the sum, and allowed for in the final payment. Six millions were to be paid by the commercial part of the nation at three instalments; on the first of March, the first of May, and the first of August. All goods of English manufacture being, on account of their origin, liable to confiscation, were to be ransomed by the merchants and tradesmen who possessed them, at a third of their value. All the gold and silver of all the churches, chapels, and fraternities in Lisbon and its district was to be carried to the mint within fifteen days; no other plate being excepted than what was indispensable for the decency of public worship. In the provinces the collectors of the tenths were to receive the church plate and transmit it to the mint, and the amount was to be carried to the contribution. Archbishops, bishops, religious orders and superiors of either sex, who possessed any revenue from land, or capital of any kind, were to contribute two-thirds of their whole yearly income, if that income did not exceed sixteen thousand cruzados, and three-fourths if it did; ... in consideration of which they were to be excused from paying the regular tenths for the current year. Every person enjoying a benefice which produced from six to nine hundred milreis, should contribute two-thirds of his income; three-fourths, if it exceeded the latter sum. All _Commendadors_ of the military orders or of Malta should also pay two-thirds of their revenue. The donatories of crown property were to pay double their usual tax; owners of houses, half the rent for which they were let, or a proportionate sum if they inhabited them themselves; land-holders, two-tenths, in addition to the former imposts. The tax upon horses, mules, and servants, was doubled. The _Juiz do Povo_, under orders of the _Senado_, was to rate all trading bodies and booth and stall-keepers, and compel them to pay their assessments by distress; and shops which were not under the jurisdiction of the _Senado_ were to be rated in like manner by the _Mesa do Bem Commun_, ... the Board of General Good, ... under the inspection of the Royal Junta of Commerce.

The few persons who had thus long obstinately persisted in believing or pretending to believe that France wished and intended to improve the state of Portugal could no longer deceive themselves, and dared not attempt to deceive others. The contribution thus imposed amounted to four millions and a half sterling; the population of Portugal was less than three millions: the sum demanded, therefore, was equivalent to a poll-tax at a guinea and half per head. Yet even this statement inadequately represents its enormity: from at least three-fourths of the people nothing could be collected; and the mercantile part of the community, who had been the most opulent, were already reduced to ruin. The sum required exceeded the whole circulating medium of the country; and the reason why it was permitted to be paid by instalments, and not insisted upon at once, was, that the money received at the first instalment might in the course of circulation find its way to serve for the second! It was levied with the utmost rigour. ♦OBSERVADOR PORTUGUEZ, 203.♦ The lowest hucksters, stall-keepers, and labourers, were summoned before the _Juiz do Povo_, to be assessed in their portion; and the merchants were ordered to appear in tallies before the Junta of Commerce, and there reciprocally discuss their affairs, and tax each other! The expulsion of the English, the emigration, and the general distress, had left a very large proportion of the best houses vacant, and rents in consequence had fallen nearly to half their former value; but every house was rated at what it had brought in before these events, and the owners of those which were untenanted were compelled to pay three-tenths of what they would have received upon that valuation; and the property of those who had neither money nor commodities to satisfy the demand was seized without mercy. Articles which were needful for the army were received in part of payment in kind. The French officers turned speculators: they purchased colonial goods, which they sent to France by land; and thus the money which they had extorted was re-issued, to answer fresh exactions, or serve as booty again. They carried on also a gainful trade in money; importing French coin, which they forced into circulation, and exchanged for Spanish dollars, or for the fine gold of Portugal, at an enormous profit; or they purchased with it paper-money, which usually fluctuated between 28 and 30 per cent. discount, ... sometimes was as low as 35, and sometimes could find no purchasers. With this paper, according to law, they made half their payments at par: and when all their French money was expended in this manner, Junot issued an edict, by which he fixed a price at which it was to be received for the contribution, lower than that at which he had suffered it to be introduced.

♦GODOY RECALS THE SPANISH TROOPS FROM PORTUGAL.♦

The decree which appointed Junot governor of Portugal, and extended his authority over the whole kingdom, at once abrogated the secret treaty of Fontainebleau. That treaty had served Buonaparte’s purpose, and the Spanish cabinet was at this time too much agitated by home disquietudes to resent this breach of faith, or take warning by it. Godoy, fallen from his dreams of royalty, and trembling for his life, was ready to make any sacrifice which might procure him the protection of France. ♦NEVES, I. 313.♦ ♦PART ONLY OBEY HIS ORDERS.♦ He had written to Junot, requesting that Carraffa’s division might return to Spain; alleging, that the English threatened a descent upon the coasts of Andalusia: ... but the French were not duped by a pretext which they themselves had invented for a different purpose; and Junot, in conformity to his master’s projects, detained the troops. Godoy probably wanted them to protect the removal of the King and Queen to the coast, but he was in no condition to insist upon any thing; and the abortive principality of the Algarves, and the kingdom of Septentrional Lusitania, came to an end before their intended lords had taken possession, and before their denominations had been made public. The Spanish troops from Algarve and Alentejo were recalled, and obeyed the order; those at Porto, and Carraffa’s division, were more under Junot’s power; they were detained, and Carraffa, upon the death of Taranco, by the French general’s order took command of both.

♦THE WHOLE OF PORTUGAL UNDER COMMAND OF THE FRENCH.♦

Thus had Junot, in pursuance of his instructions, extended his authority over the whole of Portugal. He was, however, far from feeling secure in his usurpation. The temper of the people had shown itself; and if the English had landed a force to attack him, his men were but in ill condition to take the field; for they were sickly during the whole of the winter months. ♦JOURNAL DE COIMBRA, 2. 74.♦ ♦THE FLOWER OF THE PORTUGUEZE ARMY MARCHED INTO FRANCE.♦ For this reason he had disbanded the militia, and broken up so large a part of the native army; ... but the flower of that army was to be selected and sent into France, that they might be made agents in inflicting the same miseries upon other countries which their own endured. A great number of the soldiers who had been picked for this service deserted; and in consequence, the French code of martial law was declared to be applicable to the Portugueze army, and death became thereby the punishment for desertion. Six thousand infantry, and four regiments of cavalry, were marched off, under the Marquez d’Alorna. Gomes Freire d’Andrada, who had the highest military reputation of any officer in the army, was second in command. The Marquez de Valença, the Marquez de Ponte de Lima, the Counts Ega and Sabugal, and many other officers of rank and family, went in this ill-fated army; some by compulsion, others by choice, the leaders being devoted to Buonaparte.

♦DISCONTENT OF THE PEOPLE.♦

Though the French despised the Portugueze troops as heartily as they did the people, it was observed that they became more insufferable in their personal conduct after the army was disbanded. As a body they might safely despise them; but every individual was in some measure restrained by the apprehension of individual vengeance, and the certainty that if in any tumult the military, as was natural, should take part with the people, the contest, though the event was not doubtful, must be far more severe. When this restraint was removed, they gave way to that insolence which adds a sting to oppression, and rouses even those who have submitted to heavier wrongs. A peasant at Mafra, Jacinto Correia was his name, killed two of these robbers with a reaping-hook; and when he was put to death for it by military process, he gloried to his last breath in what he had done, and repeated that if all his countrymen were like him, there should not a single Frenchman remain alive among them. ♦OBSERVADOR PORTUGUEZ, 156.♦ The punishment was carefully made known in a proclamation, but the nature of the crime was as carefully suppressed, lest it should find imitation. It had, however, been determined to strike terror into the people by an execution, which should furnish in its example nothing but what was intimidating. ♦EXECUTIONS AT CALDAS.♦ Insignificant as the cause was, the circumstances of this insulated tragedy deserve to be stated, as a specimen of the spirit in which the military government of Portugal was conducted. A number of French soldiers had been sent to the hospital at the Caldas, a munificent establishment of royal charity, to be cured of the itch by the baths at that place. They complained to General Thomiers, who commanded at Peniche, that the peasantry insulted them; and Thomiers sent a few stout grenadiers to take the first opportunity of resenting any mockery which might be offered to their comrades. These men paraded the streets, and drank at the wine-houses till they began to invite a quarrel. A countryman, heated like them with liquor, said to his companion as they were passing, I have killed seven of these fellows myself. The vaunt, which was probably as false as it was foolish, might have cost him his life in a regular way; but one of the French, who heard him, immediately attempted to cut him down; ... he ran to his mother’s house, which was close at hand, and calling out to his sister to help him, she stood in the door-way, let him enter, and instantly locking the door on the outside, put the key in her bosom. The French endeavoured to force the key from her; the woman was strong and determined: her cries were heard at a billiard table near, where a cadet of the regiment of Pato, which was quartered in the town, seeing a woman struggling upon the dunghill with three or four French soldiers, jumped out of the window, and ran to her assistance; the surgeon and a few others of the same regiment followed. A French captain also came up: by this time a considerable crowd had collected; the sword was knocked out of his hand by a stone, and he would have been in some danger, if a Portugueze sergeant had not called out to the mob to forbear, for he was a French officer. The soldiers now came up, and the tumult ended with no other immediate evil than that one or two of the first aggressors were slightly wounded: ... the woman was the greatest sufferer; for one of them, with the pummel of his sword, had beaten her cruelly upon the bosom. When the circumstances were made known to Thomiers, his first intention was to pass it over lightly: as the _Juiz de Fora_ of the town happened to be with him at the time, he desired him immediately to send him any four fellows of bad character, to whom a little punishment would do no harm, and who might represent the town on this occasion. Such an arrangement, curious as it is, would have been an improvement upon the ordinary course of Portugueze justice. Four men, accordingly, against whom complaints had been recently preferred by their wives, but who were entirely innocent of the matter in question, were arrested, and put in confinement. Nine days afterward, Loison, who commanded in the district, appeared at the head of three or four thousand men, bringing Thomiers with him. The woman was called upon to declare which of the soldiers had beaten her: she pointed out the man, and there ended this part of the inquiry: but on the other part, fifteen Portugueze were condemned to death; among them the _Escrivam da Camara_, and one of the most respectable inhabitants of the place, who happened to be in the room with her when the tumult took place. They had been seen from an opposite house each to take a musket and load it: ... this they acknowledged that they had done; but they had taken no part in the disturbance, nor even gone into the street. It was argued that they could not have loaded those guns with any other intention than that of discharging them against the French troops, and therefore they had incurred the penalty of death. That sentence was passed against them; and the uncle of the _Escrivam_, being one of the magistrates of the town, was ordered and compelled by Loison to be present at the execution! Five of the condemned persons took the alarm in time, and escaped. The surgeon leaped from a window, and broke his leg: he was carried to the place of butchery upon a hand-barrow, covered with a piece of sacking. While the execution was going on, the Prince of Salm Kirburg, a young officer in the French service, lifted up the cloth to see what was under it: the sight shocked him, and he said to the French general it was monstrous to bring a man in such a condition to suffer death, ... let them heal him first, and then do with him what they would. ♦NEVES, CH. 30.♦ This intercession availed: the surgeon was remanded to the hospital, and Loison was content with having seen nine men put to death for an affray in which not a single life had been lost.

The place where this tragedy was perpetrated is a little town, containing not more than three hundred inhabitants; for its baths and for the beauty of the surrounding country it was frequented by strangers and invalids, and more wealth and more comforts were to be found there than in any other of the provincial towns. In such a place, where every one of the victims was known to the whole neighbourhood, and all had their nearest relations and connexions upon the spot, it may well be conceived what horror and what deep and inextinguishable hatred this bloody execution would excite. The hatred Junot despised; ... Buonaparte prided himself upon setting the feelings of mankind at defiance, and systematically outraging them for the purpose of displaying his power; and in this, as in every thing else, his generals were his faithful agents. The murders at Caldas were committed upon this system, merely to strike terror through the country.... Junot had refrained from making such an exhibition at Lisbon after the riot which the first act of open usurpation provoked, because there were native troops in the city; the population of a great capital would become formidable if it were made desperate; and, moreover, there was the English squadron in sight. But an opportunity had been watched for when it might be done safely and with more effect; and an affair which the nearest general passed over at the time as unworthy of serious notice was made the pretext.

♦CONDUCT OF THE FRENCH GENERALS.♦

The immediate superintendence of these murders had been intrusted to Loison. This general, whose military talents were considerable, had lost an arm in action with the Portugueze in Rousillon; for which reason the people now called him the _Maneta_, a name which will long be held in abhorrence: not that he was more rapacious, or more merciless, than his comrades; but, from the rank he held, he had better opportunities for pillage; and it was his fortune to preside at almost all the butcheries which were committed during the first invasion. Of all the French generals in this army, it is said that there were only two who preserved a fair character. These were, Travot, who commanded at Cascaes, and Charlot at Torres Vedras. They mitigated, as far as in them lay, the evils of which they were the instruments; but they could do little toward repressing the cruelty, the excesses, and the abandoned licentiousness of their officers and men. The language which the French openly held was, that Portugal was a conquered country, and therefore they, as conquerors, had a right to take what they chose and do what they pleased there; ♦NEVES, II. 132.♦ and they acted in full conformity to this principle[21].

They had entered Portugal with so little baggage, that even the generals borrowed, or rather demanded, linen from those upon whom they were quartered. Soon, however, without having received any supplies from home, they were not only splendidly furnished with ornamental apparel, but sent to France large remittances in bills, money, and effects, especially in cotton, which the chief officers bought up so greedily that the price was trebled by their competition. The emigration had been determined on so late that many rich prizes fell into their hands. Fourteen cart-loads of plate from the patriarchal church reached the quay at Belem too late to be received on board. This treasure was conveyed back to the church, but the packing-cases bore witness of its intent to emigrate; and when the French seized it they added to their booty a splendid service for the altar of the sacrament, which had been wrought by the most celebrated artist in France. ♦1808. MARCH.♦ ♦NEVES, I. 247.♦ Junot fitted himself out with the spoils of Queluz, and Loison had shirts made of the cambric sheets belonging to the royal family which were found at Mafra. These palaces afforded precious plunder, which there had been no time to secure. The plate was soon melted into ingots, the gold and jewels divided among the generals, and the rich cloths of gold burnt for the metal, which constituted the smallest part of their value. ♦NEVES, I. 229.♦ The soldiers had not the same opportunities of pillage and peculation, but they suffered no opportunity to escape: ♦NEVES, I. 240–1.♦ those who were quartered in the great convent of St. Domingos pulled down the doors and window-frames, and put up the wood and iron work to auction. Yet their insolence was more intolerable than their rapacity, and their licentious habits worse than both. The Revolution had found the French a vicious people, and it had completed their corruption. It had removed all restraints of religion, all sense of honour, all regard for family or individual character; the sole object of their government was to make them soldiers, and for the purposes of such a government the wickedest men were the best. Junot himself set an example of profligacy: he introduced the fashion of lascivious dances, imported perhaps from Egypt ... one of them bears his name; and the Portugueze say that no man who regards the honour of his female relatives would suffer them to practise it. The Moors have left in the peninsula relics of this kind which are sufficiently objectionable: that, therefore, which could call forth this reprehension must be bad indeed. The decency of private families was insulted: the officers scrupled not to introduce prostitutes, without any attempt at disguising them, into the houses where they were quartered; and happy were the husbands and the parents who could preserve their wives and daughters from the attempts of these polluted guests.

♦STATE OF LISBON.♦

The situation of Lisbon, at this time, is one to which history affords no parallel: it suffered neither war, nor pestilence, nor famine, yet these visitations could scarcely have produced a greater degree of misery; and the calamity did not admit of hope, for whither at this time could Portugal look for deliverance? As the government was now effectually converted into a military usurpation, it became easy to simplify its operations; and most of the persons formerly employed in civil departments were dismissed from office. Some were at once turned off; others had documents given them, entitling them to be reinstated upon vacancies; a few had some trifling pension promised. All who had depended for employment and subsistence upon foreign trade were now destitute. Whole families were thus suddenly reduced to poverty and actual want. Their trinkets went first; whatever was saleable followed: things offered for sale at such a time were sold at half their value, while the price of food was daily augmenting. It was a dismal thing to see the Mint beset with persons who carried thither the few articles of plate with which they had formerly set forth a comfortable board, and the ornaments which they had worn in happier days. It was a dismal thing to see men pale with anxiety pressing through crowds who were on the same miserable errand, and women weeping as they offered their little treasure to the scales. Persons who had lived in plenty and respectability were seen publicly asking alms ... for thousands were at once reduced to the alternative of begging or stealing; and women, of unblemished virtue till this fatal season, walked the streets, offering themselves to prostitution, that the mother might obtain bread for her hungry children, ... the daughter for her starving parents. Such was the state to which one of the most flourishing cities in Europe was reduced!

♦APRIL.♦

As the general distress increased, tyranny became more rigorous, and rapine more impatient. Many of the convents could not pay the sum at which they had been assessed, their resources having suffered in the common calamity; their rents were consequently sequestered, and the intrusive government began to take measures for selling off their lands to discharge the contribution. The rents of inhabited houses were sequestered, to answer for the assessment upon untenanted ones belonging to the same owner. At the beginning of April a prorogation of two months, for the payment of the last third of the impost, was promised to those who should have paid the first by the end of the month; ♦OBSERVADOR PORTUGUEZ, P. 123.♦ on the 28th eight days grace was proclaimed for the payment of the first third; after which rigorous distress was to be levied upon the defaulters, not for the first payment alone, but for the whole contribution; ♦IBID. P. 174.♦ and this threat was enforced. Suicide, which had scarcely ever been heard of in Portugal, became now almost a daily act. There is no inhumanity like that of avarice. The Royal Hospital at Lisbon was one of the noblest institutions in the world. Under the house of Braganza it was the admiration of all who knew how munificently it was supported, and how admirably conducted: under the usurpation of the French more than a third part of the patients who died there perished for want of food. Meantime the French government, affecting to compassionate the misery which it had created, made an ostentatious display of relieving the poor, and issued billets of two francs each, ♦IBID. P. 200.♦ in Portugueze money 320 _reis_; four hundred of which were distributed weekly among forty parishes, and five more added afterwards for a parish which had been overlooked. This measure was none of that charity which vaunteth not itself. The billets were given only at one place; crowds flocked thither in expectation; and the amount of this eleemosynary expense was loudly boasted and exaggerated by the French and their partizans, ... the whole sum thus expended scarcely exceeding 40_l._ per week. After a few weeks the billets were not regularly paid, and at length they became worthless: and this was the extent of the liberality of this execrable government in a city where they reckoned their plunder by millions! ♦NEVES, II 157.♦ To complete the miseries of this devoted country anarchy alone was wanting; and it soon necessarily resulted from the barbarous system of the French wherever the immediate pressure of their authority was not felt. ♦EVORA NO SEU ABATIMENTO GLORIOSAMENTE EXALTADA, P. 5.♦ After the disbandment of the Portugueze army, troops of banditti were formed, who robbed in companies with perfect impunity. The edict which prohibited all persons from carrying arms left the traveller entirely at their mercy; and not content with being masters of the roads, they levied contributions upon the smaller towns and villages.

♦INCREASE OF THE SEBASTIANISTS.♦

The French, in the pride of their strength, and their ignorance of the national character, despised this poor oppressed people too much to be in any fear of what despair might impel them to; and one remarkable effect of the general misery tended at once to increase their contempt and their security. There exists in Portugal a strange superstition concerning King Sebastian, whose re-appearance is as confidently expected by many of the Portugueze as the coming of the Messiah by the Jews. The rise and progress of this belief forms a curious part of their history: it began in hope, when the return of that unhappy prince was not only possible, but might have been considered likely; it was fostered by the policy of the Braganzan party after all reasonable hope had ceased; and length of time served only to ripen it into a confirmed and rooted superstition, which even the intolerance of the Inquisition spared, for the sake of the loyal and patriotic feelings in which it had its birth. The Holy Office never interfered farther with the sect than to prohibit the publication of its numerous prophecies, which were suffered to circulate in private. For many years the persons who held this strange opinion had been content to enjoy their dream in private, shrinking from observation and from ridicule; but, as the belief had begun in a time of deep calamity, so now, when a heavier evil had overwhelmed the kingdom, it spread beyond all former example. Their prophecies were triumphantly brought to light, for only in the promises which were there held out could the Portugueze find consolation; and proselytes increased so rapidly that half Lisbon became Sebastianists. The delusion was not confined to the lower orders ... it reached the educated classes; and men who had graduated in theology became professors of a faith which announced that Portugal was soon to be the head of the Fifth and Universal Monarchy. Sebastian was speedily to come from the Secret Island; the Queen would resign the sceptre into his hands; he would give Buonaparte battle near Evora on the field of Sertorius, slay the tyrant, and become monarch of the world. These events had long been predicted; and it had long since been shown that the very year in which they must occur was mystically prefigured in the arms of Portugal. Those arms had been miraculously given to the founder of the Portugueze monarchy; and the five wounds were represented in the shield by as many round marks or ciphers, two on each side, and one in the middle. Bandarra the shoemaker, who was one of the greatest of their old prophets, had taught them the mystery therein. Place two O’s one upon the other, said he, place another on the right hand, then make a second figure like the first, and you have the date[22] given. The year being thus clearly designated, the time of his appearance was fixed for the holy week: on Holy Thursday they affirmed the storm would gather, and from that time till the Sunday there would be the most tremendous din of battle that had ever been heard in the world; ... for this April was the month of Lightning which Bandarra had foretold. In pledge of all this, some of the bolder believers declared that there would be a full moon on the 19th of March, ... when she was in the wane! It was a prevalent opinion that the _Encoberto_, or the Hidden One, as they called Sebastian, was actually on board the Russian squadron!

Those parts of the old prophecies which clearly pointed to the year 1640, when the event for which they were intended was accomplished, were omitted in the copies which were now circulated and sought with equal avidity. Other parts were easily fitted to the present circumstances. A rhyme, importing that he of Braganza would go out and he of France would come in, which was written concerning the war of the Succession, was now interpreted to point to the prince of Brazil and Buonaparte; and the imperial eagle which was preserved in the Spanish banners after Charles the Fifth, and against which so many denunciations had been poured out, was the device of this new tyrant. The Secret Island had lately been seen from the coast of Algarve, and the quay distinguished from which Sebastian was to embark, and the fleet in which he was to sail. The tongues of the dumb had been loosed, and an infant of three months had distinctly spoken in Lisbon to announce his coming. One believer read prophecies in the lines of those sea-shells upon which a resemblance to musical characters may be fancied. The effect of this infatuation was that in whatever happened the Sebastianists found something to confirm their faith, and every fresh calamity was hailed by them as a fulfilment of what had been foretold. The emigration of the Prince and the entrance of the French were both in the prophecies, and both therefore were regarded with complacency by the believers. When the French flag was hoisted they cried Bravo! these are the eagles at the sight of which Bandarra, one of the greatest prophets that ever existed, shed tears! During the tumult in Lisbon their cry was, Let them fire! let them kill! all this is in the prophecies. This folly gave occasion to many impositions, which served less to expose the credulity of individuals, than to increase the prevalent delusion. One Sebastianist found a letter from King Sebastian in the belly of a fish, appointing him to meet him at night on a certain part of the shore. A more skilful trick was practised upon another with perfect success. An egg was produced with the letters V. D. S. R. P. distinctly traced upon the shell; the owner of the hen in whose nest it was deposited fully believed that it had been laid in this state, and the letters were immediately interpreted to mean _Vive Dom Sebastiam Rei de Portugal_. The tidings spread over the city, and crowds flocked to the house. The egg was sent round in a silver salver to the higher order of believers. ♦NEVES, II. 142.♦ After it had been the great topic of conversation for three days, it was carried to Junot, by whom it was detained as worthy of being placed in the National Museum at Paris. These things naturally excited the contempt and ridicule of the French; nevertheless, when Junot, as if to put out of remembrance the very names of the Royal Family, ordered the ships that were called after the Prince and the Queen ♦OBS. PORT. P. 275.♦ to be called the Portugueze and the City of Lisbon, he altered the name of the St. Sebastian also.

♦EDICTS TO PREVENT EMIGRATION.♦

The Comte de Novion was succeeded in the police department by Lagarde, the fame of whose rapacities in Venice and other parts of Italy prepared the people to expect in him what they found. ♦APRIL 7.♦ The first edict of this new minister commanded the _Corregedores_ and _Juizes do Crime_, or Criminal Judges, to make out in the course of the ensuing fortnight a list of all the persons who had emigrated from their respective jurisdictions, specifying in every instance the place of abode both in town and country, the parish and street, the number and the floor of the house. Sequestration of the emigrant’s property was to follow as soon as possible; and any person, though father or child, or in their default the nearest heir, who should attempt to conceal or cover any part of the property, was to be treated as having criminally taken possession of that to which he had no right. If any person fled after the publication of this decree, his name, with all particulars concerning him and his disappearance, must be sent to the Corregedor, or Criminal Judge, within eight-and-forty hours, by the owner of the house which he had inhabited; or its chief tenant, if it were divided among many; or all its inhabitants, if the person dwelt in one of his own, and by those persons also to whom he should have left the keys and intrusted the care thereof. If any of these persons failed in informing in due time, they themselves would be considered as having intended to subtract property destined to sequestration. ♦APRIL 5.♦ It had already been ordered that all flags of truce from the British squadron should be fired upon: that any person caught in attempting to reach the fleet should be punished with imprisonment for not less than six months, or with death, according to the circumstances; and that the master of the boat, and all other persons convicted of having consented to assist in the escape, should suffer capital punishment. It was now enacted, that every one having newspapers, letters, or any communication of any kind from the British ships, should instantly deposit them, or give account thereof, at the Intendant General’s office, on pain of being treated as an agent of the English; and the same penalty was decreed against every one who should spread news from the fleet, unless he specified his authority and named the person from whom his intelligence came. Notice was also given that an office was opened to receive information against those who were seeking to emigrate, against the boatmen who would facilitate the escape of such persons, and against all agents of the English; and it was added, that on proof of the accusation, Junot would determine what reward should be given to the informer. ♦OBS. PORT, P. 224.♦ Lagarde had taken possession of the Inquisition; the old establishment of that devilish tribunal gave place only to one for political persecution, as if the edifice itself were polluted, and destined always to deserve the execrations of mankind.

♦SPECIAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL.

APRIL 8.♦

The next edict announced the formation of a special tribunal for all criminal cases. It was to consist of a President, who must be a superior French officer; a French _Capitam Relator_, which may be rendered Captain-Attorney-General; four other officers, of whom three must be French, the fourth a Portugueze; one Portugueze judge versed in criminal jurisprudence; and a secretary, who might be of either nation, but must speak both languages. Death was decreed against all who should be convicted of having been engaged in insurrection and popular commotion, or present at an armed assembly, these offences holding the first place: the same punishment for murder, either accomplished or attempted, arson, and robbery accompanied with violence; death or the galleys for burglary; stripes and the galleys for disobeying the law respecting the use of knives and other deadly weapons. It is remarkable, that though the preamble spoke of the insufficiency of the penal laws, all these punishments were, in the edict, sanctioned by references to the Portugueze, as well as to the French Code. But death for the crime of espionage, or for seducing any person to pass over to the enemy, was enacted by Junot’s own authority. The sentences of the Tribunal were to be without appeal. In the body of the decree it was said, that inasmuch as robberies had infinitely multiplied both in Lisbon and the whole kingdom, this Court should take cognizance of all offences of that nature, the General in Chief having so decreed in his desire of protecting with all his power the property of the inhabitants: but the Tribunal was never embodied; when any persons were to be _fusiladed_, a military tribunal sufficed for the summary forms with which these murders were committed.

♦MEASURES OF POLICE.♦

The new Intendant was active in issuing edicts. Lisbon was infested by dogs, who, belonging to no one, found subsistence in the filth and offal which were cast into the streets. ♦APR. 9.♦ The police guards were ordered to kill all whom they met in their rounds; the French soldiers were invited and entreated to assist in delivering the city from this nuisance, and the rabble were tempted to exert themselves by the promise of fifty _reis_ per head: as long as the premium was paid, these poor animals were hunted down without mercy; the French however soon became weary of the expense, and the butchery then ceased after more than 2000 had been killed. ♦APR. 11.♦ Another edict forbade old keys to be exposed for sale at the old iron stalls, because of the obvious facility which they afforded to thieves. These measures affected to reform glaring evils, though not of importance, and against which there were already existing laws; but Lagarde’s chief attention was directed to the two objects of securing the intrusive government and enriching himself. There soon occurred a curious specimen of his administration of justice. A quarrel took place in the Mouraria between a Portugueze soldier and three Frenchmen, and the Portugueze was killed. The scene of this transaction happened to be the worst part of Lisbon, and it occasioned a great tumult among the inhabitants of the _Rua Suja_, or Dirty Street, and three other such sties of filth and iniquity: more French collected; the mob had the advantage, and the riot was not appeased till a French serjeant of grenadiers was killed, a soldier mortally wounded, and three others severely cut by the knives of the Portugueze. Upon this an order appeared from M. Lagarde, decreeing that twelve of the inhabitants of these streets, being persons who bore the worst character there, should be apprehended and imprisoned for three months, unless they declared who were the chief instigators of the disturbance: that all the common strumpets who lodged in these four streets should quit them within four days, on pain of having their heads shaved and being banished from Lisbon; and that all eating and drinking houses in the said streets should be shut up for six months, unless the owners would give information against some person concerned in the affray. The result of the order was, that every strumpet who could pay a six-and-thirty was suffered to continue in her abode as not having been concerned in the riot: that the taverners paid from one to five pieces each, according to their means; the victuallers from eight milreis to two pieces; ♦OBS. PORT. P. 250, 256.♦ the twelve hostages from twelve milreis to six pieces each; and the sum total which M. Lagarde extorted from these wretches as the amends for two Frenchmen killed and three wounded, amounted, according to an exact account, to 862 milreis; more than five times the weekly sum distributed by the intrusive government among the starving population of Lisbon.

♦DEPUTATION OF PORTUGUEZE TO BAYONNE.

APR. 22.♦