At this juncture the Portuguese people felt that they could not resist France by their own strength; and the Bishop of Oporto appealed to the old ally of Portugal, England, for assistance. [Illustration: PORTUGUESE PEASANTS. (_From Kinsey’s “Portugal Illustrated,” 1829._)] The English Government willingly listened to this appeal; they had long wished for a base on the Continent from which to act against Napoleon by land, and, in the words of Canning, “the arm of Great Britain became the lever, and Portugal the fulcrum, to wrench from its basis the power that had subdued the rest of Europe.” In the previous year, a force under Colonel Beresford had occupied Madeira, but up to this time, no attempt had been made to dislodge the French from Portugal itself. On the receipt of this appeal from Oporto however, a small army, which had been collected at Cork under the command of Lieutenant-General the Honourable Sir Arthur Wellesley, for an expedition to South America, was ordered instead to proceed to Portugal; reinforcements were collected at Ramsgate and Harwich, and a division under Major-General Brent Spencer was ordered to sail from Gibraltar to join him. A Lusitanian Legion was also formed out of the Portuguese who happened to be in England, and despatched to Portugal under the command of Colonel Sir Robert Wilson and Colonel Mayne. It was indeed time that help should arrive; all the best troops and most skilled officers had been sent out of Portugal in the Portuguese Legion to join the Grand Army of France, and the undisciplined peasants and apprentices hastily collected by the “juntas” were easily defeated in many places by the French veterans. Sir Arthur Wellesley landed at the mouth of the Mondego River, and advanced southwards upon Lisbon. He first defeated Laborde’s division at Roliça on the 17th of August, 1808; and, after receiving reinforcements, he routed Junot himself at Vimeiro on the 21st of August. These victories were followed by the Convention of Cintra by which Junot agreed to evacuate Portugal and surrender all the fortresses in his possession, on condition that his troops and their plunder should be transported safe to France. This convention, however disappointing from a military point of view to the English authorities, was eminently satisfactory to the Portuguese people, who saw themselves delivered from the French, as speedily as they had been conquered by them.