Massena opened his trenches on the night of August 15. While a false attack was made against the north of the town, 2000 men dug the first parallel to a depth of three feet; and on Sunday the 26th, at five in the morning, eleven batteries, mounted with sixty-five pieces of cannon, opened their fire. The garrison consisted of 5000 men, of whose spirit no doubt was entertained; the fortress was well provided, and its works had been placed in so respectable a state, that Lord Wellington had reason to think it might delay the enemy till late in the season, even if he should be unable to find an opportunity of relieving it. These well-founded expectations were frustrated by one of those chances which sometimes disconcert the wisest plans, and disappoint the surest hopes of man. On the night after the batteries opened, the large powder magazine in the citadel, with two smaller ones contiguous to it, blew up. More than half the artillerymen, a great number of the garrison, and many of the inhabitants, perished in this dreadful explosion; many of the guns were dismounted, and the works were rendered no longer defensible, even if means of defence had been left; but, except a few cartridges for immediate use, and thirty-nine barrels of powder in the laboratory, the whole of the ammunition was destroyed. ♦SURRENDER OF THE PLACE.♦ Great as the calamity was, the evil would have been far more alarming had it proceeded, as was at first supposed, from treason; but, according to the best information which could be collected, it was altogether accidental: the magazine was bomb-proof; and they were taking ammunition from it, when a shell fell upon one of the carts. The lieutenant-governor had behaved well till the batteries opened; he was then so terrified, that he shut himself up in the bomb-proofs. Having thus proved himself a coward, mere shame made him a traitor: and after the explosion he took advantage of the confusion to counteract the governor’s attempt at holding out longer. Another traitor was found in the major of artillery. He had behaved well during the siege; but when he was sent out to propose terms of capitulation, for the purpose of gaining favour with the enemy he communicated to him the whole extent of the disaster; so that Massena, knowing the place was at his mercy, was enabled to dictate what terms he pleased. The garrison were made prisoners of war, with this exception, that the militia, having deposited their arms, should return to their homes, and not serve during the war. It was ten at night when the capitulation was concluded; in the course of half an hour the French recommenced their fire upon the town, and kept it up till morning, when the Portugueze were assured in reply to their remonstrances, that it had been owing to a mistake on the part of the artillery officers: undoubtedly it had been so; but the commander is chargeable with something worse ♦COMPILAÇAM DAS ORDENS DO DIA, 1810, P. 168.♦ than error, for having