mountain goats; while the eye, wandering in delight over this exquisite scene, was often attracted by the last rays of the sun, setting behind the remote summit of the lofty Serra, or by the slow-sailing flight of a vulture or eagle. At the cottage doors of this happy valley, we often saw instances of female beauty, approaching to the finest ideal forms of Greece. We were, in short, in a sort of tránce, from which we waked and perceived ourselves in the state of the travellers mentioned by Virgil..

Quale per incertam Iunam sub luce maligna
Est iter in silvis, ubi cœlum condidit umbra
Jupiter, et rebus nox abstulit atra colorem.

1

ENEID, Lib. VI.

Crossing and recrossing the river, and winding under the steep cliffs of the valley, the stream diminishing progressively to a rivulet, torrent, and brook, we reached its source, and soon after the summit of the mountain. It was now so dark that we lost our road, and were wandering about the granite cliffs, when the tolling of the convent bells pointed out the direction of Guarda, at which we arrived at ten o'clock P. M.

LETTER XXXII.

GUARDA ITS DREARY CLIMATE DURING WINTER LOFTY SITUATION. -FOUNDED BY SANCHO I.-OPINIONS OF DUMOURIEZ AND LORD GALWAY RESPECTING THE DEFENCE OF PORTUGAL.- - CHARACTER OF LOISSON.-ATROCITIES PERPETRATED BY THE FRENCH AT ALPEDRINHA. ANECDOTE OF THE INQUISITION.

Almeida, 18th November, 1808.

HERE we are at the frontier garrison-town of Portugal. Before we quitted Guarda last night, the fiftieth regiment arrived. It rained incessantly during the two days we were there, and the atmosphere was so foggy, that we could scarcely see from one side of the street to the other, except one evening, for about ten minutes, as the sun went down; I therefore saw very little of that espiscopal city. We were thankful to get away from it, as we were told that, for nearly five, if not six months in the year, the şun never shines on it. Luckily for the Bishop, there is no act compelling him to reside there.

Guarda stands near the source of the Mondego, upon one of the mountains of the Serra da Estrella, and in the summer months may be pleasant enough. It appears, however, to be decreasing in population, if I may be allowed to judge from the ruinous state of its houses. King Sancho the First, who founded it, in 1199, must have had an extraordinary taste. It is encompassed by turreted stone walls, and has an old castle, which overlooks an extensive plain, to which you descend by a steep road, paved with large blocks of granite. Dumouriez thinks that this plain would be an excellent camp for twenty thousand men, as it commands the adjacent country; and Lord Galway, in his Memoirs, says, that it is by far the best post that can be occupied by the Portuguese for the defence of Lisbon, when threatened by the Spaniards.

At Guarda we were lodged in the house of a beneficed clergyman, who was the principal agent there of that vile tribunal the Inquisition. The enemy had committed their usual excesses at Guarda. Most of the inhabitants, indeed, had fled upon the last visit of the French, which happened just before the landing of the British at Figuera: but the name of General Loisson inspires a degree of detestation and horror amongst all classes of Portuguese, far beyond what I could have conceived. That man, or monster, rather let me call him, seems to have as much

exceeded, in profligacy and wanton curelty, every other French general, as Nero, Tiberius, and Robespierre have surpassed the rest of mankind. This wretch has lost an arm, and the Portuguese have given him the nick-name of Maneta. One of his last acts of atrocity was the wanton murder of forty of the innocent inhabitants of that beautiful village, the appearance of which I described to you in my last letter. If any spot in the world seems, from its secluded situation, to promise repose and peace to its inhabitants, it is surely Alpedrinha. Yet, even there, the poor peasantry have been barbarously massacred by a rapacious French soldiery, and have left their surviving pos→ terity to curse the bigotry and folly of a government, which has been wasting, in the erection of chapels to St. John the Baptist, and churches and convents to the heart of Jesus, that wealth and those resources which ought to have been applied in organizing a respectable military force, and preserving the dignity and security of its subjects.

While we were under the roof of the Inquisitor, he one day received a letter from his superiors in iniquity at Lis

While sending this letter to the press, I observe, by the newspapers of the day, that this wretched man has paid the debt of nature at Oporto, and is now departed to answer at the tribunal of his Creator for all his execrable

actions.

bon, the contents of which he was pleased to communi

cate to us.

Previously to the seizure of Portugal by the French army, a young man, residing at Lisbon, the son of a merchant of Oporto, had become enamoured of the daughter of a powerful Portuguese nobleman. He soon made known the state of his affections to the young lady, who, overlooking the prejudices of birth, yielded a return to his passion, and found means to elude the vigilance of her friends, and give him her hand at the altar of a neighbouring chapel. The marriage was soon discovered. Mortified pride and indignation seized the hidalgo. The young man was banished by the ministry to Oporto; while the Inquisition, ever ready to engage in any measure of despotism and barbarity, immured the poor imprudent girl within the precincts of a convent.

The entry of Junot into Lisbon, however it might be regarded by the rest of the nation, was, by these two unfortunates, hailed as the era of their liberty. The young man made a personal appeal to the feelings of Junot. It was not made in vain." Young man," said Junot, your wish is granted'; your wife shall be restored to you." The gates of her prison were thrown open; and Junot, for once at least in his life, was instrumental to the