CHAPTER II.
The first serious blow was struck at Oporto; the news of what had taken place all over Spain was known there in June. General Bellesta, the chief Spanish officer, immediately took an honourable and resolute part. He made the French general Quesnel, with his staff, prisoners; after which, calling together the Portuguese authorities, he declared that they were free to act as they judged most fitting for their own interests, and then marched to Gallicia with his army and captives.
The opinions of the leading men at Oporto were divided upon the great question of resistance; but, after some vicissitudes, the boldest side was successful, and the insurrection, although at one moment quelled by the French party, was finally established in Oporto, and soon extended along the banks of the Duero and the Minho, and to those parts of Beira which lie between the Mondego and the sea-coast.
Junot being informed of this event, perceived that no time was to be lost in disarming the Spanish regiments quartered in the neighbourhood of Lisbon; but this was not an easy operation. Carraffa’s division was above six thousand men, and without employing the garrisons of the citadel and forts of Lisbon, it was difficult to collect an equal force of French. The suspicions of the Spanish regiments had been already excited, they were reluctant to obey the French Thiebault. generals, and one quartered at Alcacer de Sal had actually resisted the orders of the general-in-chief himself. To avoid a tumult was the great object, because in Lisbon fifteen thousand Gallicians were ordinarily engaged as porters and water-carriers, and if a popular movement had been excited, these men would naturally have assisted their countrymen. Notwithstanding these difficulties, Junot, in the night of that day upon which he received the information of Bellesta’s defection, arranged all his measures; and the next day the Spanish troops being, under various pretexts, assembled in such numbers, and in such places, that resistance became impossible, they yielded to necessity, and were disarmed, and placed on board the hulks in the Tagus: eight hundred of the regiment of Murcia and three hundred of that of Valencia only escaping. Thus Junot in the course of twenty-four hours, and with very little bloodshed, succeeded, by his promptness and dexterity, in averting a very serious danger.
The decision and success of this stroke against the Spanish division produced considerable effect, but not sufficient to prevent the insurrection from becoming general; all couriers, and officers carrying orders or commanding small posts of communications, were suddenly cut off, and Junot, reduced by a single blow from fifty to twenty-eight thousand men, found himself isolated, and dependent upon his individual resources, and the courage of his soldiers, for the maintenance of his conquest, and even for the preservation of his army.
The Russian squadron indeed contained six thousand seamen and marines, but, while they consumed a great quantity of provisions, it was evident, from certain symptoms, that they could not be depended upon as useful allies, except in the case of an English fleet attempting to force the entrance of the river. In this situation the duke of Abrantes at first thought of seizing Badajos, with a view to secure still more effectually the best line of retreat into Spain, but the Spanish army of Estremadura had assembled there, under the command of general Galuzzo, and frustrated that scheme.
General Avril’s column having failed to effect its junction with Dupont, returned to Estremos, and it is probable that Junot never intended that it should be otherwise; for no great efforts appear to have been made by Avril to attain the object of the march. Thiebault. Loison was in the north, but orders were sent to him, to repair with his column to Oporto and assume the command of that city. Upon the 5th of June, one day previous to Bellesta’s defection, Loison had arrived at Almeida, and upon the 12th had made himself master of Fort Conception, a strong, but ill-placed Spanish fortification on the frontier. The commandant being partly persuaded, and partly frightened into a surrender of his charge, retired, with his garrison, to Ciudad Rodrigo.
Upon receipt of the despatch which directed him to march to Oporto, Loison quitted Almeida, and endeavoured to penetrate into the province of Entre Minho e Duero by the route of Amarante, but his division was too weak to force his way through such a strong country (where the population was in full insurrection), and to take a great city, and it was possible that general Bellesta might have returned and fallen upon his flank. Swayed by these reasons, Loison advanced cautiously, and without vigour. Being slightly opposed at the position of Mezam Frias, and hearing that his baggage had been attacked at the same time by insurgents in his rear, he fell back at once upon Villa Real, there he engaged in another trifling skirmish, and then quitting his first route, crossed the Douero at Lamego, and marched to Castro d’Airo, being harassed on the road by the armed peasantry of the mountains skirting his line of march. At Castro d’Airo he faced about, and dispersed the assailants with some slaughter, and then continued his movement to Celerico without further molestation; at Celerico a body of insurgents fled without firing a shot; and Loison dividing his troops, sent one half to Trancoso, and with the other marched to Guarda, intending to scour that part of the country, and to put down the insurrection; but at this time he received one of twenty-five despatches sent by Junot for the purpose of recalling him to Lisbon; all the rest had been intercepted. Loison, upon the receipt of this despatch, returned to Almeida the 1st of July. Leaving his sick, his wounded, and weak men there, and making up the garrison to the number of twelve hundred and fifty, he removed all the palisades, guns, and materials from Fort Conception, completely ruined the defences of that place, and then prosecuted his march to Lisbon by the route of Guarda.
While these events were passing in the north, another insurrection took place in the south: general Maurin commanded in the Algarves; and some Portuguese artillerymen and other native troops were attached to the French brigade under his orders. A rising of the people commenced in the neighbourhood of Faro, and soon extended to that town, and along the coast. Maurin was confined to his bed by illness, and fell into the hands of the insurgents; colonel Maransin supplied his place, but the country was too extensive to be controlled by sixteen hundred men. The Portuguese soldiers went over to their countrymen: the Spaniards from Andalusia threatened to move across the Guadiana, and general Spencer, with five thousand British soldiers, appeared off Ayamonte. Maransin immediately fell back in haste upon Mertola, leaving part of his baggage, his military chest, his accounts, and above a hundred prisoners, besides killed and wounded, in the hands of the patriots. At Mertola he was safe; and general Spencer merely landed a few officers, and ordered rations for five thousand men; while the Portuguese wisely remained within the range of the mountains which protect the northern frontier of Algarve.
The circle was now closing fast round Junot; emissaries from Oporto excited the people to rise as far as Coimbra. At that town a small French post was easily overpowered, and a junta formed; from thence new efforts spread the flame to Condexa, Pombal, and Leria; and a student of the Coimbra university, named Zagalo, with considerable address and boldness, got possession of the small, but important fort of Figueras, at the mouth of the Mondego; the commandant (a Portuguese officer), with a hundred men, capitulated; the terms were broken, but no violence seems to have been committed upon the prisoners.
On the other side, Abrantes was threatened by the insurgents of the valley of the Zezere; and the Spaniards, under Galuzzo, crossed the Guadiana at Juramenha, and occupied that place and Campo Mayor. Kellerman’s head-quarters were at Elvas; a great, although confused body of men menaced his position, but, supported by the strength of the town and Fort La-Lyppe, he easily maintained himself. Avril remained unmolested at Estremos, and Evora, held by a small garrison, was tranquil; but the neighbourhood of Setuval was in commotion; the populace of Lisbon was unquiet; and at this critical moment general Spencer, whose force report magnified to ten thousand men, appeared at the mouth of the Tagus.
Junot held a council of war. After hearing the opinions of the principal general officers, he decided Thiebault. on the following plan: 1º. To collect the sick in such hospitals as could be protected by the ships of war. 2º. To secure the Spanish prisoners by moving the hulks in which they were confined as far as possible from the city. 3º. To arm and provision the fortresses of Lisbon, and to remove the powder from the magazines to the ships. 4º. To abandon all the other fortresses in Portugal with the exception of Setuval, Almeida, Elvas, and Peniché, and, finally, to concentrate the army in Lisbon. In the event of bad fortune, the duke of Abrantes determined to defend the capital as long as he was able, and then to cross the Tagus, make way by the left bank upon Elvas, and from thence retreat to Madrid, Valladolid, or Segovia, as he might find expedient. This well-conceived plan was not executed, the first alarm soon died away, Spencer returned to Cadiz, and when the insurrection was grappled with, it proved to be more noisy than dangerous.
Kellerman recalled Maransin from Mertola and prepared himself to march to Lisbon, but the inhabitants of the town of Villa Viciosa having risen against a company of French troops quartered there, the latter took refuge in an old castle, and defended themselves until Kellerman sent general Avril from Estremos to succour them; this the latter effected without difficulty; the Portuguese fled the moment he appeared, and a very few were killed in the pursuit. But the town of Beja followed the example of Villa Viciosa, and colonel Maransin, who was preparing to retire from Mertola, being informed of it, marched in that direction with such rapidity, that he passed over forty miles in eighteen hours, and falling suddenly upon the patriots, defeated them with considerable slaughter, himself losing thirty killed and fifty wounded: the town was pillaged, and some houses were burned.
General Thiebault writes, that an obstinate combat took place in the streets, but the Portuguese never made head for a moment against a strong body, during the whole course of the insurrection. How, indeed, was it possible for a collection of miserable peasants, armed with scythes, pitchforks, a few old fowling pieces, and a little bad powder, under the command of some ignorant countryman or fanatic friar, to maintain a battle against an efficient and active corps of French soldiers? For there is this essential difference to be observed in judging between the Spanish and Portuguese insurrections; the Spaniards had many great and strong towns free from the presence of the French, and large provinces in which to collect and train forces at a distance from the invaders; but in Portugal the naked peasants were forced to go to battle the instant even of assembling. The loss which Maransin sustained must have arisen from the stragglers (who in a consecutive march of forty miles would have been numerous) having been cut off and killed by the peasantry. This blow, however, quieted the Alentejo for the moment, and Kellerman having cleared the neighbourhood of Elvas from the Spanish parties, placed a commandant in La-Lyppe, and concentrated the detachments under Maransin and Avril, proceeded towards Lisbon.
The duke of Abrantes was in great perplexity; the intercepting of his couriers and isolated officers had been followed by the detection of all his spies, and he was exposed, without assistance, to every report which the fears of his army, or the ingenuity of the people, could give birth to. Now there are few nations that can pretend to vie with the Portuguese and Spaniards in the fabrication of plausible reports: among those current, the captivity of Loison was one; but nothing was certainly known except that the insurgents from the valley of the Mondego were marching towards Lisbon. General Margaron was therefore ordered to disperse them, and, if possible, to open a communication with general Loison: he advanced, with three thousand men and six pieces of artillery, to Leria, whither the patriots had retired in disorder when they heard of his approach. The Thiebault. greater part dispersed at once, but those who remained were attacked on the 5th of July, and a scene Accursio de Neves. similar to that of Beja ensued; the French boasted of victory, the insurgents called it massacre and pillage.
In a combat with armed peasantry, it is difficult to know where the fighting ceases and the massacre begins: men dressed in peasants’ clothes are observed firing, and moving about, without order, from place to place; when do they cease to be enemies? They are more dangerous when single than together; they can hide their muskets in an instant and appear peaceable; the soldier passes and is immediately shot from behind.
The example at Leria did not however deter the people of Thomar from declaring against the French; and the neighbourhood of Alcobaça rose at the same time. Thus Margaron was placed between two new insurrections at the moment he had quelled one. English fleets, with troops on board, were said to be hovering off the coast, and the most alarming reports relative to Loison were corroborated, his safety was despaired of, when suddenly authentic intelligence of his arrival at Abrantes revived the spirits of the general-in-chief and the army.
After arranging all things necessary for the security of Almeida, Loison had quitted that town the 2d of July, at the head of three thousand four hundred and fifty men, and arrived at Abrantes upon the 8th, having in seven days passed through Guarda, Atalaya, Sarsedas, Corteja, and Sardoval. During this rapid march he dispersed several bodies of insurgents that were assembled on the line of his route, especially at Guarda and Atalaya. It has been said that twelve hundred bodies were stretched upon the field of battle near the first town; this is absurd beyond all measure. Twelve hundred slain would give, at a low average, five thousand wounded: six thousand two hundred killed and wounded by a corps of three thousand four hundred and fifty men, in half an hour! and this without cavalry or artillery, and among fastnesses that vie in ruggedness with any in the world! The truth is, that the peasants, terrified by the reports that Loison himself spread to favour his march, fled on all sides, and if two hundred and fifty Portuguese were killed and wounded during the whole passage, it was the utmost. The distance from Almeida to Abrantes is more than a hundred and eighty miles, the greatest part is a mountain pathway rather than a road, and the French were obliged to gather their provisions from the country as they passed; now, to forage, to fight several actions, to pursue active peasants well acquainted with the country so closely as to destroy them by thousands, and to march a hundred and eighty miles over bad roads, and all in seven days, is impossible.
The whole French army was now concentrated; the insurrection at Alcobaça had been quelled by Kellerman, and that of Thomar was also quieted, but the insurgents from Oporto were gathering strength at Coimbra; the last of the native soldiers deserted the French colours; the Spanish troops at Badajos, strengthened by a body of Portuguese fugitives, and Thiebault. commanded by one Moretti, were preparing to enter the Alentejo, which was again in commotion: the Parliamentary Papers, 1809. English admiral had opened a communication with the insurgents on the side of Setuval, and the patriots were also assembled in considerable numbers at Alcacer do Sal.
In this dilemma Junot resolved to leave the northern people quiet for a while, and to bend his force against the Alentejo, because that was his line of retreat upon Spain; from thence only he could provision the capital, and there also his cavalry could act with the most effect. Accordingly, Loison, with seven thousand infantry, twelve hundred cavalry, and eight pieces of artillery, crossed the Tagus the 25th of July, and marched by Os Pegoens, Vendanovas, and Montemor. At the latter place he defeated an advanced guard, which fled to Evora, where the Portuguese general Leite had assembled the mass of the insurgents; and assisted by three or four thousand Spanish troops under Moretti, had taken a position to cover the town.
When Loison came up he directed Margaron and Solignac to turn the flanks of the patriots, and fell upon their centre himself. The Spanish auxiliaries performed no service, and the Portuguese soon took to flight, but there was a great and confused concourse; a strong cavalry was let loose upon them, and many being cut off from the main body, were driven into the town, which had been deserted by the principal inhabitants. There, urged by despair, they endeavoured to defend the walls and the streets for a few moments, but were soon overpowered, the greater part slain, and the houses pillaged. The French lost about two or three hundred men, but the number of Thiebault. the Portuguese and Spaniards that fell was very considerable; and disputes having arisen between the [Appendix, No. 12.] troops of those nations, the latter ravaged the country in their retreat with more violence than the French.
Loison, after resting two days at Evora, proceeded to Elvas, and drove away the numerous Spanish parties which had long infested the neighbourhood of that fortress, and were become extremely obnoxious to friends and enemies. His detachments scoured the country round, and were accumulating provisions to form great magazines at Elvas, when their labours were suddenly interrupted by a despatch from the duke of Abrantes, directing Loison to return to the right bank of the Tagus. The British army, so long expected, had descended upon the coast, and manly warfare reared its honest front amidst the desolating scenes of insurrection.
OBSERVATIONS.
1º. This expedition to the Alentejo was an operation of military police, rather than a campaign. Junot wished to repress the spirit of insurrection by sudden and severe examples. The actions of general Loison were therefore of necessity harsh, but they have been represented as a series of massacres and cruelties of the most revolting nature, because he himself disseminated such stories in order to increase the terror which it was the object of his expedition to create; and the credulity of the nation that produced the Sebastianists was not easily shocked. The Portuguese eagerly listened to tales so derogatory to their enemies and congenial to their own revengeful disposition. The anecdotes of French barbarity current for two years after the convention of Cintra, were notoriously false. The same story being related by persons remote from each other, is no argument of their truth. The reports that Loison was captured on his march from Almeida, reached Junot through Thiebault. fifty different channels; there were men to declare that they had beheld him bound with cords, others to tell how he had been entrapped, some named the places he had been carried through in triumph, and his habitual and characteristic expressions were quoted. The story was complete and the parts were consistent; yet the whole was not only false, but the rumour had not even the slightest foundation of truth.
2º. The Portuguese accounts of the events of this period are but angry amplifications of every real or pretended act of French barbarity and injustice, and the crimes of individuals are made matter of accusation against the whole army. The French accounts are more plausible, but scarcely more safe as authorities, seeing that they are written by men, who being for the most part actors in the scenes they describe, are naturally concerned to defend their own characters: their military vanity also has had its share in disguising the simple facts of the insurrection; for willing to enhance the merit of the troops, they have exaggerated the number of the insurgents, the obstinacy of the combats, and the loss of the patriots. English party writers, greedily fixing upon such relations, have changed the name of battle into massacre; and thus prejudice, conceit, and clamour, have combined, to violate the decorum of history, and to perpetuate error.
3º. It would, however, be an egregious mistake to suppose, that because the French were not monsters, there existed no cause for the acrimony with which their conduct has been assailed. The duke of Abrantes, although not cruel, nor personally obnoxious to the Portuguese, was a sensual and violent Napoleon in Las Casas. person, and his habits were expensive; such a man is always rapacious, and as the character of the chief influences the manners of those under his command, it may be safely assumed that his vices were aped by many of his followers. Now the virtuous general Travot was esteemed, and his person respected, even in the midst of tumult, by the Portuguese, while Loison was scarcely safe from their vengeance when surrounded by his troops. The execrations poured forth at the mere mention of “the bloody Maneta,” as, from the loss of his hand, he was called, proves that he must have committed many heinous acts; and Kellerman appears to have been as justly stigmatised for rapacity, as Loison was for violence.
4º. It has been made a charge against the French generals, that they repressed the hostility of the Portuguese and Spanish peasants by military executions; but in doing so they only followed the custom of war, and they are not justly liable to reproof, save where they may have carried their punishments to excess, and displayed a wanton spirit of cruelty. All armies have an undoubted right to protect themselves when engaged in hostilities. An insurrection of armed peasants is a military anarchy. Men in such circumstances cannot be restrained within the bounds of civilised warfare; they will murder stragglers, torture prisoners, destroy hospitals, poison wells, and break down all the usages that soften the enmities of modern nations. They wear no badge of an enemy, and their devices cannot, therefore, be guarded against in the ordinary mode. Their war is one of extermination, and it must be repressed by terrible examples, or the civilized customs of modern warfare must be discarded, and the devastating system of the ancients revived. Hence, the usage of refusing quarter to an armed peasantry, and burning their villages, however unjust and barbarous it may appear at first view, is founded upon a principle of necessity, and is in reality a vigorous infliction of a partial evil, to prevent universal calamity. But however justifiable it may be in theory, no wise man will hastily resort to it, and no good man will carry it to any extent.