A secret convention, which was concluded at the same time, agreed upon the means for carrying this nefarious treaty into effect. Twenty-five thousand French infantry and 3000 cavalry were to enter Spain, and march directly for Lisbon; they were to be joined by 8000 Spanish infantry and 3000 cavalry, with 30 pieces of artillery. At the same time 10,000 Spanish troops were to take possession of the province between the Minho and Douro, and the city of Porto; and 6000 were to enter Alentejo and Algarve. The French troops were to be maintained by Spain upon their march. As soon as they had entered the country (for no opposition was expected), the government of each portion of the divided territory was to be vested in the Generals commanding, and the contributions imposed thereon accrue to their respective courts. The central body was to be under the orders of the French Commander-in-chief. Nevertheless, if either the King of Spain, or the Prince of the Peace, should think fit to join the Spanish troops attached to that army, the French, with the General commanding them, should be subject to his orders. Another body of 40,000 French troops was to be assembled at Bayonne, by the 20th of November at the latest, to be ready to proceed to Portugal, in case the English should send reinforcements there, or menace it with an attack. This army, however, was not to enter Spain till the two contracting parties had come to an agreement upon that point. This nefarious treaty, whereby the two contracting powers disposed of the dominions of two other sovereigns, with whom the one was connected by the nearest and closest ties of relationship and alliance, and both were at peace, was carried on with a secresy worthy of the transaction. D. Eugenio Izquierdo, an agent of Godoy’s, was employed to negotiate it unknown to the Spanish embassador in France, and the whole business is said to have been concealed from the ministers[17] in both countries. It was signed on the 27th of October. The convoy with the English factory on board had sailed from the Tagus on the 18th, and never had a day of such political calamity and general sorrow been known in Lisbon since the tidings arrived of the loss of Sebastian and his army. ♦THE ENGLISH RESIDENTS EXPELLED FROM LISBON.♦ Their departure was followed by a proclamation for the exclusion of British commerce: it had ever, the Prince said, been his desire to observe the most perfect neutrality during the present contest; ♦EDICT FOR THE EXCLUSION OF BRITISH COMMERCE. OCT. 22.♦ but that being no longer possible, and having reflected at the same time how beneficial a general peace would be to humanity, he had thought proper to accede to the cause of the Continent by uniting himself to the Emperor of the French and the Catholic King, in order to contribute as far as might be in his power to the acceleration of a maritime peace. Whatever hopes he might have indulged of satisfying France by this measure were soon dissipated,