The Military Adventures of Charles O'Neil: Who was a Soldier in the Army of Lord Wellington during the Memorable Peninsular War and the Continental Campaigns from 1811 to 1815O'Neil, Charles
History
The Military Adventures of Charles O'Neil: Who was a Soldier in the Army of Lord Wellington during the Memorable Peninsular War and the Continental Campaigns from 1811 to 1815
O'Neil, Charles
Barrosa, Battle of, Spain, 1811 -- Personal narratives, British; Europe -- History -- 1789-1815; O'Neil, Charles, 1793-; Peninsular War, 1807-1814 -- Personal narratives, British; Waterloo, Battle of, Waterloo, Belgium, 1815 -- Personal narratives, British
But if the French arms had met with a reverse in Spain, it was
compensated by their success in Portugal. Junôt, at the head of
twenty-five thousand men, marched from Alcantara to Lisbon. At an
unfavorable season of the year, and encountering fatigue, and want,
and tempests, that daily thinned his ranks, until of his whole force
only two thousand remained, he yet entered Lisbon victorious. This city
contained three hundred thousand inhabitants, and fourteen thousand
regular troops were collected there. A powerful British fleet was at
the mouth of the harbor, and its commander, Sir Sidney Smith, offered
his powerful aid, in resisting the French; yet such was the terror
that Napoleon’s name excited, and such the hatred of their rulers,
that the people of Lisbon yielded, almost without a struggle. When
Napoleon, in his Moniteur, made the startling announcement that “the
house of Braganza had ceased to reign,” the feeble prince-regent,
alarmed for his own safety, embarked, with his whole court, and sailed
for the Brazils. Junôt himself was created Duke of Abrantes, and
made governor-general of the kingdom. He exerted himself to give an
efficient government to Portugal; and met with such success, that a
strong French interest was created, and steps were actually taken to
have Prince Eugene declared King of Portugal. The people themselves,
and the literary men, were in favor of this step; but it met with
the strongest opposition from the priests, and this was nurtured and
fanned into a flame by persons in the pay of the English, whose whole
influence was exerted in making Napoleon’s name and nation as odious
to the people as possible. Among a people so superstitious as the
Portuguese, the monks would, of course, exert great influence; and many
were the prodigies which appeared, to prove that their cause was under
the protection of Heaven. Among others, was that of an egg, marked by
some chemical process, with certain letters, which were interpreted
to indicate the coming of Don Sebastian, King of Portugal. This
adventurous monarch, years before, earnestly desirous of promoting the
interests of his country, and of the Christian religion, had raised
a large army, consisting of the flower of his nobility, and the
choicest troops of his kingdom, and crossed the Straits into Africa,
for the purpose of waging war with the Moorish king. Young, ardent
and inexperienced, he violated every dictate of prudence, by marching
into the enemy’s country to meet an army compared with which his own
was a mere handful. The whole of his army perished, and his own fate
was never known. But, as his body was not found among the dead, the
peasantry of Portugal, ardently attached to their king, believed that
he would some time return, and deliver his country from all their
woes. He was supposed to be concealed in a secret island, waiting
the destined period, in immortal youth. The prophecy of the egg was,
therefore, believed; and people, even of the higher classes, were often
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