200 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



soldiers to take whatever they 

 could carry, and immediately after 

 threw the provisions that remained 

 into the Mondego. The same 

 thing vi'as done at Figueras. The 

 picture drawn by Massena, of this 

 miserable desolation, is not over- 

 charged. *' The enemy burns and 

 destroys every thing as he evacu- 

 ates the country. He forces the 

 inhabitants to abandon their homes 

 on pain of death. Coimbra, a 

 town of 20,000 inhabitants, is de- 

 serted. We find no provisions. 

 The army is subsisted on India 

 corn, andvegetables which we find 

 remaining on the ground."* — 

 Every soul in Coimbra fled, leav- 

 ing it literally a desert : for the 

 order of the Regency was positive 

 for all to leave their houses, carry 

 oftail theirgoods, ordestroy them, 

 and leave nothing for the enemy. 

 The Lisbon road was blocked up 

 v^ith waggons, carts, mules, horses, 

 and bullocks ; mothers, their eyes 

 streaming with tears, carrying 

 their screaming infants : young 

 women of genteel condition, also 

 in tears, on foot, and separated 

 in the crowd from their families ; 

 men with heavy hearts, but in 

 silent sorrow, and every thing 

 wearing an air of trouble and con- 

 fusion. All the roads from St. 

 Thomar and the other neighbour- 

 ing towns to Lisbon, were in like 

 manner full of men, women, and 

 children, with what effects they 

 could bring along with them. 



Neither the government of Por- 

 tugal nor the private families of 

 Lisbon remained untouched at the 

 sight of such distress ; distress in- 

 curred in the common cause of 

 the Portuguese nation. A procla- 

 mation was issued for the succour 



of those people in the name of the 

 prince Regent, Lisbon, October^, 

 1810, the preamble of which is as 

 follows : " The duties of humanity 

 requiring that all possible assist- 

 ance should be afforded to those 

 persons, who, abandoning their 

 homes, have sought an asylum in 

 the capital against the tyranny and 

 oppression of the enemies of this 

 kingdom ; and it being incompa- 

 tible with the duties of the police 

 to allow these unhappy fugitives to 

 perish, exposed to the calamity of 

 a rainy season." The object or 

 drift of this proclamation was, to 

 secure, in the first place, lodging 

 for the strangers. No proprietors 

 of houses, then unoccupied, were 

 to refuse them to the inhabitants 

 of the provinces repairing to the 

 capital from the causes above men- 

 tioned ; and the hire of such 

 houses was to be regulated by the 

 rate of the last rent, without the 

 least increase. If any proprietor, 

 to avoid this restriction, declined 

 putting up bills to let out his pro- 

 perty, he should lose all right to 

 any hire. Such houses should be 

 given gratis to poor families to 

 Christmas, or should pay a fine, 

 corresponding to the rent, for the 

 benefit of such poor families. 

 Poor families, unable to pay, were 

 not to be left without shelter, but 

 lodged in unoccupied houses, ac- 

 cording to certain regulations. 

 Another proclamation was issued 

 in the name of the prince Regent, 

 October 10, the object of which 

 was to permit and facilitate the 

 passage of the fugitives, who might 

 be inclined to pass to the left side 

 of the Tagus, with the view of 

 more easily obtaining the means 

 of subsistence. 



Letter to Berthier, Coimbra, Oct. 4, 1810, intercepted. 



