Occupation of the Lines of Torres Vedras—An army in motley—An Irish interpreter—Death of the Marquis de la Romana—Retreat of Masséna’s army from Portugal—Indulgence of Lord Wellington—The amenities of a subaltern’s existence. The astonishment of the French general was great when he beheld the reception prepared for him; and his friend the Duke d'Abrantes must have been lowered in his estimation not a little, because it is well known that, contrary to the advice of several able officers, Masséna was overruled by Junot, who assured him those heights could be easily carried. After numerous _reconnoissances_, the French Marshal came to the resolution of renouncing any hope of success from an assault; and his army formed a line blockade, with its right at Otta, its centre at Alenquer, and its left at Villa Franca. But it must have been a matter of deep regret to him to have learned, when too late, that by this useless advance of his, he exposed upwards of three thousand of his wounded from the battle of Busaco, left at Coimbra, to be massacred by the Portuguese militia and peasantry. For the space of a month the French army remained inactive in their wretched cantonments, their supply of provisions growing every day more scanty; their horses, reduced to the necessity of subsisting on the vine twigs, died by hundreds; and the soldiers, pining from disease, became discontented and discouraged. In consequence, the desertions increased with their increasing wants, and it appeared very evident that matters could not long continue in the state they had assumed at the beginning of November.