This was wise language, and though it proceeded from a government on which they had little reason to rely, the Portugueze answered the appeal with enthusiasm. The squares were filled, the streets lined with volunteers, practising their evolutions with a zeal deserving better teachers than it found. In these ranks the old man and the stripling stood side by side, ... all pedantry of inches and proportion was forgotten; the strength to carry arms, and the heart to use them, were the only qualifications required. Some were armed with fowling-pieces, some with bayonets screwed upon poles, some with pikes and halberds, which for centuries had hung idly in the hall; bullets were piled up in heaps at every stall, with flints and ramrods; and rusty weapons of all kinds were brought out from the dust to answer the general demand for arms. The children with their flags and wooden guns were playing at soldiers, imitating the discipline of their fathers with that spirit which, if well fostered and directed, would render any country invincible. There was no want of courage, of enthusiasm, or of patriotic feeling; but the people had none to direct and train them, none to whom they could look with confidence. It was the beginning of February before the news arrived of Sir John Moore s death, and that his army had withdrawn from Spain. Fourteen thousand English troops had been left at Lisbon when that army began its march. Some regiments had advanced to the frontiers, that they might be near the commander-in-chief if he should require to be reinforced, or find it expedient to fall back upon them. These, learning that he had retreated by a different route, and that superior forces were hastening against them, returned by forced marches to the capital. Every thing was in confusion there. One day the cavalry was embarked, the next it was relanded. The sea batteries were dismantled, and their guns shipped for Brazil; those at Fort St. Julien alone were left mounted, as a defensible post if the British troops should be forced to embark precipitately. The women belonging to the army were sent on board. These preparations exasperated the people: they were eager to do whatever should be required of them in the defence of their country: that their own governors wanted courage or ability to stand by them was nothing more than what they expected; but from the English, the old and faithful friends of the Portugueze, they looked for that assistance which England had never refused to Portugal in its time of need. The feeling which this intended abandonment produced was rather anger than fear; and they resented it more as if they felt ashamed for allies long trusted, and always found worthy, than alarmed for the consequences to themselves. A party of the armed populace seized the English Ambassador’s baggage, which was ♦FEB. 24.♦ packed up for removal. The government affected to consider this as the work of French