Massena opened his trenches on the night of August 15. While a false attack was made against the north of the town, 2000 men dug the first parallel to a depth of three feet; and on Sunday the 26th, at five in the morning, eleven batteries, mounted with sixty-five pieces of cannon, opened their fire. The garrison consisted of 5000 men, of whose spirit no doubt was entertained; the fortress was well provided, and its works had been placed in so respectable a state, that Lord Wellington had reason to think it might delay the enemy till late in the season, even if he should be unable to find an opportunity of relieving it. These well-founded expectations were frustrated by one of those chances which sometimes disconcert the wisest plans, and disappoint the surest hopes of man. On the night after the batteries opened, the large powder magazine in the citadel, with two smaller ones contiguous to it, blew up. More than half the artillerymen, a great number of the garrison, and many of the inhabitants, perished in this dreadful explosion; many of the guns were dismounted, and the works were rendered no longer defensible, even if means of defence had been left; but, except a few cartridges for immediate use, and thirty-nine barrels of powder in the laboratory, the whole of the ammunition was destroyed.
♦Surrender of the place.♦
Great as the calamity was, the evil would have been far more alarming had it proceeded, as was at first supposed, from treason; but, according to the best information which could be collected, it was altogether accidental: the magazine was bomb-proof; and they were taking ammunition from it, when a shell fell upon one of the carts. The lieutenant-governor had behaved well till the batteries opened; he was then so terrified, that he shut himself up in the bomb-proofs. Having thus proved himself a coward, mere shame made him a traitor: and after the explosion he took advantage of the confusion to counteract the governor’s attempt at holding out longer. Another traitor was found in the major of artillery. He had behaved well during the siege; but when he was sent out to propose terms of capitulation, for the purpose of gaining favour with the enemy he communicated to him the whole extent of the disaster; so that Massena, knowing the place was at his mercy, was enabled to dictate what terms he pleased. The garrison were made prisoners of war, with this exception, that the militia, having deposited their arms, should return to their homes, and not serve during the war. It was ten at night when the capitulation was concluded; in the course of half an hour the French recommenced their fire upon the town, and kept it up till morning, when the Portugueze were assured in reply to their remonstrances, that it had been owing to a mistake on the part of the artillery officers: undoubtedly it had been so; but the commander is chargeable with something worse ♦Compilaçam das Ordens do Dia, 1810, p. 168.♦ than error, for having suffered it to continue through the night without thinking it worth while to send an order which would instantly have stopped it.
♦The Portugueze prisoners enlist and desert.♦
The terms were broken by the French with their wonted perfidy. They tried persuasions first, and employed Alorna and the other traitors who were with him to seduce their countrymen. Accordingly, when the Portugueze laid down their arms upon the esplanade, they were invited to volunteer into the French service; but not a man was found base enough to come forward and accept the invitation. On the following day, when the troops of the line and the militia had been separated, they were tried separately. The troops were told, that unless they accepted the alternative which was offered them, they must immediately be marched into France; the hardships which they would suffer on their march, and the treatment to which they would be exposed afterwards, were represented to them in strong terms; and officers and men, with an unanimity which might well have been suspected, agreed then to enlist in the enemy’s service. They found means of informing Marshal Beresford that they did this only for the sake of remaining within reach of their own country, and making their escape as soon as possible; and the truth of this declaration was proved by the numbers who soon rejoined the allied army. Upon this occasion Marshal Beresford acted in a manner becoming the British ♦Condemnation of their conduct.♦ character. He expressed in general orders his strong disapprobation of such conduct; for the soldiers, he said, some allowance was to be made; they were excusable on the score of their want of education, their undoubted good intention, and their feeling that the enemy with whom they had to deal scrupled at no means, however unworthy, for the attainment of his ends. Yet even in them it was to be discommended, and he doubted not that henceforth those whom the fortune of war might throw into the enemy’s ♦1810.
September.♦ hands would take their lot patiently, and suffer any thing rather than bring a stain upon the national honour. Nothing could excuse the officers for conduct so base, so abominable, and so unworthy of the Portugueze name. They had sinned against knowledge, and thereby rendered themselves false and infamous; they had contracted a voluntary engagement with the determination of not keeping it, placing themselves in a miserable predicament, which rendered it only less infamous to break their faith than to observe it. He should therefore report them to their prince, that they might be dismissed with ignominy from the service, and answer for their conduct according to the laws. At the same time he published the names of five officers who, under a proper sense of duty, had withstood the contagion of ill example.
♦Militia forced into the French service.♦
There were three militia regiments in Almeida, those of Trancoso, Guarda, and Arganil. Neither man nor officer of these could be induced to serve against his country, nor self-seduced to tamper with his own conscience. But instead of dismissing them according to the terms, Massena said, that if they would not serve by fair means, they should by force; and gave orders for forming a corps of pioneers, by detaining 200 men and seven officers from each regiment. Marshal Beresford observed upon this, after honourably contrasting the conduct of the militia with that of the regular troops, that the Portugueze, to their misfortune, were too well acquainted with French morality for this iniquity to surprise them: it was but one injury the more which that outraged nation had to revenge, ... and his army would revenge it. “Never,” said he, “even though Almeida is lost, never since the beginning of the war has this kingdom been in so good a state for resisting the enemy. Soldiers of the Portugueze army, if you remember that we have the English army to co-operate with us, which has beaten the enemy whenever it encountered them, ... if you call to mind who is the commander of that army, and that he is yours also, ... if you have confidence in him and in yourselves, the invaders never can conquer Portugal. Your general has full confidence in the result, because he confides in the inherent loyalty and valour of the nation, and in its determination of sacrificing every thing to its fidelity, its liberty, and its independence!”
♦They escape and rejoin the allies.♦
Massena asserted that the Porto regiment hated the English, and therefore he should retain it in his service; but he belied his own assertion by adding that he should keep a watchful eye on the men, and not place them in important posts. If he judged in any degree of the Portugueze people by the few traitorous nobles and fidalgos with whom he was conversant, he was speedily undeceived. A night had not elapsed before great part both of the officers and men were missing, and in less than a fortnight nearly the whole escaped. The men, instead of taking the opportunity of deserting, rejoined their countrymen in arms; and the officers, unconscious of having done any thing unworthy, presented themselves to the commander of the first detachment they could reach, in a condition which pleaded for them, exhausted with fatigue and hunger. They protested, when they found it necessary to excuse themselves, that they had taken no oath of fidelity to the French, and that to avoid it when it was to be tendered, they had fled at all hazards, not waiting for safer opportunities. A representation in their favour was made by Silveira; and Marshal Beresford in consequence mitigated his former censure. It would, he said, be the greatest satisfaction to him if he should find it confirmed that these officers had not pledged themselves to the enemy; but what he wished to enforce upon them was, that an officer ought to consider not merely the end at which he aims, but the means also by which to bring it about, that both may be alike honourable. He referred their conduct therefore to a council of inquiry, under Silveira.
♦Changes in the Portugueze regency.♦