tempted, by the most atrocious means, to terrify and keep them down. On the 7th of March, a body of these ruffians entered the little towns of Carril and Villa Garcia, murdered some old men and women in the streets, set fire to the houses of those persons whom they suspected of being patriots, and then retreated to Padron. To lay waste villages with fire, to abandon the women to the soldiery, to put to death every man whom they took in arms, was the system upon which Ney and Soult proceeded, in conformity to the orders of Buonaparte. Such a system, if it failed to intimidate, necessarily recoiled upon their Own heads; and the thirst of vengeance gave a character of desperation to the courage of the Galicians. A party of 105 French were pillaging a convent, when Don Bernardo Gonzalez, with two-andthirty Spaniards, fell upon them, and did such execution while the enemy were in disorder and encumbered with their plunder, that only sixteen of them escaped. During three days the French attempted to destroy the peasants of Deza and Trasdira; the men of Banos and Tabieros came to aid their countrymen, and the invaders at length retreated with the loss of 114 men. A party March 9. from Pontevedra entered Marin: here the Lively and the Plover opened their fire upon them, and as they fled from the English ships, their officers fell into the hands of the peasantry. In this kind of perpetual war the French were wasted; a malignant fever broke out among them, which raged particularly at their head-quarters in Santiago, and many who had no disease

died of the fatigue which they suf fered from being incessantly harassed, and kept night and day on the alarm.

The bulletins had fixed Soult's arrival at Lisbon for the end of February. It was not however till the beginning of the following month that he began his march. The Minho was to be crossed; there is no bridge over it in any part where it forms the boundary line between the two kingdoms, and it is never fordable but at one spot, above Melgaco, and then only after an unusual continuance of dry weather. Soult wished to cross without ascending the whole way to Orense, which is about four-and-forty miles from Tuy, and the best place seemed at its mouth, in defiance of the old frontier fortress of Caminha. The works, originally* ill-planned and illsituated, had long been neglected, and though there were still a few guns mounted, the French, despising both the place and the enemy, preferred crossing in the face of this fortress to the delay and fatigue of going round. In order, however, to deceive the Portugueze garrison, the troops were entirely withdrawn from the opposite bank, making a feint of marching up the stream. Boats meantime had been collected at the neigh bouring fishing town, La Guardia; they were brought over land to the most convenient point of embarkation, and soldiers enough to storm the ruin. ous works of Caminha attempted the passage. But the Portugueze had not been duped into any remissness of their duty; they opened an effectual fire from a few guns; some of the boats were sunk, one reached the left bank with thirty-eight men and two officers, who were immediately made

prisoners. The rest returned to the Galician shore.

Thus baffled in his attempt, Marshal Soult ascended the right bank of the Minho, and crossed by the bridge at Orense on the 6th of March. This line of route brought him near Romana, to whose outposts he sent a trumpeter, requesting permission for an officer to pass with a letter to the Marquis. It was granted; and, incautiously, the Spaniards suffered the Frenchman to pass without having blindfolded him. Soult had selected an intelligent officer, whose real object was to survey the position of the patriots, the letter being nothing more than an offer to the Marquis of honours and employment in the intruder's name, if he would recognize him as king, and deliver up his army. Romana only glanced at the contents, and ordered the Frenchman to tell his general, that the only answer he could give to such proposals, was from the mouth of the cannon. Soult, however, had effected his purpose, and the next day making a desperate charge on the right of the Spanish troops, who were posted to the south-east of Monterey, on the heights of Orsona, he bore every thing before him. Romana himself narrowly escaped being made prisoner, part of his baggage was taken, and great part of that of the army. The loss of men was not great. It was boasted in the bulletin, that 2000 were made prisoners, and the whole of the rear guard, consisting of 3000, destroyed, in a series of actions at Inzo, Allarez, and Osono. In reality the number of prisoners did not exceed 300, nearly 200 of whom effected their escape, and joined the Spanish army at Sanabria, to which place Romana retreated. The pro

*

portion of the slain must in like manner be reduced. Having pursued the patriots one day, Soult turned back to pursue the original object of his expedition, and on the 13th he appeared before Chaves, the Aquæ Flavia of the Romans, so named because of its hot springs, and in honour of its founder Vespasian. The baths, when flattery in course of nature was out of date, supplanted the memory of the emperor, and the place obtained the more appropriate name of Aquæ Calide, which in process of time was abbreviated and corrupted into Chaves. The hot springs are in a place called the Tabolado, between the walls and the river Tamega; they are said to be more efficacious than any others in Portugal, but the buildings which formerly served to accommodate invalids who came to derive benefit from these waters, were demolished towards the close of the seventeenth century, in order that the guns might command the approach on that side without impediment. The Count de Mesquitella, by whose orders this was done, has been censured for it, as having committed a certain mischief for the sake of a frivolous precaution. It is the frontier town of Portugal, opposite to Monterey, and when war was carried on upon a less extensive scale, was considered as an important post. The walls were now broken in many places; the citadel indeed was in better repair, but both this and the town are commanded from several points, and at short distances. The Portugueze general, Francisco de Silveira, was stationed here with about 3000 regular troops, and a body of militia and peasantry, who were armed chiefly with pikes and fowling-pieces; but, knowing that the place was untena

ble, and how ill Portugal could afford the loss of this little army, he retreated, on the approach of the French, five leagues, to Villa Pouca. An outcry was raised against him for this movement, and he was accused of treason: Rash men, whose patriotism had neither judgement to guide, nor virtue to sustain it, joined in the clamour with those agitators who were in the service of the French; and some of the militia and of the peasantry were persuaded by them, in contempt of Silveira's orders, to remain in the town and undertake its defence. Had the character of this general been any way doubtful, and had he been less esteemed and less beloved by the soldiers, there can be little doubt but that he would have fallen a sacrifice to unjust suspicion.

The show of defence which was made at Chaves induced Soult to invest it. By this time the men, who, in violation of discipline, had chosen to remain there, grew cool; they perceived that the place was untenable; and surrendered on the third day without having fired a March 15. shot. The French then proceeded towards Braga. Between this city and the frontier there is some of the most defensible ground in the whole kingdom, and here Bernardino Freire de Andrade, the governor-general of the northern provinces, had stationed himself with a few regular troops and a great number of peasantry, men as Brave and as patriotic as the best general could desire, but totally undisciplined, though the example of Sir Robert Wilson proves that there had been sufficient time to discipline men so zealous and so docile. No sooner was it known that the French were approaching the frontiers, than Freire, instead of attempting to defend the

passes, or taking advantage of the nature of the country, retreated to Braga, the situation and old walls of which afforded nothing favourable for defence. This measure occasioned a general alarm; peasantry from all parts came flocking in, some retreating before the French, some hastening to meet them, some armed with pikes,-those who had fowling-pieces looking for ammunition,-all eager to be embodied and led against the enemy. The city and its vicinity were in an uproar; and the people, seeing that no measures of resistance were taken, became clamorous. The armed inhabitants waited upon Freire, and requested that he would lead them out, and resist the progress of the enemy in the mountains. He replied, it would be madness to at tack them in the passes, but that he had prepared every thing, and would give them battle in due time and place. Such an answer would not satisfy men who saw no preparations except what they themselves had made. A cry went forth that ammunition had been refused to those who had fire arms; and presently it was discovered that cartridges had not been served to the soldiers. At this the fury of the people became ungovern. able; no longer doubting that they were betrayed by the governor, the pikemen attacked his house: It was in vain that his guards resisted them; they forced their way, and Freire and his aid-de-camp were put to death upon the spot. One of his secreta ries, after having received several stabs, cried for mercy, and promised to confess the whole treason. In con. sequence of the dying man's declaration, the Marquis de Loule and three other nobles were displaced from their commands, arrested, and sent prisoners to Lisbon; for the people

repressed their fury, believing that they had obtained legal proofs against them. It was said that the secretary discovered where ammunition had been buried, and also gave up two papers containing the terms of agreement between Freire and the French; but it is hardly possible that either of these charges can be true. Ammunition could not be buried without a great number of accomplices and the most imminent risk of discovery, and it is not to be believed that any man would keep in his own possession written proofs of his own treason, which, till it was accomplished, endangered his ruin, and after it was accomplished, could be of no advantage to him. Freire's guilt, how ever, seems to have been admitted by the Portugueze government. His whole conduct toward Sir Arthur Wellesley shews him to have been a weak and presumptuous man; and perhaps the mortification which he felt when he found himself treated as such, made him lend a readier ear to the insinuations of the French, and devote himself more willingly to their service. Baron D'Eben, a major in the English service, and equerry to the Prince of Wales, was at that time in Braga. He commanded the second battalion of Sir Robert Wilson's legion, and had been left by him at Porto, with instructions to follow from thence; but afterwards his instructions had been changed, in consequence of the apprehended attack on the northern provinces, and he was sent to act under Freire with what force could be collected at Porto. The people had full confidence in him as a British of ficer, for in every part of Portugal the British character is known and loved, and they had proofs of his abilities in the state of discipline to which he had brought his men. Up

on him, therefore, they conferred the command by acclamation, and under such circumstances there was no alternative but to accept it. They insisted that he should lead them against the enemy. He advanced therefore to Carvalho d'Este, a strong position a few leagues from the city, and there, during three successive days, he repelled the attacks which Soult made to dislodge him. This he effected principally by the excellent conduct of his own battalion, which consisted of not more than 600 effective men. But these were all upon whom he could rely. However well the armed inhabitants of Braga and the peasantry were disposed to second him, they were altogether without discipline, nor had he officers enough to direct their exertions. On the fourth day, Soult's March 19. artillery forced the pass, the peasantry fled, and Baron D'. Eben with his battalion and some few regulars and militia, made an orderly retreat to Porto.

This was related in France as a victory over 20,000 Portugueze, who lost 6000 men and all their artillery! It left indeed the road to Porto open: But, though the distance between that city and Braga is only two-and-thirty miles, five days elapsed before the French arrived there, so perpetually were they harassed and impeded by an enemy who kept the country against them, though they could not resist them in battle. No sooner was Silveira assured of their advance, than he hastened back from Villa Pouca with his little army, and appeared before Chaves. Soult had left about 1300 men here, including his sick; and here he thought he had secured his Spanish prisoners, 114 in number, being all that he had brought away from his boasted victories over

Romana. The French thinking it more easy to beat the Portugueze in battle, than defend against them the walls of a town where the people would take part with the assailants, advanced to meet them; but superiority of discipline was of little avail in the management of so small a body, and the Portugueze had the advantage in number. About 600 of March 21. the invaders were killed or wounded, and the remainder took shelter in the citadel called Fort St Francisco: the place was not stored for defence, and the French general, Messinger, with the remainder of his detachment, was compelled to surrender prisoners of war. Silveira then followed the French army, and harassed their rear, till they approached Porto, then he took post at the bridge of Amarante, upon the Tamega, a strong and important position. Antiquarians have endeavoured to prove that this bridge was the work of Trajan; but a tradition too long established, and too fondly believed to be shaken by any historical arguments, has ascribed its foundation to St Gonzalo de Amarante, a saint, who, having taken up his abode there in a hermitage, and commiserating the numerous accidents that happened in passing the river, determined to build a bridge. The alms which he obtained would have fallen short of the necessary charges for feeding his workmen, if the saint had had no other resources; he, however, by making a cross upon the water, drew as many fish to his hand as he pleased to take, and then supplied his labourers with a fountain of oil from the rock for the purpose of dressing them, and another of wine, that their hearts might be gladdened, as well as their countenances made chearful.

The approach of the French threw the people of Porto into the most

violent agitation. Their first impulse was to take vengeance upon their own traitor- March 21. ous countrymen. They killed a major whom they suspected, and on the following day, breaking open the prison where Oliveira, their former governor, was confined, they put him to death with their knives, took out fourteen other partizans of the enemy and shot them, then drag. ged the bodies through the streets, and threw them into the Douro. However culpable such excesses may be, the chief blame lay in the government for having suffered these men to lie so long in prison, instead of bringing them to trial, and acquitting or sentencing them to death or banishment according to their deserts. Porto was ill prepa red for defence; the people had has tily thrown up a cordon of detached batteries round the town and suburbs, ill-constructed, injudiciously placed, and the line was so extensive, that an army of sixty thousand men would have been necessary to defend it, Captain Von Arenschild, an artillery officer of the German legion, arrived in time to remedy some of these defects, and erect other works which, if there had been troops to defend them, might have saved the town. There were men enough, as brave, as ardent, and as full of hatred for the enemy as the occasion required;the courage and the docility of the Portugueze have since been esta blished by the most indisputable and splendid proofs; at this time they had none to direct them, their passions were at the height, fear of treason prevented them from depending upon their officers, and under such circum stances the officers were more afraid of their own men than of the enemy. Never was a more glorious opportu. nity lost for want of a commanding mind like Palafox. Soult approach