or the purposes therein specified. And this vote
was followed by prompt and effective measures to arrest the arms of
France and Spain. Eight thousand British troops under the command
of Lord Tyrawley, the Earl of Loudon, General Townshend, Lord George
Lennox, and Brigadiers Crawford and Burgoyne, landed in Portugal, and
immediately commenced operations. At the same time the native Portuguese
army consented to submit to the command of the Count de la Lippe, an
active and experienced German officer, who had commanded the British
artillery in Germany. The events of this campaign were complicated and
various. Lippe concentrated the principal part of the Portuguese forces
at Puente de Marcello, to prevent the progress of the Spanish arms
northward, while Brigadier Burgoyne was detached to fall upon Valencia
d'Alcantara, on the frontiers of Spain, southward. Burgoyne carried
Valencia d'Alcantara by a _coup-de-main_, capturing a Spanish general
with all his staff, and all the magazines which Spain had there
collected for the purpose of an invasion along the Tagus, and then
retraced his steps to Pnente de Marcello. At the same time Almeida was
taken by the Spanish general, Count d'Aranda, and having garrisoned this
place, and Ciudad Rodrigo, he marched towards the Tagus, designing to
pass into the Alemtejo. When, however, he arrived at Villa Velha, on the
Tagus, he found that the passage of the river would be disputed. Lippe,
aware of his designs, had marched to Abrantes, the key of Portugal on
the Tagus, and had posted detachments under Burgoyne and the Count
de St. Jago at the adjacent passes of Alvite and at Niza. The Spanish
general obtained possession of the castle of Villa Velha, and drove
the Count de St. Jago from the pass of Alvite; but while some of the
Spaniards were pursuing the routed Portuguese forces, Burgoyne threw
a detachment across the Tagus upon Villa Velha, and while the Count
d'Abrantes was amused in front by a feigned attack from Niza, this
detachment, commanded by Colonel Lee, entered their quarters in the
rear, and began a terrible fire of musquetry. It was under cover of the
night that Lee entered the quarters of the Spanish commander, and thus
surprised, the Spaniards were routed with terrible slaughter, while
their magazines were destroyed and their guns spiked. This was a blow
from which the Spaniards could not recover; and the French invading
forces having failed in their co-operation, his provisions