The patriots of the Alemtejo and Algarves, assisted by some Spaniards, and animated by the manifestos and promises assiduously promulgated from the English fleet, had once more assembled at Alcacer do Sal, from whence they threatened the garrisons of St. Ubes and the French posts on the south bank of the Tagus, immediately opposite to Lisbon. The capital itself was very unquiet; the anticipation of coming freedom was apparent in the wrathful looks and stubborn manners of the populace, and superstition was at work to increase the hatred and the hopes of the multitude. It was at this time that the prophetic eggs, denouncing death to the French, and deliverance to the Portuguese, appeared; but less equivocal indications of approaching danger were to be drawn from the hesitations of Junot, who, wavering between his fear of an insurrection in Lisbon, and his desire to check the immediate progress of the British army, gave certain proof of an intellect yielding to the pressure of events.
At this period Loison, with between seven and eight thousand men, was in the neighbourhood of Estremos, two thousand five hundred men were in the fortresses of Elvas and Almeida, a few hundred were at Abrantes, a thousand were in Santarem, and the same number in Peniché. General Thomieres, with a brigade, was in the vicinity of Alcobaca, and the remainder were quartered in Lisbon and on a circuit round, including both sides of the river. The Tagus itself was guarded on the north bank by the forts of Cascaes, St. Antonio, St. Julians, Belem, and the citadel, between each of which smaller works kept up a continued line of offence against ships entering by the northern passage of the harbour. On the southern bank fort Bugio, built upon a low sandy point, crossed its fire with St. Julians in the defence of the entrance. Upon the heights of Almada or Thiebault. Palmela, stood the fort of Palmela. St. Ubes and Traffaria completed the posts occupied by the French on that side. The communication between the north and south banks was kept up by the refitted Portuguese ships of war, by the Russian squadron, and by the innumerable boats, most of them very fine and large, with which the Tagus is covered.
Such being the situation of the army on the 3d, Junot ordered Loison to march by Portalegre and Abrantes, and from thence effect a junction with general Laborde, who, with three thousand infantry, five or six hundred cavalry, and five pieces of artillery, quitted Lisbon upon the 6th, and proceeded by Villa Franca, Rio Mayor, and Candeiros, charged to observe the movements of the British, and to cover the march of Loison, with whom he expected to form a junction at Leria.
Junot himself remained in Lisbon with a view of controlling the inhabitants by his presence. He embarked Thiebault. all the powder from the magazines, took additional precautions to guard his Spanish prisoners, and put the citadel and forts into a state of siege; but disquieted by the patriots assembled at Alcacer do Sal, he sent general Kellerman with a moveable column to disperse them, and to scour the country between that place and Setuval, ordering him to withdraw the garrison from the latter, to abandon all the French posts on the south of the Tagus except Palmela, and to collect the whole force in one mass on the heights of Almada, where an entrenched camp had been already commenced; but general Kellerman had scarcely departed when two English regiments, the one from Madeira, the other from Gibraltar, arriving off the bar of Lisbon, distracted anew the attention of the French, and increased the turbulence of the populace, and in this state of perplexity the duke of Abrantes lingered until the 15th, when the progress of sir Arthur Wellesley forced him to assume the command of the army in the field.
Loison entered Abrantes the 9th, and Laborde arrived at Candeiros the same day; from that point he could with facility carry his division upon Alcobaca and Leria, or form a junction with Loison upon the side of Santarem.
The armies on both sides were now in that state of attraction towards each other, which indicates an approaching shock. In the French camps the news of Bessieres’ victory at Rio Seco became known, and produced a short-lived exultation; and at the same moment intelligence of Joseph’s flight from Madrid reached the British army, and increased their confidence of victory. The 10th, Loison halted at Abrantes, and Laborde moved to Alcobaca, where he was joined by Thomieres and the garrison of Peniché.
Proceedings of the Court of Inquiry.
Sir Arthur’s advanced guard also entered Leria, and was there joined by Bernardim Freire and the Portuguese army, who immediately seized the magazine without making any distribution to the British troops. The main body of the latter arrived the 11th, and the whole marched in advance upon the 12th.
Laborde employed the 11th and 12th in looking for a position in the neighbourhood of Battalha; but the ground was too extensive for his numbers, and at the approach of the English, he fell back in the night of the 12th to Obidos, a small town, with an old Moorish castle situated on a gentle eminence in the Thiebault. middle of a valley. Having occupied Obidos with his picquets, and placed a small detachment at the windmill of Brilos, three miles in front, he retired the 14th to Roriça, a village four miles to the southward, situated at the intersection of the roads leading to Torres Vedras, to Montachique, and to Alcoentre, and overlooking the whole valley of Obidos.