Four hours had elapsed before the four barrels were placed: by that time it was midnight, and in another hour, when the Portugueze had ceased their fire, a fifth volunteer proceeded in the same manner, with a saucisson fastened to his body; this he fixed in its place, and returned safely. By two o’clock this part of the business was completed, and Laborde was informed that all was ready. Between three and four a fog rose from the river, and filled the valley, so that the houses on the opposite shore could scarcely be discerned through it. This was favourable for the assailants. The saucisson was fired, and the explosion, as Bouchard had expected, threw down the entrenchments, and destroyed also the apparatus for communicating with the mine. The French rushed forward; some threw water into the mine, others cleared the way; the fog increased the confusion into which the Portugueze were thrown by being thus surprised; they made so little resistance that the French ♦Operations de M. Soult, 209–222.♦ lost only nine men; and Silveira, saving only four pieces of artillery, but preserving order enough soon to restore the spirits of his countrymen, retired upon Entre ambos os rios.
♦Situation of the French.♦
The advantage which the enemy had gained would have been great, if it had been earlier; it was too late to profit by it now. Loison had been ordered to establish himself in Villa Real after the passage should have been won, ... he only came in sight of it, and returned to Amarante. On the way the post from Lisbon was intercepted, and in that mail the intelligence which had been so carefully concealed from the enemy was found, that hostilities had recommenced in Germany. The superior officers knew now the whole danger of their situation, and began to think only of how to[14] secure the booty they had acquired by such flagitious means. The soldiers partook the spirit of their leaders; ... they were now in fact a body of freebooters, retaining still the form, and unhappily the strength of an army, but with the feelings and the temper of banditti; and it was in vain for Marshal Soult, after the system of pillage in which all ranks had indulged, to appeal to any principle of honour, and call upon men to exert themselves for the good of the service, whose sole care was how to enrich themselves. Loison’s division had to fight for the resources which were within their reach, on the left bank of the Tamega; ... if they got sight of a peasant, a cry was set up as if a beast had been started, and they hunted him till he was slain. One Portugueze who was thus brought down among the crags by a shot which broke his thigh held fast his fowling-piece when he fell, raised himself on the other knee, and with an unerring aim killed a French officer before he himself was put to death. Another gray-headed old man, armed with a musket and bayonet, posted himself to such advantage among the rocks, that, refusing ♦Naylies, 117–8.♦ quarter, he wounded three men and four horses before he could be cut down. Every day made the French generals more sensible of the difficulties of their situation. In any other country, they said, with a fourth part of the means of every kind which were employed here to obtain intelligence, and without success, they should have been informed of every design of their enemies, even the most secret thoughts. All that they could learn now with all their means amounted only to the certainty that Sir Arthur ♦Operations, &c. 229.♦ Wellesley had arrived at Lisbon, and that General Beresford had begun to discipline the Portugueze army.
♦Sir Arthur Wellesley lands at Lisbon.♦
Sir Arthur had landed on the 22nd of April. A general rejoicing was made for his arrival, and every town throughout the kingdom, where the French were not in possession, was illuminated three successive nights. The Prince of Brazil had appointed him Marshal-General of the Portugueze army, thus enabling him to direct its movements, while Beresford was continued in the command. He would at once have proceeded into Spain, there in co-operation with Cuesta to have struck a blow against the French in Extremadura, had it not been that the part of Portugal which the enemy occupied was fertile in resources, and also for the importance of the city of Porto. Therefore he ♦He communicates his plans to Cuesta.♦ determined to drive Soult out of the kingdom, leaving such a force about Abrantes as might secure Lisbon against any attempt on the part of Victor; and he resolved not to pursue him into Galicia, because he was not certain that he should, singly, be equal to the French there, and because the appearance of a British army in that province would make the French collect their force, and thus suspend the war of the peasantry, which was at this time carrying on in a way that harassed and wasted the enemy, and materially impeded their plans: Galicia, he thought, might be more certainly and permanently relieved by striking a blow against Victor, than by following Soult. This plan he communicated to Cuesta, requesting him not to undertake any thing against Victor till the expedition to Porto should be concluded, when he would come down upon Elvas, and co-operate with him. Cuesta was not well pleased with these intended operations. Little or nothing, he thought, would be gained by driving Soult toward the Minho, for in that case he would be able to re-enter Galicia and complete its subjugation, neither the peasantry nor Romana being able to prevent him. “The object of Sir Arthur,” he said, “ought to be to surround the French in Porto, or get between them and the Minho, so as to cut off the resources of Soult and prevent his retreat. But,” he added, “the system of the British is never to expose their troops; and it was owing to that system, that instead of ever gaining a decisive action by land, they sacrificed their men in continual retreats and precautions, as General Moore had done, for not having attacked the enemy in time.”
In this opinion the brave but ill-judging old man wronged the English, as much as he underrated the exertions of Romana and the Galicians: and he recommended a plan which was impossible, unless Soult should remain quietly at Porto, and allow the enemy to get in his rear. Sir Arthur’s plans were well formed and vigorously pursued, nor were they altered in any degree by the intelligence that the passage of the Tamega had been effected, and that Lapisse had crossed the Tagus at Alcantara to form his junction with Victor. He stationed two dragoon regiments, two battalions and a brigade of infantry, with about 7000 Portugueze under Major-General Mackenzie, to defend the fords of the Tagus between Santarem and Abrantes, and the mountain passes between that city and Alcantara. The latter place was occupied by 600 of the Lusitanian Legion, 1100 Portugueze militia, and a squadron of Portugueze cavalry under Colonel Mayne. In case Victor, now that the junction had been effected, should enter Alemtejo, which Sir Arthur thought was not impossible, he advised that Cuesta should follow him; but his opinion was, that the French in that quarter would make no movement till they should hear of Soult.
♦Views of the Philadelphes in Marshal Soult’s army.♦
Marshal Soult, in conformity to Buonaparte’s system, had endeavoured to keep his army ignorant of the continental war. But copies of Marshal Beresford’s address, which contained the intercepted letter from Kellermann, were carried to Porto by a brave inhabitant of that city, Manoel Francisco Camarinho by name, and means were even found of fastening it upon the walls of Soult’s own quarters. This intelligence raised the hopes of those officers who, under the appellation of Philadelphes, had formed a plan for overthrowing the military despotism under which France, as well as her conquests, was suffering, and restoring peace to Europe. The restoration of the Bourbons made no part of the scheme, for the leaders had grown up in those republican opinions which it is the tendency of youthful studies to promote, and which are congenial to a generous mind till time and knowledge have matured it. The end whereat they aimed, as far as they saw the end, was meritorious; ... the means had a fearful character, such as is common to all secret societies, but which no circumstances can[15] justify.
The plan had proceeded to a great length in Soult’s army, and some of the general officers were engaged in it. The more dangerous part was taken upon himself by the Sieur D’Argenton, who was then Adjutant-Major, and had formerly been Soult’s aide-de-camp. It is one of the worst evils of revolution, that in such times good and honourable men are forced into situations where nothing can enable them to act innocently and uprightly except that unerring religious principle which it is the sure tendency and undisguised intent of modern revolutions to ♦The Sieur D’Argenton goes to Sir Arthur Wellesley to explain their views.♦ destroy. D’Argenton was worthy to have fallen on better times, for he was a man of kind and generous affections, at once firm of purpose and gentle of heart. When the French entered Porto, no individual exerted himself more strenuously in repressing the excesses of the troops; and many families in those dreadful days were beholden to him not only for their lives and properties, but for preservation from evils more dreadful than ruin and death. This officer undertook to open a communication with the British army, and finding his way to Colonel Trant’s head-quarters, was sent by him to Sir Arthur. Several interviews took place; and he went backward and forward by the French posts with such ease, and so little apprehension of danger, as naturally to excite a suspicion that he was acting under Soult’s, instructions, and endeavouring to dupe the British Commander. There were no means of ascertaining this; but the manner in which his overtures were received was that which would have been equally proper whether they were sincere or treacherous. He was assured by Sir Arthur that no change in the French army, either in contemplation or actually carried into effect, would induce him to delay his operations as long as it continued in Portugal; ... he should march against it with equal activity whether revolutionized or counter-revolutionized. D’Argenton, however, well knew that if the army declared unequivocally against Buonaparte, an arrangement with the British Commander must of necessity follow, and he asked for passports from the Admiral for the purpose of communicating with the army in Germany. Sir Arthur warned him of the danger to which he exposed himself by having such documents in his possession; but he was particularly solicitous to obtain them, and accordingly they were given him.