At this period Loison, with between seven and eight thousand men, was in the neighbourhood of Estremos, two thousand five hundred men were in the fortresses of Elvas and Almeida, a few hundred were at Abrantes, a thousand were in Santarem, and the same number in Peniché. General Thomieres, with a brigade, was in the vicinity of Alcobaca, and the remainder were quartered in Lisbon and on a circuit round, including both sides of the river. The Tagus itself was guarded on the north bank by the forts of Cascaes, St. Antonio, St. Julians, Belem, and the citadel, between each of which smaller works kept up a continued line of offence against ships entering by the northern passage of the harbour. On the southern bank fort Bugio, built upon a low sandy point, crossed its fire with St. Julians in the defence of the entrance. Upon the heights of Almada or Palmela, stood the fort of Palmela. St. Ubes and Traffaria completed the posts occupied by the French on that side. The communication between the north and south banks was kept up by the refitted Portuguese ships of war, by the Russian squadron, and by the innumerable boats, most of them very fine and large, with which the Tagus is covered. Such being the situation of the army on the 3d, Junot ordered Loison to march by Portalegre and Abrantes, and from thence effect a junction with general Laborde, who, with three thousand infantry, five or six hundred cavalry, and five pieces of artillery, quitted Lisbon upon the 6th, and proceeded by Villa Franca, Rio Mayor, and Candeiros, charged to observe the movements of the British, and to cover the march of Loison, with whom he expected to form a junction at Leria. [Sidenote: Thiebault.] Junot himself remained in Lisbon with a view of controlling the inhabitants by his presence. He embarked all the powder from the magazines, took additional precautions to guard his Spanish prisoners, and put the citadel and forts into a state of siege; but disquieted by the patriots assembled at Alcacer do Sal, he sent general Kellerman with a moveable column to disperse them, and to scour the country between that place and Setuval, ordering him to withdraw the garrison from the latter, to abandon all the French posts on the south of the Tagus except Palmela, and to collect the whole force in one mass on the heights of Almada, where an entrenched camp had been already commenced; but general Kellerman had scarcely departed when two English regiments, the one from Madeira, the other from Gibraltar, arriving off the bar of Lisbon, distracted anew the attention of the French, and increased the turbulence of the populace, and in this state of perplexity the duke of Abrantes lingered until the 15th, when the progress of sir Arthur Wellesley forced him to assume the command of the army in the field.