50 SWABEY DIARY. 
from the Patriarcal band. The church is beautiful beyond description, 
and rich with gilt ornaments and images in costly dresses, with pearls 
and diamonds. Colonel Fisher,! who has great taste in architecture, 
justly remarked that the ornaments were heavy, but the altar-piece and 
canopy to the figure of Aaron above the altar are very superior in taste 
as well as magnificence. All the different altars were lighted with 
numerous wax torches, before these the religious prostrate themselves 
and remain transfixed, as ib were, and motionless. It is impossible to 
dive into the heart of man, but from beholding them you would pro- 
nounce them decided idolaters, and surely the ignorant part of society 
can know very little of the subject which they adore in image, and, I 
fear, address their devotions only to the outward form, but I should be 
uncharitable not to add that there is an earnestness in their deportment 
which is at least becoming. ‘The Catholic service is performed by the 
priests in Latin only, and can in no way be edifying to the people who 
cannot understand what is meant; I own I was almost tempted to cry 
in pity for their ignorance. I conceive the true worship of God to be 
a spiritual service, whether it is a Roman Catholic or a Protestant that 
humbles himself before Him. The beauty of this church induced me 
to go into several others, some of which were the chapels of Nun- 
neries, and I heard the fair prisoners singing from behind the gratings ; 
surely it was something more than fancy that brought their voices to 
my ear with but a melancholy sound. ‘Those, indeed, that I heard 
were of a very rigid house, that of La Concepcion ; in some they are 
allowed to visit their friends when sent for. All the churches I entered 
were rich in the extreme, the plunder of these alone might even have 
satisfied the rapacious Junot, who levied during his stay great contri- 
butions on Lisbon. 
The Duke of Abrantes seems not to have been wanting in consider- 
ation for the people of Lisbon. “An extraordinary contribu- 
tion of four millions sterling, decreed by Napoleon, was demanded 
under the curious title of a ransom for the State, but the sum 
was exorbitant, and Junot prevailed on the Emperor to reduce 
it one half. He likewise, on his own authority, accepted the 
forced loan [levied by himself on entering Lisbon], the confis- 
cated English merchandise, the Church plate, and the royal 
property in part payment; yet the people were still unable to 
raise the whole amount, for the Court had before taken the 
greatest part of the Church plate and bullion of the kingdom, 
and had also drawn large sums from the people, under the 
pretext of defending the country: with this treasure they de- ~ 
parted [to the Brazils], leaving the public functionaries, the . 
army, private creditors, and even domestic servants unpaid.” 
Napier’s “History of the War in the Peninsula,” Vol. L., p. 142. 
28th August.—Newland came in from Sacavem, and I heard the sad 
news of the death of a leader of one of my guns, which gave room for 
me to reflect how positive I had been in recommending him to be kept, 
but we cannot always be right. titan ae Teepe 
1 Lieut.-Colonel G. B. Fisher, Commanding R.A. 
