♦Elvas and Almeida given up.♦
All difficulties being at length removed, the forts were delivered up, General Leite entered the city, and the French garrison, between 1400 and 1500 in number, were marched to Aldea Gallega. No insults were offered them on the way; and they were joined by their comrades, who, having been wounded at Evora, had been left in that city, and treated with careful humanity by the inhabitants. The garrison of Almeida were not removed so easily. The Portugueze had kept up an irregular blockade of that fortress after Loison’s departure; they borrowed fire-arms from the Spaniards of Ciudad Rodrigo, and were so little scrupulous in their mode of warfare, that a friar poisoned the water of a tank at which the cattle belonging to the garrison used to drink. Almeida might long have defied any efforts which the Portugueze or the Spaniards in that quarter could have made against it; it was, however, gladly delivered up, in conformity to the convention, and the garrison were marched to Porto, under a British escort, there to be embarked. ♦Tumults at Porto.♦ On the day of their arrival, they employed themselves in converting as much of their plunder as possible into money: purchasers were not wanting, and their market continued the whole day and night, horses being the ostensible articles. Such a traffic excited the indignation of all but those who were profiting by it; and that indignation was excited to the highest pitch, when, on the following morning, as the baggage of the French was examined at the Castle of St. Joam da Foz, in presence of the governor and of Sir Robert Wilson, several rich church vestments were found in one of the boxes. The horror which the Portugueze feel at sacrilege is perhaps hardly conceivable by those who are not acquainted with them. The governor himself, on this occasion, joined the populace in their outcry, and immediately gave orders that no vessel should be permitted to pass the castle. The news soon reached Porto, exaggerated as it passed from mouth to mouth; a mob collected, bent upon putting the French to death; and some insults were offered the English for protecting them. The Bishop, Sir Robert Wilson, and many officers, Portugueze and English, used their utmost exertions to quiet the tumult. They succeeded in restoring peace at St. Joam da Foz: but the crowd still continued on both sides the river; and at an early hour of the morning some thousand persons had assembled, with a determination to attack the French on board the transports: they placed artillery on both shores, and mounted guns on board the ships. Fortunately for the French, they were provided with sixty rounds each man, and one of the transports in which they were embarked was armed with six-pounders. The Bishop and Sir Robert Wilson again came down to mediate, and the latter was employed, without intermission, from nine in the morning till five in the afternoon in negotiating between the French General and the populace. It was in vain for the Frenchman to tell Sir Robert that he was bound to see the articles of capitulation executed to the very letter, ... that was impossible: he had secured their lives, and this was the utmost he could do. The mob insisted that the French should be disembarked, their baggage examined on shore, and that they should leave their arms: there was no alternative, and they were compelled to submit. No sooner had they left the transports, than the rabble boarded them, and began to plunder in their turn: every thing was ransacked; the very provisions and wearing apparel of the ship-owners disappeared. Here, however, the tumult ended: the more riotous of the populace retired with their booty; the better classes were ashamed of the disgrace which had thus been brought upon them; and every possible reparation was made, to the entire satisfaction of the British officers.
♦The Spanish troops at Lisbon embarked for Catalonia.♦
During the negotiation the French, who were not ashamed to propose any thing, proposed that an equal number of French prisoners should be set at liberty, in exchange for the Spaniards whom they had seized at Lisbon. This Sir Hew declared to be inadmissible; the Spaniards, he said, must be immediately set free, and not the interests alone, but the feelings of the Spanish nation were to be considered. He consented, however, to obtain for them, if possible, the release of such Frenchmen as had been arrested in Spain during the troubles, not having been taken in battle, or in consequence of military operations. Humanity induced him to this; and in communicating it to the Spanish authorities, he relied upon Spanish generosity for complying with his request for their deliverance. The scene at Lisbon, when arms, horses, and artillery were restored to the Spaniards who had been so long detained prisoners, was one of those spectacles at which the heart rejoices. They were about 3800 in number, some 2000 having effected their escape. The ceremony was made as public and impressive as possible, and the Spanish Commander distributed alms upon the occasion among the poor of Lisbon, which caused a general festivity. Applications for these troops were made from various parts of Spain. The Junta of Galicia required them; and some of the Spanish Generals at Madrid wished them to be embarked for Santander, there to join Blake’s army. Castaños, to whose judgement at this time that deference was paid which his great services had well deserved, was of opinion that they would be more serviceable in Catalonia than in any other part. For Catalonia therefore they were embarked in British transports, and Sir Hew advanced a loan of 90,000 dollars to purchase horses for them.
♦Intrigues of the Junta of Porto.♦
It was sufficient for the British Commander in these transactions to follow the plain dictates of a humane and honourable mind. In settling a civil government, and thereby putting an end to the fearful anarchy which every where prevailed, he had a more delicate task. The Junta of Porto were intriguing to obtain a continuance of their power; and under a pretext that Lisbon would for some time be in a state of great confusion, they made their wishes known to Sir Hew, that the seat of the temporary government might remain at Porto, and that deputies from the other provinces, as they then did from the northern ones, should repair thither to transact business for those parts which they represented. The Bishop also observed, that an authority had been forced upon him, which he had accepted only in the hope of re-establishing the government of his lawful Prince; and that if it were thought expedient for him to retain it till the pleasure of the Prince was known, it must be under the condition of remaining at Porto, from whence the inhabitants would not permit him to depart, unless by a direct order of their Sovereign. Such an arrangement would be most beneficial to the kingdom in its present state; and that opposition to it which might otherwise be expected, would be obviated if Sir Hew Dalrymple would take upon himself to recommend it. This sort of finesse was little likely to attain its end with a British Commander. Sir Hew, who was better acquainted with the state of affairs in Spain than any other person at that time, had no such advantage in Portugal. But in politics, as in morals, there is a principle of rectitude which always leads us right, and that principle he followed. He neither lent himself to this intrigue, nor allowed the displeasure which it naturally excited to preponderate against the real services which the Bishop of Porto had rendered to his country, and the popularity which in consequence he then possessed. He replied therefore to the Bishop, that had there been no objection, the Council of Regency which the Prince had appointed at his departure, would now have resumed their authority of course; but seeing that some of its members were strongly suspected of being in the French interest, he felt himself authorized to state, that however desirous the King his Sovereign might be to interfere as little as possible in the internal affairs of Portugal, it was impossible for his Majesty, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, to acquiesce in the return of those persons to power. On the other hand, those members who had kept aloof from the interests of the enemy, and retaining their loyalty had retained the confidence of the nation, had an unquestionable claim to be reinstated in their situations. Declaring therefore that his instructions were to take measures for forming a Regency as soon as possible, composed of such persons of rank, character, and talents, as might be found ready to undertake, and qualified to discharge, the important trust, but with as few changes (particularly in the subordinate departments) as might be compatible with the public interests, in the fulfilment of this duty he naturally addressed himself to his Excellency and the Provisional Board of Government at Porto. “You,” Sir Hew continued, “have already turned your thoughts to the great question now at issue, and are doubtless prepared to propose measures for completing the Council of Regency so as to merit the confidence of the nation, and to prevent any just cause of discontent in any other provisional government, or other respectable description of the people. For my own part, I have only been able, from the information I have received since my arrival in Portugal, to form one decided opinion on this subject; which is, the infinite importance to the public welfare that your Excellency should yourself hold a distinguished place in the proposed Regency.”
♦The Council of Regency re-established.♦
The Bishop’s reply was, that he should readily acquiesce in whatever might be determined upon, except his own nomination to the Council; for he, better than any other person, knew what was necessary for the good of the public cause, and of the northern provinces, and therefore would not remove from the place where he had been stationed by God and by his Prince. It was soon, however, ascertained, that if this Prelate could not remain at the head of the government at Porto, he would not persist in refusing to accept a share in it at Lisbon. Sir Hew therefore, upon mature deliberation, and with the best advice which could be obtained, issued a proclamation, saying, that through the success with which Providence had blessed the British arms, the time was come when the re-establishment of the Portugueze government ♦Sept. 18.♦ could be effected. He gave the people due praise for the exertions which they had made against the French; and saying that no views of interest or of national aggrandizement could be imputed to the liberal policy of Great Britain, declared, that the best manner in which he could fulfil the intentions of his Sovereign, and promote the welfare of Portugal, was by restoring that Council to which their Prince had delegated his authority when he preserved his royal dignity from the insults of an implacable enemy, and secured his American dominions. One of that Council had been unhappily sent away from his country; others had incurred imputations which rendered their restoration impossible at this time. The three, however, who had contracted no such disability, the Monteiro Mor, D. Francisco Xavier de Noronha, and Francisco da Cunha e Menezes, he called upon to resume the administration, and with them the Desembargador Joam Antonio ♦Sept. 20.♦ Salter de Mendonça, and Brigadier D. Miguel Pereira Forjas Coutinho, whom the Prince had named to succeed in case of vacancies. These persons assembled accordingly, and to fill up the number which the act of regency appointed, elected the Marquez daz Minas and the Bishop of Porto. The Junta of Porto then dissolved itself, declaring, however, that if the Regency should again be overthrown by any new invasion of the enemy, (which they prayed God to avert,) or any other calamity, they should by that event enter again upon the full exercise of the authority which they now laid aside. The other Juntas were in like manner dissolved: the Regency was acknowledged throughout Portugal, and things resumed, as far as possible, their former course.
♦Outcry in England against the Convention.♦
While Sir Hew Dalrymple was employed in carrying the terms of the convention into effect, putting an end to the anarchy which prevailed, and preparing with all possible speed to advance into Spain, an outcry which he little expected had arisen against him at home. The official account of the battle reached England a fortnight before the news of the armistice and convention: tidings came with it that the French had proposed to evacuate Portugal, and the news of Junot’s unconditional surrender was looked for as what must necessarily ensue. When the terms of the convention were received the Park and Tower guns were fired; but the public feeling was not in accord with this demonstration of joy, and never was any public feeling so unanimously and instantaneously manifested. The hopes of the nation had been raised to the highest pitch; their disappointment was in proportion, and it was expressed with a violence only to be explained by the deep and general abhorrence which the conduct of the French in Portugal had provoked. The capitulations of the Helder and of Buenos Ayres were remembered as less mortifying than the convention of Cintra. Nothing else could be talked of, nothing else could be thought of: men greeted each other in the streets with execrations upon those who had signed this detested convention; it kept them waking at night, or disturbed their sleep, like a misdeed or a misfortune of their own. The London newspapers joined in one cry of wonder and abhorrence; on no former occasion had they been so unanimous. The provincial papers proved that, from one end of the island to the other, the resentment of this grievous disappointment was the same; some refused to disgrace their pages by inserting the treaty; others surrounded it with broad black lines, putting their journal in mourning for the dismal intelligence it contained; some headed the page with a representation of three gibbets, and a general suspended from each, cut in wood for the occasion.