The officer who volunteered for the dangerous task of going within the English lines was Captain Argenton, the adjutant of Lafitte’s regiment of dragoons. He was a vain, ready, plausible man, full of resources but destitute of firmness: his character is sufficiently shown by the fact that he ultimately wrecked the plot by his indiscretion in tampering with loyal Bonapartists, who delated him, and that when seized he betrayed the whole scheme to Soult in the hope of saving his life. Clearly he was deficient both in the caution and in the stoic courage required for a conspirator--successful or unsuccessful. We must note that he started from the camp of Lahoussaye’s dragoons, near Amarante, on April 19, that he reached the French outposts on the Vouga and got into communication with Major Douglas, one of Beresford’s officers in the Portuguese service, on the twenty-first, finally, that at the invitation of Douglas and Beresford he came into Lisbon and reached that city on the twenty-fifth, just in time to meet the newly-landed Wellesley. The plot meanwhile stood still in his absence, for the Duke of Dalmatia did not take the overt step which would have given the plotters their opportunity--he refrained from accepting the crown which his Portuguese partisans were so continually pressing him to assume. Nothing decisive had occurred, when the situation was suddenly changed by the appearance of the British army upon the offensive on May 7[338]. [338] It is to these days, and probably to some date about May 4-7, that belongs General Bigarré’s curious story about the conspirators (see his _Mémoires_, p. 235, and Le Noble, p. 238; the latter printed the story in 1821 without names, the former’s version was only given to the light a few years ago; they agree in every point). The story is too good to be omitted. Bigarré says that, walking the quay of Oporto on a moonlight night, he came on Lafitte and Donadieu, muffled in their cloaks and vehemently discussing something in a dark corner. He stole up to them unnoticed, slapped his friend Donadieu on the back, and suddenly shouted in their ears ‘_Ah! je vous y prends, Messieurs les conspirateurs_.’ Lafitte whipped out a pistol, and had nearly shot the practical joker, before Donadieu could reassure him that this was only a boisterous piece of fun and that Bigarré knew nothing. It was not till much later that the latter found out what had been brewing. N.B.--For some documents bearing on Argenton’s conspiracy see Appendix at the end of this volume. SECTION XIV WELLESLEY’S CAMPAIGN IN NORTHERN PORTUGAL (MAY 1809) CHAPTER I SIR ARTHUR WELLESLEY On Nov. 25, 1808, Sir John Moore, in answer to a question from Lord Castlereagh, wrote the following conclusions as to the practicability of defending Portugal[339]: