♦Advance of the British army towards Porto.♦
The movements of the troops, meantime, were continued without any reference to the politics or projects in the French army. On the 5th of May the whole of the British force which was intended to march against Porto was assembled at Coimbra. On the same day Beresford advanced from that city toward Viseu, with about 6000 Portugueze, a brigade of British infantry, and a squadron of British horse, to act upon the enemy’s left, in the hope that he might so disconcert their plans as to make them retreat by Chaves into Galicia, rather than by Villa Real in a direction which would enable them to effect a junction with Victor. Trant was still on the Vouga, where the students had now the proud feeling that they formed the advanced post of that army which was about to deliver their country. He had taken measures for collecting provisions, whereby one difficulty that might have impeded the advance was lessened. A strong division under Major-General Hill proceeded to Aveiro, and there, in boats which Trant had got together for that service, embarked for Ovar, which is upon the northern creek of that singular harbour. The main body proceeded by the high road, and began their march on the 7th. They halted the next day, to allow time for Beresford’s movements.
♦D’Argenton is arrested.♦
At this time Soult was informed that there existed a conspiracy in his own army. A general officer, to whom D’Argenton had just opened himself without being sufficiently sure of his man, gave the information. D’Argenton was instantly arrested, and all doubt concerning the truth of the accusation, if any there could have been, was removed by discovering Admiral Berkeley’s passports among his papers. He was not a man who held his life cheap, for he had a wife and children in France whom he loved; but he valued it at no more than it was worth, and had made up his mind how to act in case of such a discovery. He avowed that he had been both to Lisbon and to Coimbra, and had communicated with Generals Wellesley and Beresford, who, he said, would in two days’ time open the campaign upon the Vouga with 30,000 men. If the French army of Portugal would declare, what they well knew, that the Peninsular war in which they were employed was unjust, the British, he said, would unite with them, march in concert with them toward France, compel the different corps in Spain to join them, and when they had passed the Pyrenees, they would find there an expedition of 60,000 English. Officers would be sent to the armies in Italy and Germany, inviting them to follow the example, and an English ship would be dispatched to bring home Moreau from America, and place him at the head of the army and of the government. The English would supply funds for all this; and if Marshal Soult refused the splendid invitation to act the part which became him, the intention was to secure his person, and give the command to another.
♦Soult prepares to retreat from Portugal.♦
The principle upon which D’Argenton acted was that of saying nothing which could compromise his associates, and any thing that might assist their purpose. He was sent to prison, and two officers upon whom the Marshal’s suspicions fell were placed under arrest. But Soult was alarmed, as well he might, by what he had heard; and though the general officers whom he convened assured him they knew of no discontent in the army, it was certain that all those who retained any moral or religious feeling, any respect for humanity and justice, any sense of right and wrong, had abundant reason to be discontented with a service so flagrantly iniquitous as that wherein they were engaged. Not knowing how far he could depend upon the fidelity of his army, and certain that such of them as had been present at Roliça and Vimeiro had not forgotten the lessons which they received there, he thought no longer of conquering Portugal, but of escaping out of it without delay. He informed Loison, therefore, who was at Amarante, that he should retreat by that road, and so by Braganza upon Zamora; and he ordered the ♦Operations, &c. 239.♦ troops from Viana to march upon Amarante, by way of Guimaraens, while he remained at Porto to secure their movements.
♦The French driven from Albergaria.♦
On the day that this determination was taken, the British attempted to surprise the advanced guard of the enemy under General Franceschi. Some troops crossed the Vouga on the preceding evening, others during the night. They proceeded silently and in darkness, along rocky passes where there was sometimes room only to march in single file: but the fidelity of Portugueze guides was not doubted, and they were led safely to an open heath, where about sunrise they came in sight of the enemy’s videttes. The French were not taken by surprise, as had been hoped, ... they were formed in line with a pine wood in their rear; but they were beaten out of the field, and driven through the wood with the loss of their cannon; and having then to pass a deep ravine, the artillery came up in time to play upon their rear-guard. Such of the wounded as they were not able to bear away, the Portugueze peasantry dispatched, and miserably mutilated in their vengeance. The French had provoked them by their barbarous usage of the militia who fell into their hands, ... for the peasants had found their bodies hanging there, and marks upon them of the cruelties which they had endured before death. The villages of Albergaria Velha and Nova, which the enemy had lately occupied, bore proofs of the atrocious temper in which this war was carried on by the invaders. They had destroyed in mere wantonness and malignity every thing that was destructible, ... broken open every house, burnt the furniture and the thatch, staved all the liquor which they could not drink, slaughtered the cattle, and pigs, and poultry which they could not carry off, strewn about their limbs, and trampled them in the road. And in this manner they acted along the whole of their ♦Military Chronicle, vol. iv. 193.
General Mackinnon’s Journal, p. 13.♦ retreat to Porto. The inhabitants, who were thus reduced to ruin, welcomed the British with tears of joy as their deliverers, and followed them with prayers that they might overtake and punish these unprovoked invaders, who had brought such unutterable evils upon Portugal.
♦They are driven from their position at Grijo.♦
The enemy retired first upon Oliveira de Azemeis, then upon Feira. On the next day their outposts were driven in, and soon afterwards the two divisions of Franceschi and Mermet were seen strongly posted on the heights above Grijo, their front covered by woods and broken ground. Here they were attacked by Brigadier-General R. Stewart; Major-General Manners, with a brigade of the German Legion, turned their left; they were dislodged and pursued till night, when the British army halted, their advance on the heights beyond Carvalhos, and the rear at S. Antonio da Arrifana, the former about seven miles from the Douro, the latter about twenty-five. The enemy continued their retreat, and having crossed the bridge in the night, set fire to it, and completely destroyed it. At daybreak the British troops were again in motion, in full expectation and hope of again bringing the enemy to action; but before they could be reached there was a river to be crossed, more formidable than ever general had attempted to pass in the presence of a respectable foe.