The peasantry of the adjacent country were less cautious; they appeared in arms upon the heights, and Loison therefore sent two companies to burn the village of Souropires. Being now within easy reach of Almeida, and knowing that the country about Trancoso and Guarda was in a state of insurrection, his intention was to employ ♦THIEBAULT, 152.♦ himself in reducing it to submission; but here the only one of the numerous dispatches from Lisbon which reached its destination found him, and, in pursuance of its orders to draw nearer the capital, he hastened to Almeida, to make the ♦NEVES, III. 249–253.♦ necessary arrangements for his march. On the way he began to sack the city of Pinhel, which the inhabitants had deserted at his coming; but upon the tidings that a corps from Tras os Montes had arrived at Trancoso, and that Viseu was now in arms, he hastened forward, and on the 1st of July re-entered Almeida. ♦Insurrection at Olham.♦ When Loison, upon the first apprehension of danger, was sent to occupy Porto, General Avril was instructed, at the same time, to take possession of Estremoz and Evora, for the purpose of holding Alem-Tejo in subjection, and to give orders for securing Algarve. General Maurin commanded for the French in this kingdom, as it is designated, the smallest but richest province in Portugal: owing to his illness the command had devolved upon Col. Maransin, who received instructions to occupy Mertola as well as Alcoutim, for guarding the Guadiana against the Spaniards; and to protect the coast from Faro, the greatest port in that province, to Villa Real, the frontier town, at the mouth of the river. Maransin, however, was not left at leisure to do this. Junot’s proclamation, announcing the seizure of the Spanish troops, expressing his satisfaction with the Portugueze for their peaceable deportment, and promising to instruct them in the art of war, had been fixed upon the church door at Olham, a small fishing village about four miles from the city of Faro. The governor of Villa Real, Col. José Lopes de Sousa, happening to be in that village on the day of the Corpo de Deos, as he was going into the church stopped to see what the people were reading. The language of that proclamation proved how little Junot understood the character of the nation to which it was addressed; it wounded that high sense of national honour for which the Portugueze are remarkable, and Lopes, giving way to an honourable feeling of indignation, tore the paper down, and trampled upon it; then turning to the bystanders, exclaimed, “Ah, Portugueze, we no longer deserve that name ... we are nothing now!” But they answered, that they were still Portugueze, and swore that they were ready to lay down their lives for their religion, their Prince, and their country. Though the impulse had thus been given, and the determination of the parties formed, they did not neglect the religious duties of the day, but entered the church peaceably, and attended mass.