rt with Palmella
that Pedro should be sent away, and the constitution be suspended
till the Queen shall be of age. Pedro has committed, since he was
in Lisbon, every folly and atrocity he could squeeze into so
small a space of time; imprisoning, confiscating, granting
monopolies, attacking the Church, and putting forth the
constitution in its most offensive shape. I suspect we shall have
made a sad mess of this business.

Just come from the Duke of Wellington; talked about Portugal and
the intercepted letters; the writer said that he (the Duke) had
told Neumann he approved of Bourmont's going, whereas he thought
it an objectionable nomination, because he had formerly deserted
from the Portuguese service.[6] He had never had any communication
with these agents, and did not believe Aberdeen had had any
either: he said Lisbon was more defensible than Oporto, but
required more men. Talking of Miguel, the Duke related that he was
at Strathfieldsaye with Palmella, where in the library they were
settling the oath that Miguel should take, Miguel would pay no
attention, and instead of going into the business and saying what
oath he would consent to take (the question was whether he should
swear fidelity to Pedro or to Maria) he sat flirting with the
Princess Therese Esterhazy. The Duke said to Palmella, 'This will
never do, he must settle the terms of the oath, and if he is so
careless in an affair of such moment, he will never do his duty.'
Palmella said, 'Oh, leave him to us, we will manage him.' He had
no idea of overturning the constitution and playing false when he
went there, but was persuaded by his mother and terrified by the
lengths to which the constitutional party was disposed to go. The
Duke said the Government would be very foolish to interfere for
Pedro, who was a ruffian, and for the constitution, which was
odious, and that Pedro would never have more than the ground he
stood on; talked of our foreign policy, his anxiety for peace, but
of France as our 'natural enemy!' and of the importance of
maintaining our influence in Spain, which so long as we did we
should have nothing to fear from France.

[6] Bourmont was an emigrant, and went into the Portuguese
service. When Junot came to Portugal he joined him, was
taken into the French service, in which he continued to
rise, till he deserted just before the battle of
Waterloo from Napoleon to Louis XVIII.

September