With Moore at Corunna eBook

Kellermann was admitted to the camp.  His mission was to demand a cessation of arms in order that Junot might, under certain conditions, evacuate Portugal.  The advantage of freeing the country from the French without further fighting was so evident that Sir Hew at once agreed to discuss the terms, and took Sir Arthur Wellesley into his counsels.  The latter quite agreed with the policy by which a strong French army would be quietly got out of the country, in which it held all the military posts and strong positions.  A great moral effect would be produced, and the whole resources of Portugal would then be available for operations in Spain.

By the afternoon the main points of the convention had been generally agreed upon.  The French were to evacuate Portugal, and were to be conveyed in the English vessels to France with their property, public or private.  There was to be no persecution of persons who had been the adherents of France during the occupation; the only serious difference that arose was as to the Russian fleet in the Tagus.  Kellermann proposed to have it guaranteed from capture, with leave to return to the Baltic.  This, however, was refused, and the question was referred to Admiral Cotton, who, as chief representative of England, would have to approve of the treaty before it could be signed.

Kellermann returned to Lisbon with Colonel Murray, the quartermaster-general, and after three days’ negotiations the treaty was finally concluded, the Russian difficulty being settled by their vessels being handed over to the British, and the crew transported in English ships to the Baltic.  The convention was, under the circumstances, unquestionably a most advantageous one.  It would have cost long and severe fighting and the siege of several very strong fortresses before the French could have been turned out of Portugal.  Heavy siege-guns would have been necessary for these operations.  At the very shortest calculation a year would have been wasted, very heavy loss of life incurred, and an immense expenditure of money before the result, now obtained so suddenly and unexpectedly, had been arrived at.

Nevertheless, the news of the convention was received with a burst of popular indignation in England, where the public, wholly ignorant of the difficulty of the situation, had formed the most extravagant hopes, founded on the two successes obtained by their troops.  The result was that a commission was appointed to investigate the whole matter.  The three English generals were summoned to England to attend before it, and so gross were the misrepresentations and lies by which the public had been deceived by the agents of the unscrupulous and ambitious Bishop of Oporto and his confederates, that it was even proposed to bring the generals to trial who had in so short a time and with such insufficient means freed Portugal from the French.  Sir John Moore remained in command of the troops in Portugal.

CHAPTER VI