82 SWABEY DIARY. 
ous country filling the tongue of land upon which Lisbon is 
situated had been made under the direction of Sir Charles 
Stuart, and these, together with the French Colonel Vincent’s 
minutes, showing how to cover Lisbon, were in Lord Welling- 
ton’s possession, and from these documents the original notion 
of the celebrated lines of Torres Vedras, made in 1810, are said 
to have been derived. ‘The lines, by means of entrenchments, in- 
undations, and redoubts secured more than five hundred square 
miles of mountainous country lying between the Tagus and the 
ocean, and consisted of three lines of defence, the plans and 
works upon which were executed and carried out by British offi- 
cers alone :— 
The first, extending from Alhandra on the Tagus to the mouth 
of the Zizandre on the sea coast, was, following the inflexions of 
the hills, twenty-nine miles long. 
The second, traced at a distance varying from six to ten miles 
in rear of the first, stretched from Quintella on the Tagus to the 
mouth of the St. Lorenza, being twenty-four miles in length. 
The third, intended to cover a forced embarkation, extended from 
Passo d’Arcos on the Tagus to the Tower of Junquera on the 
coast. Here an outer line, constructed on an opening of three 
thousand yards, enclosed an entrenched camp designed to cover 
the embarkation with fewer troops, should the operation be 
delayed by bad weather ; and within this second camp, Fort St. 
Julian (whose high ramparts and deep ditches defied an 
escalade), was armed and strengthened to enable a rear-guard 
to protect both itself and the army. Of these stupendous lines, 
the second, whether regarded for its strength or importance, was 
undoubtedly the principal, and the others only appendages, the 
one as a final place of refuge, the other as an advanced work to 
stem the first violence of the enemy, and to enable the army to 
take up its ground on the second line without hurry or pres- 
sure.” ‘ Memoranda of the Lines, &c.,” by Colonel J. T. Jones, 
R.E. Napier, Vol. 3, p. 255, et seq., and 351. 
On arriving at Villa Franca, the scene between me and the Juiz de 
Fora! must have been good, neither of us understanding a word the 
other said. JI, however, contrived to get the billets, &c. There was 
much difficulty among the servants to-day, in consequence of their 
being unused to packing mules, and they were so late in, that we feared 
we should begin our march on an empty stomach, so their appearance 
at 5 o’clock was extremely gratifying. As to our quarters, fleas and 
bugs were the principal inhabitants, and so tormenting was their com- 
pany that we did not regret a little fatigue, which supplied at last the 
place of an opiate. Macdonald, Maxwell, Taylor, and I were in one 
room, and that not particularly large, and never were four gents so 
tormented! Men and horses, as usual, occupied the same domain. 
18th September.—We marched at 5 o’clock, the country not at all 
1 Juiz de Fora, a Justice of the Peace, equivalent to our billet-master or constable—F.4,W. 
