the French forces in Portugal. Junot (recently created Duke of Abrantes)
now took the command in person; and finding himself at the head of full
24,000 troops, while the English army were greatly inferior in numbers,
and miserably supplied with cavalry and artillery, he did not hesitate
to assume the offensive. On the 21st of August he attacked Sir Arthur at
Vimiero. In the language of the English General's despatch, "a most
desperate contest ensued"; and the result was "a signal defeat," Junot,
having lost thirteen cannon and more than two thousand men, immediately
fell back upon Lisbon, where his position was protected by the strong
defile of the Torres Vedras.

This retreat would not have been accomplished without much more
fighting, had Sir Arthur Wellesley been permitted to follow up his
victory, according to the dictates of his own understanding and the
enthusiastic wishes of his army. But just as the battle was about to
begin, Sir Harry Burrard, an old officer of superior rank, unfortunately
entitled to assume the chief command, arrived on the field. Finding that
Sir Arthur had made all his dispositions, General Burrard handsomely
declined interfering until the fortune of the day should be decided; but
he took the command as soon as the victory was won, and more cautiously
than wisely, prevented the army from instantly advancing, as Sir Arthur
Wellesley proposed, upon the coast road towards Mafra, and thus
endeavouring to intercept the retreat of Junot upon Lisbon. Sir Harry,
having made this unhappy use of his command, was, the very next day,
superseded in his turn by Sir Hew Dalrymple, the Governor of Gibraltar;
another veteran more disposed to imitate the prudence of Burrard than
the daring of Wellesley.

Shortly after the third general had taken the command, Junot sent
Kellerman to demand a truce, and propose a convention for the evacuation
of Portugal by the troops under his orders. Dalrymple received Kellerman
with more eagerness of civility than became the chief of a victorious
army, and forthwith granted the desired armistice. Junot offered to
surrender his magazine, stores, and armed vessels, provided the British
would disembark his soldiers, with their arms, at any French port
between Rochefort and L'Orient, and permit them to take with them their
private property; and Dalrymple did not hesitate to agree to these
terms, although Sir John Moore arrived off the coast with a
reinforcement of 10,000 men d