vernment either weak or corrupt, kept her in chains, and
were preparing the means by which the ruin of our king, our laws, our
independence, our liberty, our lives, and even the holy religion in
which we are united, might accompany your's,--by which a barbarous
people might consummate their own triumph, and accomplish the slavery of
every nation in Europe:--our loyalty, our honour, our justice, could not
submit to such flagrant atrocity! We have broken our chains,--let us
then to action.' But the story of Portugueze sufferings shall be told by
Junot himself; who, in his proclamation to the people of Portugal (dated
Palace of Lisbon, June 26,) thus speaks to them: 'You have earnestly
entreated of him a king, who, aided by the omnipotence of that great
monarch, might raise up again your unfortunate Country, and replace her
in the rank which belongs to her. Doubtless at this moment your new
monarch is on the point of visiting you.--He expects to find faithful
Subjects--shall he find only rebels? I expected to have delivered over
to him a peaceable kingdom and flourishing cities--shall I be obliged to
shew him only ruins and heaps of ashes and dead bodies?--Merit pardon by
prompt submission, and a prompt obedience to my orders; if not, think of
the punishment which awaits you.--Every city, town, or village, which
shall take up arms against my forces, and whose inhabitants shall rise
upon the French troops, shall be delivered up to pillage and totally
destroyed, and the inhabitants shall be put to the sword--every
individual taken in arms shall be instantly shot.' That these were not
empty threats, we learn from the bulletins published by authority of the
same Junot, which at once shew his cruelty, and that of the persons whom
he employed, and the noble resistance of the Portugueze. 'We entered
Beia,' says one of those dismal chronicles, 'in the midst of great
carnage. The rebels left 1200 dead on the field of battle; all those
taken with arms in their hands were put to the sword, and all the houses
from which we had been fired upon were burned.' Again in another, 'The
spirit of insanity, which had led astray the inhabitants of Beia and
rendered necessary the terrible chastisement which they have received,
has likewise been exercised in the north of Portugal.' Describing
another engagement, it is said, 'the lines endeavoured to make a stand,
but they were forced; the massacre was terrible--more than a thousand
dead bodies rema