956 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



trampled upon by the raob, and at 

 length with difficulty escaped from 

 amongst tiiem. Next morning I 

 was informed that the poor wretch 

 had been murdered in the course 

 of the night. And this passed 

 within one hundre(t yards of the 

 English head-quarters ! 



•' Because they were armed, and 

 the enemy was not at their gates, 

 the Portuguese already began to 

 utter rhodomontades. Every man 

 finding a weapon in his hands, 

 perhaps for the first time, per- 

 formed with it a thousand deeds of 

 heroism. But not merely what 

 they were going to do, wiiat they 

 had already done against the com- 

 mon enemies of Europe was the 

 topic of their discourses. They 

 had gained, in conjunction with 

 their English allies, the battle of 

 Vimeira. It was a Portuguese 

 soldier who made general Brenier 

 prisoner, and they had beaten the 

 French at Oporto. Lest there 

 should be any doubt of these facts, 

 an engraving of the battle of Vi- 

 meira, to be found in every shop, 

 represented the dreadful Portu- 

 guese dragoons charging the enemy, 

 and bearing away at least one-half 

 of the palm of victory. I know 

 not which was the greater hardship 

 upon the brave army which gained 

 that battle, to he stopped in the 

 career of victory, or to be carica- 

 tured by such associates !" 



From Lisbon Mr. Semple pro- 

 ceeded to Seville, by the usual 

 road of Elvas and Badajoz. On 

 his arrival in .Spain he met frequent 

 bodies of armed men going to join 

 the armies. Being ';nown for an 

 Englishman, he was generally well 

 treated, and saluted with cries of 

 Viva ringlaterra, to which he 



of course replied. Viva FEspagna". 

 On the 8th of Feb. '< I reached, 

 about mid-day, Los Santos de 

 Maimona, by a road which, before 

 entering, winds nearly round it. 



" The population of tliis place 

 may be computed at about twelve 

 hundred souls; and the general ap- 

 pearance of the inhabitants is su- 

 perior to that in any of the villages 

 on the high road between it and 

 Badajoz. The post-house was re- 

 markably good, and a degree of 

 cleanliness prevailed in its interior 

 that might have been noticed even 

 in England. Being announced as 

 an Englishman, the door was soon 

 surrounded by wondering pea- 

 sants, while some of the better sort 

 of the inhabitants, under various 

 pretences, entered the house, and, 

 havinggreeted me very courteously, 

 began to ask a variety of questions. 

 As the French had never yet pene- 

 trated into these mountains, the 

 anxiety of the women was very 

 great, to know whether there was 

 any probability of their comming to 

 Maimona. They were not igno- 

 rant of the excesses committed in 

 Cordoba and Andujar by the army 

 of Dupont; and fancy painted these 

 excesses even in worse colours, 

 if possible, than they had existed. 

 When I assured them that England 

 would never forsake their cause so 

 long as they remained true to them- 

 selves, and gave them at the same 

 time encouraging hopes for the fu- 

 ture, their joy was hardly to be 

 expressed. A general exclamation 

 of " Viva los Ingleses'' burst from 

 the assembly, while their eager- 

 ness to befriend me was redoubled. 

 I was pressed to take a portion of 

 the family pucheiro ; one took my 

 hat, another my cloak, a third 



handed 



