History of the Peninsular War, Volume 1 (of 6)Southey, Robert
History
History of the Peninsular War, Volume 1 (of 6)
Southey, Robert
Peninsular War, 1807-1814
By such means and such agents Junot thought to prepare the minds of
the Portugueze for fresh humiliation. On the day after the publication
of this pastoral, he went on board the Russian admiral, and when he
embarked the French flag was hoisted on the arsenal. This was the first
time that it had been planted in Lisbon; all eyes were attracted to it
by a salute which was fired on the occasion, and the sight exasperated
a people who perhaps more than any other European nation are remarkable
for national pride. The general feeling was sufficiently apparent in
the murmurs and agitation of the populace; but they had no leaders, and
in murmurs it seemed to spend itself. ♦DEC. 13.♦ Two days the French
colours remained flying there. On the third a large body of troops was
drawn up in the great square of the Rocio, and Junot with his staff,
and a numerous train of officers, appeared in state. He thanked them
in the Emperor’s name for the constancy with which they had endured
the hardships of their march. They had rescued, he said, this fine
city from oppression, ... they had saved it from disorder; and they
had now the glory of seeing the French flag planted in Lisbon. He
concluded with three cheers for Napoleon: the troops took up the cry;
at the same moment the French colours were hoisted on the castle, and
a salute of twenty-five guns was fired and repeated by all the forts
upon the river. A deep and general murmur ran through the multitude of
spectators: at this moment the Marquez d’Alorna entered the square;
the people regarded him as one of the generals to whom they might look
up in their hour of deliverance, and they repeatedly cheered him as he
passed. A spark then would have produced an explosion, and Lisbon was
never in such danger of a massacre: happily there was no man bolder
than his comrade, to step forward and provoke it; the troops marched
off, and the crowd dispersed. But the national spirit which had thus
systematically been outraged was burning in every heart. It was Sunday,
a day on which more people are always in the streets than on any other,
and now the confluence was increased by the perturbed state of the
general feeling. Towards evening some French soldiers, riding their
horses to water through the Terreiro do Paço, were hooted by some of
the populace, and they on their part returned insult for insult. A
quarrel ensued, a Portugueze of the police guard interfered, and the
French, thinking that he interfered as a party and not as a mediator,
seized him and delivered him to their principal _corps de garde_ which
was in the same great square. The populace attempted to rescue him:
they attacked the guard with sticks and stones, ... and were on the
point of overpowering and disarming them, when some patroles of the
police came up, and succeeded in appeasing the tumult.
♦COMMOTION IN LISBON.♦
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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