CHAP 1808. 1 Ante, c. allowed the Austrian army, cut off from the Hereditary States and thrown back on Genoa, to retire unmolested to the Mincio, provided only they ceded Alexandria, Tortona, and the other strongholds in the west of Lomxxxi. § 97. bardy, as the reward of victory. On the present occasion he felt quite as strongly the vast importance of the fortified basis for future operations, so advantageously situated on the edge of the sea, and on the flank of the Peninsular plains, which had thus, in the very outset of their career, been wrested from him by the British arms: had the advantage been gained by himself, he would have made Europe ring from side to side with the triumph which had been achieved. As it was, he manifested the utmost displeasure at the generals who were engaged in the Convention of Cintra; and Junot, in particular, never afterwards regained his confidence or esteem. "I was about," said he, "to send Junot to a Thieb. 472. council of war; but happily the English got the start of me by sending their generals to one, and thus saved me from the pain of punishing an old friend." 2* D'Abr. xii. 64, 102. Many causes conspired to make the execution of the Convention of Cintra a matter of great difficulty to all the contracting parties. The French troops, from the time it was concluded, were constantly kept together in "He," says the Duchess of Abrantes, "to whom the whole life of Junot was devoted, alone viewed in a false light the Convention of Cintra. Every thing which was not a triumph he regarded as a defeat; and, like Augustus, he never ceased to demand his legions from all those who had not succeeded in conducting his young conscripts, hardly emerged from boyhood, to victory."D'ABRANTES, xii. 64, 102. The Duke of Wellington's opinion on the expedience of the Convention of Cintra was equally clearly expressed. "If we had not negotiated," said he, "we could not have advanced before the 30th, as Sir John Moore's corps was not ready till that day. The French would by that time have fortified their positions near Lisbon, which, it is probable, we could not have been in a situation to attack till the end of the first week in September. Then, taking the chance of the bad weather depriving us of the communication with the fleet of transports and victuallers, and delaying and rendering more difficult and precarious our land operations, which after all could not have been effectual to cut off the retreat of the French across the Tagus into Alentejo, I was clearly of opinion, that the best thing to do was to consent to a convention, and allow them to evacuate Portugal. The details of the convention, and the agreement to suspend hostilities, is a different matter; to both of them I have very serious objections. I do not know what Sir Hew Dalrymple proposes to do, or is instructed to do; but if I were in his situation I would be in Madrid with 20,000 men in less than a month from this time."-SIR A. WELLESLEY to CHARLES STUart, Esq., 1st September 1808; GURWOOD, iv. 121. Here is the clearest evidence of the advantageous results of obtaining so early in the campaign the great fortified base of Portugal for the British operations. Sir Arthur in a month proposed to have had twenty thousand men in Madrid! He is a bold man, who, on such a subject, dissents from the concurring opinion of Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington. CHAP. · LIV. 80. which are French Sept. 5. army. masses, encamped on the heights and forts, with cannon directed down the principal streets which led to their bivouacs. Notwithstanding these formidable prepara- 1808. tions, and the proximity of the British forces, who, early Disgraceful in September, approached close to Lisbon, it was found to revelations be impossible to prevent the indignation of the populace made at Lisfrom finding vent in detached acts of aggression. Crowds bon of the plunder by all of infuriated peasants incessantly thronged into the city, ranks in the decorated with ribbons, vociferating shouts of triumph, and bearing on their hats the favourite motto, "Death to the French!" At night the discharge of fire-arms or explosion of petards were heard on all sides, occasioned by skirmishes between the enraged populace and the French advanced posts. Loison, whose unnecessary cruelty had rendered him in an especial manner the object of universal hatred, was menaced by a serious attack; while other generals, especially Travot, who had executed their orders with humanity, were not only unmolested, but 1 Nap. i. 231. traversed the streets alone in perfect safety: a fact, as Nevis, ii. Colonel Napier justly observes, extremely honourable to 239. the Portuguese, and conclusive as to the misconduct of the obnoxious officers.1 240. Thieb. 81. plunder the rior officers But these difficulties, great as they were, soon sank into insignificance when compared with those which arose from the discoveries made, in the course of the pre- Enormous parations for the embarkation, of the extent to which extent of the public and private plunder had been carried by the French supeFrench army. Sir John Hope, who had been appointed endeavoured governor of Lisbon, took possession of the castle of Belem to carry off. on the 10th September, and by his firm and vigorous conduct soon reduced the unruly multitude to some degree of order. But the complaints which daily arose as to the enormous quantity of plunder which the French were about to carry off under pretence of its being their private property, continually increased, and became the occasion of much more serious embarrassment. The museum, the treasury, the public libraries, the church plate, the arsenals of the state, equally with the houses of individuals, had been indiscriminately ransacked; most of the valuable articles left in the royal palace by the flying Regent were packed up and ready for embarkation. All the money in the public offices was laid hold off; even the sums lying CHAP. 1808. in the Deposito Publico, a bank where they were placed to await the decision of the courts of law on matters of litigation, were appropriated by these insatiable hands. Junot went so far as to demand five vessels to take away his personal effects. Matters at length rose to such a height that the British commanders felt them1 Nap. i. 232, selves called upon to interfere; and the commissioners 234. Nevis, ii 240, 249. to whom the execution of the convention had been Foy, iv. 356, 360. Thieb.' intrusted, with much difficulty, and after the most violent altercation, succeeded in putting a stop to the disgraceful spoliation.1 239. 82. is wrested from the French. Sept. 12. These high functionaries, General Beresford and Lord Proby, acted with such firmness, that not only was the Great part of progress of the plunderers arrested, and much which had the plunder been seized from the public offices restored, but a general order was extorted from the French commander, enjoining the immediate restitution of all the property which had been taken from public or private establishments within twenty-four hours. Yet so inveterate was the habit of spoliation in all ranks of the French army, from the highest to the lowest, that within a few hours after this order was issued, Colonel Delambis, Junot's chief aidde-camp, carried off the Prince Regent's horses; a valuable collection of private pictures was seized on by Junot himself; and two carriages belonging to the Duke of Sussex were appropriated, which were only got back by the threat of detaining the marshal himself as a hostage. At length, however, after vehement discussion, and a complete revelation of that extraordinary system of public and private plunder which had been so long and disgracefully the characteristic of the French army, the greater part of this ill-gotten spoil was wrested from the invaders. On the 15th, the first division of the fleet sailed from the Tagus; by the 30th the whole were embarked: shortly after Elvas and Almeida were given up in terms of the capitulation; and before the middle of October not 2 Nap. i. 232, a French soldier remained on the soil of Portugal. 234 South. i. Twenty-two thousand men were disembarked on the Nevis, ii. 230, coasts of France; thirty thousand had been placed, from first to last, by Napoleon under the orders of Junot; the Thieb. 239. remainder had perished of fatigue, disease, fallen in the field, or voluntarily enlisted in the British army.2 The Sept. 15. 240, 249. 249. Foy, iv. 356, 364. convention, though loudly disapproved of by the British people, was, on the admission of the French themselves, carried into execution with scrupulous good faith by the government.* CHAP. LIV. 1808. command of Moore. The subordinate arrangements consequent on the decisive events which had in this manner liberated Portugal, 83. were soon concluded. Such was the violence of the The British troops groundless clamour which arose in England on the subject are placed of the Convention, that all the generals engaged in it, Sir under the Hew Dalrymple, Sir Harry Burrard, and Sir Arthur Sir John Wellesley, were obliged to return to Great Britain; where, as already mentioned, their conduct in relation to it became the subject of deliberation to a court of inquiry, which, after a long and impartial investigation, returned a report, distinguished by little ability, which, in substance, found that no blame could be attached to any of these officers. Meanwhile the army, deprived in this way for a time of the guidance of the brave leader who had in so glorious a manner led it to victory, was placed under the command of SIR JOHN MOORE,† an officer *"That same public opinion, under the influence of a free constitution, which condemned the Convention of Cintra, enjoined to its government its faithful execution. In so far as depended on the English government, the convention was executed with honourable fidelity."-Foy, iv. 356. John Moore was born at Glasgow, on the 13th November 1761. He was the eldest son of Dr John Moore, the author of Zeluco and other celebrated works. Young Moore was educated at the public school and university of that city, and was abroad for five years in company with his father, who was travelling tutor to the Duke of Hamilton, by which means he saw much of the world, gained a knowledge of modern languages, and acquired that suavity and elegance of manner for which he was remarkable through life. In 1776, he obtained an ensigncy in the 51st regiment, then lying at Minorca, and soon after a lieutenancy in the 82d, with which he served through all the campaigns of the American war. At the commencement of the Revolutionary contest, he was lieutenant-colonel of his old regiment, the 51st, at the head of which he was employed in 1794 in the reduction of Corsica. Subsequently he was engaged in the reduction of Demerara, Essequibo, and Berbice, in the West Indies; in which services he distinguished himself so much, that Sir Ralph Abercromby, in his public despatches, characterised his conduct as "the admiration of the whole army." During the rebellion in Ireland, in 1798, he was again called into active service; and the victory gained over the rebels in that year at Wexford, was mainly owing to his talents and arrangements. In 1799 his valour and conduct were again evinced in the expedition to the Helder; in 1801 he led the vanguard which first landed in Aboukir Bay, and rushed with such vigour up the sandhills; and in the decisive battle of 21st March, in which he was wounded, his gallantry and conduct attracted universal notice. For these services he was made a Knight of the Bath; and for some years commanded the army which occupied Sicily, until in 1807 he was sent in command of the expedition to the Baltic, from which he was soon recalled to more glorious, though melancholy destinies, in the Spanish Peninsula. Brave, chivalrous, and high-spirited, no man ever more thoroughly understood the art of war, or more completely acquired the affections while he commanded the respect of his soldiers, and to the improvement of their discipline and increase of their comforts he devoted a large portion of his attention. But though second to none in personal valour, he had not the energy and vigour CHAP. 1808. whose gallant conduct in Egypt, as well as admirable skill in the training and disciplining of his troops, had already rendered him distinguished among all his brethren in arms. His division had landed and joined the other troops at Lisbon; while another corps, fifteen thousand strong, under the orders of SIR DAVID BAIRD,* whose gallantry and firmness had been conspicuous at the storm1. Nap. i. 247, ing of Seringapatam, was assembled in the British islands, 248. Lond. i. and was destined to land at Corunna, descend through Nevis, ii. 264. Galicia, and co-operate with those which had advanced from Portugal, in the plains of Leon.1 179, 180. The two together, it was hoped, would amount to nearly forty thousand men, even after providing, in an adequate manner, for the security of Portugal, and the necessary to reinstate the military character of England after the early disasters of the Revolutionary war: and was unhappily possessed with a desponding impression as to the capability of this country to withstand the power of France on the Continent, which was very different from the fearless confidence and indomitable tenacity of Clive or Wellington. The heroism he displayed in his last moments, and the romantic circumstances attending his death, have justly secured for him a lasting place in the grateful affections of his country.-See MOORE'S Life, 2 vols. by his brother, London, 1832; and Scottish Biography, iv. 28, 29. *David Baird, was the second son of William Baird, Esq., of the Bairds of Newbyth, in East Lothian, an ancient and respectable family. He entered the army in December 16, 1772, as an ensign in the 2d Foot, and he was ere long engaged in serious service in that regiment, when it was despatched to Madras in 1779, to take a part in the formidable war that then raged between the infant British settlements at Madras and the redoubtable forces of Hyder Ali. In July 1780 Hyder's dreadful irruption into the Carnatic took place, when seventy thousand horse threatened with destruction the little army of five thousand men, who struggled to defend the British possessions on the coast. In this terrible campaign, young Baird was at once initiated into the most perilous and animating warfare. In September 1780, after a desperate and most heroic resistance, he was made prisoner by Hyder at the head of fifty thousand infantry and twenty-five thousand horse, in consequence of the accidental blowing up of the British ammunition-waggons in the centre of their square, which deprived them of their whole reserved ammunition, after the supply which the men had in their cartridge-boxes was expended in repelling the incessant charges of the Asiatic cavalry. Even after this disaster, and when their little square, now reduced to two hundred Europeans, had no weapons for their defence but the bayonets of the men and the swords of the officers, they repelled no less than thirteen charges of Hyder's horse; and at length the few survivors were only made prisoners by being fairly pierced through and overwhelmed by the ponderous elephants and innumerable squadrons of the enemy. Being made prisoner in this terrible conflict, Baird was conducted to Seringapatam, where he was chained by the leg to another captive, and confined in a dungeon for three years and a half. In July 1784, however, he obtained his release upon the conclusion of the peace with Hyder, and was promoted to the rank of Major in the 71st regiment, of which he soon became Lieutenant-Colonel. In 1791, he took an active part in the campaign against Tippoo Saib and the storming of the intrenched camp in front of Seringa patam, and in 1793 he commanded a brigade of Europeans at the siege of Pondicherry. After this he returned for a short time to Europe, but was again sent back to India as Brigadier-General, in which capacity he commanded the storming party at Seringapatam, of which an account has already been given -Ante, chap. xlix. § 71; Scottish Biography, i. 82, 83. |