preacher, and Jacinto Freire de Andrade, the biographer of Dom João de Castro, all showed the spirit of patriotism, and it is not unworthy of notice that the first Portuguese newspaper, the _Gazeta de Lisboa_ was established in 1641. The whole course of the Revolution of 1640 shows that the people of Portugal in the seventeenth century were not unworthy of their ancestors, and that they had learnt much, because they had suffered much, during the “Sixty Years’ Captivity.” [Illustration: text decoration] [Illustration: text decoration] XV. THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE. The death of John IV., and the accession of the boy Affonso VI., proved to be anything but a disaster to the House of Braganza. The queen became sole regent, and this energetic and able woman, who had always been the courageous supporter of her weak husband, determined to prosecute the war against Spain with redoubled vigour. She, too, hankered after a close alliance with France, and distrusted the promises of Mazarin; but she felt that it was no good to wait for allies until Spain was at liberty to attack her, and now ordered the Portuguese army to take the field. Hitherto, since the battle of Montijo, the war had languished, and had been confined to skirmishes on the frontier, but the queen-regent determined to renounce this policy and to invade Spain. Her enterprize was not crowned with success, and the siege of Badajoz which she attempted resulted in failure and defeat. It was obvious that the Portuguese army, though full of gallant and loyal soldiers, was quite undisciplined and unfit for any serious operation of war. This being the case, the queen got her ambassador at Paris, the Count of Soure, to engage Frederick, Count Schomberg, the most famous military adventurer of his time, to enter her service, and to bring with him eighty officers and four hundred non-commissioned officers, to organize and discipline the Portuguese army. Schomberg, whose strange fate it was to serve under nearly every leading monarch in Europe, and to die an English duke at the battle of the Boyne, gladly accepted the queen’s offer. Like the Count of Lippe-Buckeburg and Marshal Beresford in later days, he found that the Portuguese made excellent soldiers, brave and amenable to discipline, and the result of his labours appeared in the great victory won by Dom Antonio Luis de Menezes, Count of Cantanhede, over the Spaniards under Don Luiz de Haro, at Elvas, on January 14, 1659. [Illustration: CATHERINE OF BRAGANZA. (_From an Engraving by Faithorne._)]