With this view of the various circumstances of the moment, Sir Arthur Wellesley gave his voice in favour of the principle of the armistice proposed; the minor details of it were objected to by him, particularly the wording of the article which related to the baggage, and which might be construed into a permission to carry off the plunder of Portugal; but it was thought, (after an understanding with General Kellerman, that it included only the baggage “_purement militaire_,”) that the most proper moment for its correction, would be, in the arrangement of the convention. With this explanation Sir Arthur Wellesley, in pursuance of Sir Hew Dalrymple’s directions, signed the Armistice. It would be needless to relate here the terms of a document, which gave rise afterwards to so much discussion in England, and which must consequently be in the recollection of every Englishman. The period of the armistice was two days, with twenty-four hours’ notice of its rupture, and it precluded the British army from advancing beyond the line of the Zizandra. To give an opinion upon its merits would be presumption; but if the opportunity which it afforded of preparing the British army for its advance into Spain, had been properly made use of, and if the execution of this object had not been so considerably delayed, by the tardiness of the embarkation of the French, it is probable that greater advantages would have resulted from it, than have generally been brought into consideration, in the discussions which it has occasioned. The morning after the signature of the armistice, the British army advanced to Ramalhal. Colonel Murray was sent into the French head-quarters, to discuss the terms of the convention, and the French retired from Torres Vedras, to their positions in the vicinity of Lisbon. After the lapse of some days, the corps of Sir John Moore arrived in Marceira bay, and was landed near Vimiera. The following days it was advanced, and the whole army moved into Torres Vedras. The second day from its entrance into that place, Sir Arthur Wellesley was directed to proceed with the corps with which he originally landed, to the town of Sobral, which commanded one of the great passes to Lisbon; on his march to that place he received a message from Sir Hew Dalrymple, informing him that Colonel Murray had arrived with the convention which he had signed, and that Sir Hew was prepared to ratify it. The feeling of the army which had fought the battle of Vimiera, was at this time most hostile to the armistice which had been agreed upon. The expression of a private in one of the regiments which had most gallantly asserted the superiority of the British arms, deserves to be recorded: whilst marching in his column to Sobral, he appeared to be looking for something which he had lost; and upon being asked what he was in search of, replied, _ten days_, which he believed he should never find again.