While Kellermann was thus employed in the British camp, Junot occupied the positions of the Cabeça de Montechique and Mafra, and hastened himself to Lisbon. On the 20th official intelligence had been published in that city that Laborde had sustained an action with the English army, and though he had only 2000 men, had kept his ground against it; in the night he had taken a position conformably to his orders, for the purpose of joining the Commander-in-chief; their junction had been formed, the enemy were in a strait, and would be attacked on the morrow, when they would be made to see what the French could do: two English regiments had been destroyed in the action. The people, however, understood by reports more worthy of belief than any official statements of the enemy, that the English had been successful at Roliça. The news of the battle of Vimeiro also reached them at nightfall of the 22d; it was asserted, not only that Junot had been defeated, but that he was taken prisoner; the people openly congratulated each other in the streets, and the exultation and stir at the Ave Maria hour were such as to indicate an insurrection. None of the French deemed it prudent to appear, except General Travot, who relied, and not in vain, upon that personal good-will which he had obtained by a conduct always humane and honourable. At daybreak of the 23d, a letter from Junot was published, dated from the field of battle, at four in the afternoon. It stated that the English had been attacked at nine o’clock that morning, in the fortified position which they occupied, and that in an instant they had been dislodged from all their advanced points. The left of the French army had obtained from the first complete success; their right having to take a circuitous course, could not arrive in time to decide the action entirely; it had continued till two o’clock, and they should probably finish it on the morrow. At two they had taken a position, and were three leagues nearer the enemy than on the preceding day. The loss of the English had been great. “On our part,” said Junot, “there have been 150 killed, and from 300 to 400 wounded. We are stronger now, fresh troops having reached me ... to-morrow, therefore ...” there the sentence was broken off, and General Travot concluded the bulletin by saying, that many of the enemy’s superior officers had been killed or wounded, that the Commander-in-chief was well, and in a few days would be in Lisbon. He arrived, in fact, that afternoon, with the reserve, and such of the wounded as could be removed. A royal salute was fired from the Castle, as if he had returned victorious; but the countenances of the French, even the generals themselves, belied this manifestation of success. ♦NEVES, V. 151–154. OBSERVADOR PORTUGUEZ, 413, 417.♦ It was soon rumoured that a capitulation had been proposed, and no doubt could be entertained concerning this when it was known that an English officer