exceptin arms, stores, and money, from England-a resolution of which it is hard to say, after such a disaster, whether it savoured more of magnanimous resolution or presumptuous confidence.* He found the opinion of all classes so unanimous in hatred of the French, "that no one dared to show that he was a friend to them." Having supplied the junta, therefore, with two hundred thousand pounds in money, and assured them of the speedy arrival of extensive military stores, which in a great measure elevated their spirits after their late misfortunes, he proceeded to the southward to secure the main objects of the expedition--which were, in the first instance, an attack upon the Tagus; and afterwards, the detachment of such a force to the southward as might effectually secure Cadiz from any attack by the French under Dupont. As the whole force of the expedition, when joined by the reinforcements from England, the corps of Sir John Moore, and that under General Spencer, which was off Cadiz, was estimated by government at thirty thousand men, it was thought that ample means existed to achieve both these objects. And as the primary condition of all successful military efforts by transmarine power, is the securing strong seaports as a base for the army, and a point of refuge in case of disaster, it is evident that the attainment of one or both of these objects was an indispensable preliminary to future operations. It was fortunate, however, that subsequent events rendered the dispersion of the English force, and the formation of a double base of operations, unnecessary. The British army was thereby concentrated in Portugal, where it had a strong "Notwithstanding the recent defeat of the Galician army, the junta here have not expressed any wish to receive the assistance of British troops; and they again repeated, this morning, that they could put any number of men into the field if they were provided with arms and money; and I think this disinclination to receive the assistance of British troops, is founded in a great degree on the objection to give the command of their troops to British officers."-WELLINGTON to LORD CASTLEREAGH, Corunna, July 21, 1807; GURWOOD, iv. 27. country to defend, a docile population to work upon, and a central position on the flank of the French armies in Spain to maintain. 58. Sir Arthur Wellesley arrived at Oporto on the 26th, and proceeded on with the expedition to Mondego Bay, where he arrived on the 30th July. Having there received intelligence of the surrender of Dupont, he deemed all operations in Andalusia unneces sary; and having sent orders to General Spencer to come round from the Bay of Cadiz and join him, he determined upon an immediate landinga bold and decisive resolution, considering that his own force did not exceed ten thousand men,+ and Junot had fifteen thousand at Lisbon. He accordingly issued a proclamation to the people of Portugal, eminently descriptive of the principles of that glorious struggle which was now about to commence,‡ and which his own talents and constancy, and the resolution of the three nations, now banded together, ultimately brought to so glorious a termination. At first Sir Arthur thought of landing on the small peninsula of Peniche, about seventy miles to the north of the Rock of Lis bon; but though the anchorage was safe and practicable, it was commanded The exact number was 9280 sabres and bayonets-about 10,000 men, including subalterns and officers. Spencer's corps was 4793 strong-about 5000 men.-GURWOOD, iv. 20. "The English soldiers who land upon your shores do so with every sentiment of friendship, faith, and honour. The glorious struggle in which you are engaged is for all that is dear to man-the protection of your wives and children, the restoration of your lawful prince, the independence, nay, the existence of your kingdom, the preservation only be attained by distinguished examples of your holy religion. Objects like these can of fortitude and constancy. The noble struggle against the tyranny and usurpation of France will be jointly maintained by Portugal, Spain, and England; and, in contributing to the suc cess of a cause so just and glorious, the views of his Britannic Majesty are the same as those by which you yourselves are animated."A. WELLESLEY's Letter. It is seldom that a proclamation in the outset of a struggle so faithfully represents the real objects at issue in it; still seldomer that it so prophetically and truly describes its ultimate result after many and long-continued disasters.—GURWOOD, iv. 46. by the guns of the fort at its extremity, command, were nearly as strongly imwhich was still in the hands of the printed on their minds as hatred of enemy. He therefore, by the advice the invaders. At length they conof Sir Charles Cotton, selected in pre-sented to let General Freyre, with one ference Mondego Bay, where the whole fleet was assembled on the 31st July. 59. On the following morning the disembarkation commenced; and notwithstanding the obstacles arising from a strong west wind and heavy surf, which occasioned the swamping of several boats, and the loss of many lives, it was completed by the 5th, at which time General Spencer with his division came up, and was immediately put on shore. He had not received Sir Arthur's orders to join; but with great presence of mind, and the true military spirit, the moment he heard of Dupont's surrender he made sail for the Tagus, from whence he was sent forward by Sir Charles Cotton to the general point of disembarkation. On the evening of the 8th the united forces, thirteen thousand strong, bivouacked on the beach, and on the following morning the advanced guard moved forward, and commenced that memorable march which, though often interrupted, was destined to be never finally arrested till the British cavalry passed in triumph from Bayonne to Calais. 60. The troops took the field in the highest spirits, and the most perfect state of discipline and equipment, confident in their leader, and not less confident in themselves; for even at this early period of the war, it was the habit of the British soldiers, the habit bequeathed by centuries of glory, to admit of no doubt as to the issue of a combat. The Portuguese generals, who had six thousand men, were at first most extravagant in their demands, and would only consent to join the English upon condition that their troops should all be maintained from the British commissariat: a proposition so utterly unreasonable, when made by the natives of the country to their allies, just landed from their ships, that it thus early evinced, what the future progress of the war so clearly demonstrated, that jealousy of foreign co-operation, and aversion to foreign brigade of infantry, fourteen hundred strong, and two hundred and fifty horse, remain with Sir Arthur, but the main body was positively prohibited to advance beyond Leyria on the road to Lisbon. The truth was, that they entertained a secret dread of the French troops, and, deeming the English totally inadequate to contend with them, they were unwilling to commit themselves by their side in a decisive affair. This defection of the native troops threw a chill over the British army, not from any doubt as to its ability to contend, single-handed, with the forces of Junot, but from the apprehensions which it inspired regarding the sincerity of their allies' professions of zeal against the common enemy. Sir Arthur, notwithstanding, continued his advance, and was received everywhere by the common people with rapturous enthusiasm. His route lay by Alcobasa and Caldas, which latter place he reached on the evening of the 15th; Laborde, who commanded a division of five thousand French, which Junot, on the first alarm, had sent down to the coast, retiring as he advanced. A trifling skirmish occurred on the same day at Obidos, in which a few men were killed and wounded on both sidesmemorable as the scene where British blood first flowed in the Peninsular war. 61. Meanwhile, Junot despatched orders in all directions to call in his detached columns, and concentrate all his forces for the protection of Lisbon; and Laborde, to give him time to complete his arrangements, resolved to stand firm at ROLIÇA-a little village situated at the southern extremity of a large oblong valley, running nearly north and south in the bosom of the Monte Junta, in the centre of which the village and Moorish tower of Obidos are situated. His force, five thousand strong, including five hundred horse and five guns, was stationed on a small elevated plateau in front of Roliça, at the upper end of the valley; | marked the advance of the light troops and the hills on either side which shut as they drove before them the French it in were occupied by detachments, tirailleurs; the curling wreaths of who, from amidst the rocky thickets smoke which rose above the foliage, and close underwood of myrtles and and were wafted by the morning air gum - cistus with which they were up the sides of the mountains, amidst covered, threatened to keep up a heavy the rays of a resplendent sun, formed fire on the assailants. Sir Arthur di- a scene which resembled rather the vided his force into three columns: mimic warfare of the opera stage, than the right, consisting of the Portuguese the opening of the most desperate and infantry, and fifty horse under Colonel sanguinary strife recorded in modern Trant, was directed to turn the moun- times. Such was the impetuosity of tains in the rear; while the centre, the attack, that the leading troops of under Sir Arthur in person, attacked the centre column, particularly the the plateau in front; and the left, 29th regiment, forced their way under General Ferguson, was ordered through the gorge of the pass, and to ascend the hills abreast of Obidos, alone sustained the brunt of the eneand menace the French right by turn-my's fire before any of their comrades ing it in the mountains. As the centre advanced, preceded by nine guns, the corps on the right and left moved simultaneously forward in the hills, and the aspect of the body in the plain, nine thousand strong, moving majestically forward at a slow pace, in the finest order, opening and constantly closing again, when the array was broken by trees or houses in the line of its advance, strongly impressed the French soldiers, most of whom, like the British, were that day to make their first essay in real warfare against an antagonist worthy of their arms. 62. No sooner, however, was Laborde made aware of the risk he ran, if he remained in his present situation, of being outflanked on either side, than he fell swiftly back, in admirable order, and took up a second position much stronger than the former, in a little plain projecting into the valley higher up in the gorge of the pass, and shut in by close rocky thickets on either side. Thither he was rapidly pursued by the British-the right, centre, and left still moving in the same order. Seldom, in the whole progress of the Peninsular campaigns, did war appear in a more picturesque and animating form than in the first engagement of the British soldiers. The loud shouts of the advancing columns, re-echoed by the surrounding hills, and answered by as confident cheers from the enemy; the sharp rattle of the musketry among the woods, which could come up to their assistance. But the severity of the concentric discharges, not merely from the line in front, but from the woods on either flank, was so great, that this gallant regiment, on first emerging into the little plain, wavered and broke, and their noble colonel, Lake,* as he waved his hat to lead them back to the charge, was killed. 63. At that critical moment, however, the 5th and 9th came up, the 29th rallied, and the whole rushed forward with irresistible impetuosity upon the enemy. The French were obliged to give ground; the position was carried before it was menaced by the flank columns getting into its rear. Even then the enemy retired slowly and in compact order, keeping up a continued fire from the rear-guard, and exhibiting, equally with the advance of the assailants, the finest specimen of discipline and steadiness amidst all the confusion incident to a retreat over broken ground and through entangled thickets. In this brilliant affair the British lost five hundred men killed and wounded; the French six hundred, and three pieces of cannon: and as the former, though nearly triple the enemy upon the whole, were necessarily, from the narrow and rugged character of the ground, inferior, in the first instance at least, at the point of attack, it was hard to say to which of these two gallant nations the palm *Son of Lord Lake, the hero of Indian war. que fuit. of courage and skill in this their first | take advantage of the reinforcements encounter in the Peninsula was to be which were at hand. On the other awarded.* "Cædes prope par utrin- hand, Junot, having by great exertion Hoc principium collected all his disposable force, and simul omenque belli, ut summae re- formed a junction at Torres Vedras rum prosperum eventum, ita haud sane with the retiring division of Laborde, incruentam ancipitisque certaminis vic- found himself at the head of only fourtoriam Romanis portendit." + teen thousand men-including, how64. On the following morning or- ever, twelve hundred horse and sixders were, in the first instance, issued and-twenty pieces of cannon: so heavifor the continuance of the pursuit; ly had the necessity of occupying many and it was universally believed in the different points in a hostile country army that the enemy would be pur- weighed upon and divided the twentysued, at the point of the bayonet, to five thousand which still remained at the rock of Lisbon. But at noon ac- his disposal. On the 19th, General counts arrived at headquarters of the Anstruther's brigade was landed, and on arrival of Generals Anstruther and the 20th General Ackland's; and these Ackland, with their respective brigades reinforcements raised the English army from England, off the coast; and, at to sixteen thousand fighting men, bethe same time, that Junot had marched sides Trant's Portuguese and two rewith all his disposable force out of giments which were with Sir Charles Lisbon to bring matters to the issue Cotton off the Tagus. It had, howof a decisive battle. Orders were, there- ever, only eighteen guns, a hundred fore, given to suspend the pursuit, and and eighty British, and two hundred the line of march was directed by Portuguese horse; so that the supeLourinha to VIMEIRA, where head-riority of infantry was nearly counterquarters were established on the 19th, in order to be near the sea-coast to * In this, as in all the other actions of the war, the estimate of the numbers engaged is taken from a medium of the accounts on balanced by the advantage of the enemy in the other arms of war. 65. Accurately informed of the nature of the country through which he was to advance, Sir Arthur proposed, both sides; keeping in view the credit due on the 21st, to turn the strong position to the different narratives, and the maxim of Torres Vedras and gain Mafra with testimonia ponderanda sunt potius quam nua powerful advanced guard; while the meranda. In this affair Sir Arthur estimates the French at 6000 men, Thiébault at 1900, main body was to move forward and Foy at 2500, Toreno at 5000, Thibaudeau at seize the adjoining heights, so as to 3500.-THIEB. 179; GURW. iv. 81; Foy, iv. 314; intercept the French line of retreat by TOR. ii. 46; THIB. vi. 464. With the utmost wish to maintain an impartial view, and the Montachique to Lisbon. But Sir Harry greatest anxiety to avoid the influence of un- Burrard, Sir Arthur's superior in comdue national partiality, it is impossible to mand, who had now arrived off the study the French accounts of the actions in the Peninsular war, and particularly the coast, forbade any such hazardous openumbers engaged and lost on the opposite ration, as endangering unnecessarily sides, without feeling as great distrust of the part of the army, when the force already fidelity of their facts, as admiration for the in hand, and still more the powerful brilliancy of their descriptions and the talent of their observations; and arriving at the reinforcement approaching under Sir conclusion, that the two rival races of mo- John Moore, rendered ultimate success dern Europe have here, as elsewhere, pre- a matter of certainty without incurring served their never-failing characteristics; and that, if the palm for the cagle glance and the any such risk. The troops, therefore, scientific reflection is frequently to be award- were concentrated at Vimeira, and every ed to the writers of the Celtic, the credit to arrangement made for a decisive battle honest and trustworthy narrative is in geneon the morrow; while Junot, having ral due to the historians of the Gothic race. mustered every man he could collect at Torres Vedras, set out soon after nightfall, and advanced, through tedious and difficult defiles, to within a league and a half of the British out "The loss was nearly equal on both sides. This first and portentous engagement in the war presaged ultimate success, but was not less ominous of the desperate and sanguinary strife by which it was to be attained."LIVY, book xxi. c. 29. posts, where he arrived by seven o'clock | approach was obtained at midnight, on the following morning." * 66. The ground occupied by the British in front of Vimeira, though not clearly defined as a military position, was yet of considerable strength. The village of that name stands in a beautiful valley, running in a westerly direction from the interior towards the Atlantic, with the clear stream of the Maceira glittering over a pebbly bottom in its bosom, at the distance of about three miles from the sea. Hills rise on either side, especially on the northern, where a range of abrupt heights overhang the little plain. Over the summit of these runs the great road from Lisbon, through the hamlets of Fontaniel and Ventosa to Lourinha; while on the south-east is a kind of high table-land, covered in the ravines with myrtle, in the open part bare, over which the approach from Torres Vedras passes. A still loftier mass of heights overlooks these in the rear, and lies between them and the sea. On this rugged ground the British army lay in bivouac on the night of the 20th, the village of Vimeira being occupied by a strong detachment, and a few pickets stationed on the heights towards Torres Vedras, to give warning of the arrival of the enemy. 67. The first information of their * The road by which Sir Arthur proposed to have advanced from Vimeira to Mafra was near the sea-coast; that by which Junot actually came up from Torres Vedras to Vimeira was farther in the interior, but nearly parallel to the former. If, therefore, the design of the English general had been followed out, it would have brought the two armies into a position similar to that of the French and Prussians at Jena; they would have| mutually turned and crossed each other in their march, and when they came to blows, Junot would have fought with his back to Oporto and his face to Lisbon, and Wellington with his back to Lisbon and his face to Oporto. But there would have been this essential distinction between the situation of the two armies, after having thus mutually passed each other-that Junot, cut off from all his reserves and supplies at Lisbon, would have been driven, in case of disaster, to a ruinous retreat through the insurgent and hostile mountains of the north of Portugal; whereas Wellington, backed by the sea, and having his fleet, containing powerful reinforcements, to fall back upon, would have fought in a comparatively advantageous position. There can be little doubt that, in when a horseman in haste rode up to At |