Colonel Trant, who commanded there, knew how inadequate his means were to prevent this; but he knew that efficient aid might soon be expected from England, that much might sometimes be done by mere display, and by the judicious use of a scanty force, and that if the evil could be but for a little while delayed, it might ultimately be averted. The force at his disposal consisted of the Coimbra militia and a detachment of volunteers who had enlisted for the army, in all 500 men; but to these an academical corps of 300 was immediately added, the students offering themselves with that alacrity, and displaying that promptitude and intelligence, which belong to youth in their station. The people began to recover confidence when they knew that one party from this little force took the road to Aveiro and another that to Sardam, the two directions in which Coimbra might be approached from Porto. Report magnified the designs of Colonel Trant and the means which he possessed; and the double good was produced of encouraging the Portugueze and delaying the progress of the French, who, if they advanced to Coimbra, would have commanded the resources of a fertile country, have approached nearer to the armies with which their operations were to be combined for effecting the conquest of the kingdom; and moreover, in case of failure, would have had an easier retreat open through Beira. A most timely supply was obtained from the magistrates of Aveiro, who having consulted the Camara of Coimbra, placed the public money which had been collected in their city at Colonel Trant’s disposal, and also a considerable magazine of maize and other grain, ... both being thus secured from the enemy, into whose hands they must otherwise have fallen, if even a slight detachment had been sent thither. The fugitives from Porto and from that part of the country which the invaders occupied found in Coimbra all the assistance that could be afforded, and were thus prevented from carrying the panic farther; and the soldiers who had escaped the butchery were refitted and re-embodied as they came in. Colonel Trant offered the command to Baron d’Eben; but the Baron knew by experience what it was to command a hasty and tumultuous force, and chose rather to employ himself in re-collecting his battalion of the Lusitanian Legion. It was offered also to the Portugueze Brigadier Antonio Marcellino da Victoria; but he had witnessed the fate of Freire, and desired to accompany Trant as a simple volunteer. In addition to the force which was thus augmenting, two squadrons of regular troops unexpectedly arrived in Coimbra, with their commander, the Visconde de Barbacena: they had been ordered in a different direction; but being mostly natives of the Campo de Coimbra, they had insisted upon going to defend their own immediate country, and the Viscount deemed it better to obey their inclinations than withstand a spirit of insubordination to which he might too probably have fallen a sacrifice.