♦Measures of the Junta.♦
The Bishop, D. Antonio de S. José e Castro, immediately published a manifesto, in the name of the Prince Regent, declaring that the French Government was abolished and exterminated in that country, and the royal authority restored and to be exercised plenarily and independently by the Provisional Junta of Porto, till the government instituted by his Royal Highness should be re-established. The Junta therefore gave orders, that in all places the Prince should be proclaimed, and the royal arms uncovered and respected as heretofore they always had been, and now again hereafter were to be; and they called upon all constituted authorities to act accordingly. His next business was to dispatch a messenger to General Sepulveda at Braganza, requesting succours, especially in cavalry, and an officer capable of taking the command, whether for attack or defence. The Visconde de Balsamam was sent to the British brig, which was still hovering off the bar, and a communication was thus opened with England. Voluntary contributions were liberally made, the pay of the soldiers was raised, and as a measure not less popular, a Tribunal de Inconfidencia was instituted, to take cognizance of causes in which treason was suspected. The prevalence of suspicion is indeed one of the many dreadful evils in such calamitous times. An example of this occurred before the close of ♦Arrest of Cardoso.♦ the day. Colonel José Cardoso de Menezes Soutomaior had been that day appointed to the chief command, as being the senior officer. Happening to send a messenger that evening with letters upon public business to the Juizes de fora at Oliveira de Azemeis and Recardaens, he forgot to provide him with the passport which was now necessary for crossing the bridge. The messenger was therefore stopped by the guards, and either from the confusion occasioned by fear, or from a confidence of protection, refused to declare whither he was going, or by whom he was sent. Upon this the guards searched him, and found the two letters. These would have explained the matter and cleared him; but perceiving that a third letter which he carried more secretly about his person was in danger of being found, he drew it out, tore it in pieces with his teeth, and threw it over the bridge. A few fragments were saved, but not enough to give any indication of its contents. The messenger was immediately arrested as a traitor, and carried before José Cardoso, who thought at first to end the business by desiring that the man might be left with him, and saying that he would answer for him. The people (for a crowd had collected on the way) transferred at this their suspicions upon Cardoso himself; and to satisfy them, he found it necessary to open the two letters, and thus acquaint the mob with arrangements which it had not been intended that they should know. But he could give no account of the paper which had been torn; and therefore the mob, having thrown his messenger into prison, returned to arrest him and carry him before the Bishop. Protestations of innocence were vain, and it was evident that his life would be in danger on the way; some of his friends, however, bethought themselves of a happy stratagem; they rung the alarm bells, and raised a cry that the enemy was approaching. Evening was now closing; the populace left their intended victim to go in quest of the invaders, and passed the night in hurrying here and there upon the false report. Cardoso meantime got in safety to the Bishop’s palace, and related all that had passed. As far as he was concerned his justification was clear, but of the third letter he could give no account. The messenger, however, gave a plain and credible one; he had not long since been at Lisbon, where a Frenchman had given him this letter for one of his countrymen in Porto; on his arrival in that city he found that the person to whom it was addressed had been carried away prisoner by the Spaniards; and his intention was, when he returned to Lisbon, to deliver it again to the writer. He had torn it in a moment of fear, lest he should be considered a partizan and agent of ♦Neves, iii, 186–192.♦ the French, if it were found upon him. The Bishop was satisfied; but he advised Cardoso not to appear in public till this unlucky accident should be forgotten.
About noon, on the ensuing day, the alarm bells were rung again, drums beat, trumpets sounded, and preparations were again made for an immediate engagement with the enemy. They were at Os Carvalhos, it was said, eight miles off. There was some foundation for this report. The Juiz at Oliveira de Azemeis was in expectation and fear of the French, and not having received the bread from Porto which he had been ordered to have in readiness for them, had sent to this town and to the adjacent villages, to embargo all that could be found. Troops and volunteers now hurried forward with the utmost alacrity, and in the utmost disorder. This was a critical moment for Cardoso: if he went abroad, to put himself at the head of the forces, as his duty required, there was the risk of being again accused and endangered as a traitor: if, on the other hand, he forbore to appear, the very forbearance would be interpreted as a proof of disaffection to his country. After some hours of indecision, he could not bear to remain inactive, and incur the reproach to which it must needs subject him at such a time, and forth he went. He had not gone far before a poor fellow, whom a party of Ordenanças upon some suspicion had seized, met him, and implored his protection. Cardoso inquired into the case, and finding the man innocent, gave orders to release him. His authority was disputed, and presently he himself was reproached and seized as a traitor. Some were for putting him to death upon the spot; and though others insisted upon carrying him before the Bishop, it appeared very doubtful whether he would reach the palace alive. When they met a priest upon the way, the mob called upon him to confess this traitor, who was about to die, and Cardoso himself cried out for absolution, seeing nothing but death before his eyes. The Bishop was convinced of his innocence, but could neither persuade the populace, nor command them; nor could he save Cardoso’s life by any other expedient than that of allowing him to be thrown into one of the worst dungeons of a Portugueze prison. In that miserable confinement ♦Neves, iii. 192–196.♦ he remained till the heat of these tumults had abated; he was then released, and honourably distinguished himself afterwards.
♦Disturbed state of the people.♦
Meantime Porto was in a frightful state of insubordination. The people readily enrolled themselves, but, as if intoxicated with joy, they celebrated their deliverance instead of labouring to secure it: and men who ought to have been practising the drill, or erecting batteries and throwing up trenches, were beating drums, ringing the bells, and wasting powder in empty demonstrations of bravery. The city was illuminated during three successive nights, and they seemed so little aware of the tremendous conflict in which they were engaged, that they were about to march to war as to a festival. From this delusion the Bishop roused them by an appeal well adapted to those for whom it was intended. “Portugueze,” he said, “in the name of Heaven and of Jesus Christ, listen to a government which loves you, which desires your happiness, and is labouring for it! Their turbulence, he told them, their insubordination, their waste of powder, only exposed them to the enemy, who would come upon them by surprise, and surely destroy them, if they would not listen to their rulers and obey orders. Strength without order was like the bull, who, strong as he is, is brought to the ground by a weak hand, with the aid of dexterity and a cloak. Their endeavour should be to be unseen and unheard, that they might the more fatally be felt; ... to conceal their movements, that they might strike when the blow was not expected. The government conjured them, by every thing which was most sacred in heaven and earth, to subject themselves to discipline, and obey their officers. Where they were posted there they were adjured to remain till the time for action arrived: they who were first in the field would diminish the number of the enemy when they engaged them; the second body, when they arrived, would weaken the French still farther; the third would complete their destruction. But if all hurried on tumultuously, all would be lost.” The populace by this time had fired away so much powder, and spent so much of their animal spirits in rioting, and hurrying here and there upon so many false alarms, that they were disposed to listen to this advice. Tranquillity was produced by exhaustion; and to preserve it, order was given that the alarm bells should not be rung till the cathedral ♦Neves, iii. 196–198.♦ began, and that whenever that was necessary, a flag should be hoisted on the tower by day, and a torch by night, to distinguish it from the fire-bell.
♦The Junta conclude an alliance with the Junta of Galicia.♦
Subordination being now in some degree restored, the Junta entered with alacrity upon their arduous duties. They raised a loan, and imposed new taxes, as the exigencies of the time required; among others a duty of four mil reis upon every pipe of wine which was exported. Two deputies were sent to England; and an alliance was concluded with the Supreme Junta of Galicia, the nearest of the newly constituted authorities in Spain; Galicia engaging first to assist in liberating Portugal, and Portugal promising, ♦Neves, iii. 199.♦ after her own deliverance should be accomplished, to co-operate in expelling the French from every part of the Peninsula. Wild as this promise appeared to the French, and to those shallow statesmen by whom the French were regarded as invincible, and the power of Buonaparte not to be resisted, it was faithfully performed by the Portugueze, and fulfilled to the letter of the bond. The Junta of Porto had another object to accomplish, more difficult, and at that time not less important, than an alliance with Spain. Other Juntas were now springing up in the north of Portugal at the first hope of deliverance, and unless these were induced to acknowledge that at Porto as supreme, all plans of defence would be frustrated by the jealousy of contending authorities. One had been formed ♦Its authority is acknowledged throughout the north of Portugal.♦ at Viana on the same day; others at Torre de Moncorvo, Miranda, and other places of less note; all these submitted readily to the superiority which was claimed. Braganza was not so willing to resign its pretensions. The intrusive government had not been re-established in that city, notwithstanding the efforts of its adherents, and the apparent assent of General Sepulveda. Their penitent letters to the French ministry were stopped at Villa Real, where the people proclaimed their lawful Prince; and when the Braganzans, upon tidings of the second insurrection at Porto, formed a Junta, and required obedience to its edicts, its authority was disowned there. Sepulveda was so offended at this, that he sent Brigadier Manoel Pinto Bacellar to arrest Francisco da Silveira Pinto da Fonseca, then a lieutenant-colonel of cavalry, who had taken the lead at Villa Real. Bacellar acted with more prudence than the general who sent him, and endeavoured by amicable means to bring about a good understanding; and Silveira, disregarding the orders of one who had so far been found wanting, that he had at least professed submission to the French after having once thrown off their yoke, crossed the Douro, to spread the revolution in the province of Beira. Sepulveda found as little obedience in Torre de Moncorvo and some other Juntas in that district, when he issued a circular order requiring that every town which was entitled to a voice in the Cortes should send a deputy to assist at the provincial Junta of Tras os Montes, the title which that of Braganza had assumed. Opposed in their pretensions on that side, after contesting the authority of the Porto Junta, concluding a treaty with it, and then again disputing with it, and arraigning its measures, the Junta of Braganza ended at length in ♦Neves, iii. 151–162. 180–185.♦ obeying the advice of the Bishop of Porto, which was repeated in strong terms by Sepulveda, and dissolving itself.
♦The insurrection extends towards Coimbra.♦
The whole of Tras os Montes and of the province between the rivers had now declared against the intrusive government, and acknowledged the Junta of Porto. The same spirit was spreading in Beira. Aveiro declared itself, and a plan was formed for surprising the French in Coimbra, an undertaking of more importance than danger. The details are curious, as showing the disposition of the people, the insignificance of their means, and the disorderly manner of their proceedings. A patrole of armed peasants had been sent out from Porto upon the Coimbra road, to obtain intelligence of the enemy, concerning whom nothing certain was known. Dr. José Bernardo de Azevedo, of the order of Avis, hearing upon what service these persons had been sent, represented to the Junta how little likely it was that such a set of men should act with discretion; upon the first news of the enemy they would hurry back without ascertaining their numbers, position, and probable movements; or if they ventured to approach them, would most probably fall into their hands. He ♦June 22.♦ offered to obtain the desired information himself, knowing the country well, and accordingly laying aside his habit, set off with one servant on horseback. When he arrived at Oliveira de Azemeis, he met the greater part of the patrole on their return in triumph; they had failed to arrest the Juiz as they intended, but they had caught a lawyer, and were dragging him to Porto as a suspected person. They had however sent four of their party forward on the Coimbra road, in pursuance of their original object, and José Bernardo proceeding on his journey, overtook them at Mealhada, a village about twelve miles from Coimbra. Exulting that they had advanced so far without meeting the French, and encouraged by what they heard from the people of Mealhada, that the enemy had only a handful of men in Coimbra, and most of them invalided, they resolved to fall upon them, by surprise if possible, that very day. A reformed colonel of militia at Ois undertook to bring thirty armed ♦Neves, iii. 200–205.♦ men; the people of Mealhada volunteered their services, and the two parties were to meet at Carquejo, half way on their march.
♦Scheme for surprising the enemy in Coimbra.♦