In prose, the most valuable work was done in history, and the editions of the old Portuguese chroniclers, Ruy de Pina, Azurara, Fernão Lopes, and Acenheiro, edited for the “Academia Real das Sciencias,” by José Correa de Serra still remain the standard editions. Nor was science neglected in the country of Pedro Nunes; Bartholomeu de Gusmão is asserted to have discovered ballooning in 1709, years before the Montgolfiers commenced their experiments; and the botanists Felix de Avellar Brotero and Antonio Correa da Silva, to mention but one department of scientific activity, were well known throughout Europe, and were members of most of the scientific societies of the time. In the arts mention has already been made of David Peres, the musical composer, and of Joaquim Machado de Castro, the architect; the latter was in addition the best sculptor of his country, and Domingos Antonio de Sequeira, as a painter, will compare favourably with most of the contemporary artists in Europe. But though the influence of France is to be perceived in every department of literature until the revival of national poetry by Nascimento and Du Bocage, the Portuguese people remained, owing to the Methuen treaty, on much more intimate terms with the English. The royal family might hanker after matrimonial alliances with Spain, a great minister, like Pombal, might resent the absorption of Portuguese trade by England; but, for all that, the people felt how close were their bonds with the English nation. Mention has been made of the influx of English capital, of the wine merchants of Oporto, and the English factory at Lisbon, and also of the power exercised by the English ambassadors. But there was a closer bond than that; Portugal became the sanitarium for England; it was to Portugal that the seekers after a milder climate resorted as they would now do to the Riviera, and it was to Lisbon that the great English novelist, Henry Fielding, to mention but one of many invalids, was sent; it was in Lisbon that he died, and he is buried in the cemetery of the English factory there. These were the bonds that bound the two peoples together, and the Portuguese people were justified in counting upon the armed help of England in the terrible struggle which they were now to pass through. [Illustration: text decoration] [Illustration: text decoration] XVII. THE ERA OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION--THE PENINSULAR WAR.