him with circumstances of atrocious cruelty. Men, like wild beasts, when once they have tasted blood, acquire an appetite for it. The cry of treason, while it served as a pretext for old enmities and private designs, deceived the ignorant and inflamed the furious; and several persons of rank, as well as many of Freire’s officers, were butchered in the city and in the neighbouring villages. ♦THE PORTUGUEZE ROUTED BEFORE BRAGA.♦ The command was now a second time forced upon Baron d’Eben by acclamation, and to him the papers of the murdered General were brought. He sealed them up, dispatched them to Porto, and prepared as well as he could to put his tumultuary force in order. The bells from all the churches were ringing the alarm, and the _ordenanças_ were coming in at the call: no preparation had been made for supplying them with food when they were ordered to their stations, nor were there any cartridges which would fit their pieces. A single mould was at length found of the just size, lead was taken from the churches, and bullets were made during the night as fast as this slow process would allow. Meanwhile the French vanguard under Generals Franceschi and Laborde, with the brigade of General Foy, arrived before the position of Carvalho, which a part of this tumultuary force had occupied, about five miles in front of Braga. During three days frequent attacks were made, ♦MARCH 20.♦ and the Portugueze kept their ground. By this time the other divisions of the French had come up, and D’Eben had collected about 23,000 men; 2000 consisted of regular troops, the legion and the Braga militia; of the remainder only 5000 were armed with fire-arms, and most of these had only three rounds of ammunition. Such a multitude was little able to withstand the well-concerted and well-sustained attack of a disciplined force nearly equal in numbers. They were presently routed, and the French having found one of their fellow-soldiers horribly mutilated by some ferocious persons into whose ♦OPERATIONS DE M. SOULT, 142.♦ hands he had fallen, showed little mercy in the pursuit. D’Eben and some of his officers attempted in vain to rally the fugitives, that they might defend the city; the answer to all his exhortations was, that there was no ammunition. The last act of the rabble was to murder those remaining objects of their suspicion whom D’Eben had hoped to save by putting them in prison. ♦THE FRENCH ENTER BRAGA.♦