Further protests were received at British headquarters. Lieutenant General Dom Francisco da Cunha Menezes, Count of Castro Marim and Monteiro-mor, Governor of Algarve, who commanded the army of the south, wrote in the first instance on 9 September to Admiral Cotton seeking his intervention to prevent the French leaving the port of Lisbon.63 Cotton passed on the correspondence to Dalrymple. In an arguably cavalier approach, Dalrymple took the view that he was only required to discuss matters with the government of the country; and the Supreme Junta of Porto was not so appointed. Of course, Junot had dissolved the Council of Regency so Dalrymple had a point, but that was to ignore the fact that the Monteiro-mor had been a member of that Council, and therefore a member of the government. Nevertheless, Dalrymple was sensitive to the issue of plunder and its potential for friction. When Kellerman called to his headquarters at Oeiras on 6 September to complain of the demands made by commissioners Beresford and Proby, Dalrymple told him in their presence that if any person from the General-in-chief to the lowest person in the French army should prove guilty of plunder, that person would forfeit the benefit of the treaty and be considered a prisoner of war.64
Pressure was mounting on Kellerman, and following further representations from Beresford and Proby, Junot issued an Ordre du Jour dated 6 September. This directed every person having private property, whether in pictures or other moveables, to restore them immediately to the owners. For some time the French had maintained they were entitled to keep melted down church plate in their possession prior to the signing of the truce, but ultimately Junot conceded it should not be taken out of the country but should be used to pay the debts of the French army. Dalrymple felt that providing this offer was implemented it was fair.65 Beresford and Proby were clearly making some progress, as was testified by Charles Stewart writing to his brother, Castlereagh, then Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, on 8 September having arrived in Lisbon the previous day:
I found Proby and Beresford hard at work endeavouring to make these robbers disgorge their plunder and I hope they have in part succeeded although much remains to be done & it is impossible things can have been worse managed on our side than they have been. When Proby was first sent in to see the articles of the Treaty executed, he was not even furnished with a copy of it and owned to Sir Hew his complete incompetence to manage so intricate an affair especially as there were parts of the convention he did not understand – many points unsettled. Sir Hew however persevered in sending him in with plein pouvoirs, & no treaty. The French endeavoured to impose a spurious one and this he detected. Beresford at last came in and since his arrival things have gone on better. He has got back the museum and £25,000 taken from the Deposito Publico [sic], during the time the treaty was going on. They are now at issue on the Church Plate … The Duc D’Abrantes is the greatest robber of the whole and set the example by seizing everything in every shop and house without payment.66
Junot may well have been ‘the greatest robber of the whole’ but he was also extremely astute, reportedly using two mints to convert melted down church plate into Napoleon D’Ors, thus enabling him to claim they were part of his military baggage.67
The British, pushed by the Portuguese, set about investigating the persistent allegations of plunder and to this end established a three-man Committee for Receiving Reclamations. Its composition reflected the three nations involved: Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Trant, St António Rodrigues de Oliveira and a Monsieur Duplier, commissaire de guerres.68 On 10 September, the Committee published a proclamation under the names of the three commissioners informing the inhabitants of Lisbon of their right to claim restoration. On 11 September, Beresford and Proby reported that this committee had given general satisfaction at its initial sittings.69
However the French, including Junot, were continuing to play for time hoping that they would get away from Lisbon without having to make further concessions with which they might have to comply. The first division of the French army, it will be recalled, was reportedly ready to sail on 3 September, but ultimately did not do so until over a week later. The rows went on, delaying the departure of the French. Junot had allegedly appropriated ten chestnut horses from the royal stables, but he was able to convince the commissioners they were his own which he had stabled there.70 Fifty-three boxes of indigo reportedly worth about £5,000 were found on board a vessel destined to receive the baggage of the French Commander in Chief. He disclaimed all knowledge of the boxes, which were seized on behalf of the commissioners. Beresford and Proby felt they had done their best. Nevertheless, in their report to Dalrymple of 18 September they made their disquiet known:
We will conclude this report by stating that the conduct of the French had been marked by the most shameful disregard to honor [sic] and probity, publicly evincing their intentions of carrying off their plundered booty and leaving acknowledged debts unpaid; and finally they have only paid what they were obliged to disgorge, and were not permitted to carry off, though the British Commissioners represented to General Kellerman, that whatever their words, it could never be the spirit of any convention that an army would, as a military chest, or otherwise, carry off public money, leaving public debts unpaid; and called upon him, for the honour of the French army and nation, to act justly; and yet, unmindful of any tie of honour or of justice, the French army has taken a considerable sum in the military chest, leaving its debts unpaid to a very large amount.71
On 15 September most of the French were embarked at Cais do Sodré (Lisbon). In the first two weeks of September they had led an uncomfortable existence in Lisbon, running the gauntlet of Portuguese intent on revenge.72 On 18 September Junot went on board the vessel intended to carry him to France without repaying the monies taken from the Depósito Público, as a result of which Beresford and Proby applied successfully to Admiral Cotton to detain the second division of the French army as well as Junot. Only when £40,000 had been transferred by the French Payeur General to cover these monies and other items extracted from the public magazines (stores) were the French allowed to leave the Tagus. In addition, chests of natural history exhibits from the royal museum were restored along with a quantity of books.73
By 21 September the French force, together with a number of followers, was largely embarked and it sailed a week later.74 The exceptions were the garrisons of Almeida and Elvas, which were transported afterwards to France.75 Beresford and Proby’s job as commissioners was complete and Dalrymple praised their conduct to Castlereagh saying they had ‘performed their duty in a most firm and honourable manner’.76 Dalrymple was to state at a later stage that the French had got away with a very small amount of plunder due to the work of the commissioners. While he had a vested interest in pursuing this line, it is of note that Kellerman also gets a measure of approbation from another source for having acted in a gentlemanly manner in interpreting the convention.77
Beresford’s role in dealing with the fallout from the Convention of Cintra was not yet at an end. It will be recalled that on the occurrence of the risings in Spain, Junot had disarmed and imprisoned the Spanish division of General Carafa in Lisbon. The Convention provided for the repatriation of those troops amounting to some 5,000 men. With a view to sending them home, Beresford liaised with the Portuguese to ensure the troops were reissued with arms and their officers given back the horses taken by the French.78 Before they were sent home Beresford reviewed them at the Campo d’Ourique, presenting their general with a ceremonial sword. He took the opportunity to address the troops in an emotional address designed no doubt to fire their ardour and encourage them to maintain the struggle against the French forces of occupation:
In an animated speech [Beresford] requested that the latter [the Spanish troops] would again accept their arms from the King of England, never to lay them down till the cause of Ferdinand VII, of Europe, and of humanity had triumphed. This address which was forcibly and well delivered, had not yet come to a close, when it was drowned in the reiterated vivas of soldiers and inhabitants, whilst the roar of cannon, and the braying of trumpets, echoed from one end of Lisbon to the other.79
One wonders what the Spanish made of the representative of their historical foe urging them to accept their arms from the King of England.
Dalrymple