♦BEJA SACKED BY THE FRENCH, AND SET ON FIRE.♦
By this time, however, the ardour of the people had so far cooled, that they no longer talked of sallying against the French, they contented themselves with keeping a tumultuous watch through the night; and when the morning dawned, and there appeared no enemy, they fancied themselves secure. The French commander had merely retired out of sight: his dispatches reached Mertola at eleven on the preceding night; at midnight Maransin, with 950 men, began his march, and at four the next evening the united force ♦JUNE 26.♦ arrived before Beja. They were opposed by a mere multitude without order, leader, or plan of defence, every man acting for himself as he thought best. Yet the victory was not gained without a brave resistance, and some loss to the assailants. According to the French account they lost eighty in killed and wounded, while 1200 of the Portugueze were slain in the action, and all who were taken in arms were put to ♦OBSERVADOR PORTUGUEZ, 341. NEVES, III. 327–332.♦ death. The worst excesses followed by which humanity can be disgraced and outraged, and the[15] city was sacked and set on fire.
In this whole merciless proceeding Maransin acted upon his own judgement, well knowing that such was the system which Napoleon had laid down, and which his generals felt no reluctance in executing. He proceeded to Evora, and Kellermann, approving of his conduct, held out the fate of Beja in a proclamation, as a warning ♦KELLERMANN’S PROCLAMATION TO THE PEOPLE OF ALEM-TEJO.♦ to the province. “Inhabitants of Alem-Tejo,” he said, “Beja had revolted, and Beja exists no longer. Its guilty inhabitants have been put to the edge of the sword, and its houses delivered up to pillage and to the flames. Thus shall all those be treated who listen to the counsels of a perfidious rebellion, and with a senseless hatred take arms against us. Thus shall those bands of smugglers and criminals be treated, who have collected in Badajoz, and put arms into the hands of the unhappy Lusitanians, but dare not themselves march against us. Who, indeed, can resist our invincible troops? Ye who have precipitated yourselves into rebellion, prevent, by prompt submission, the inevitable chastisement that awaits you! And ye who have hitherto been happy or prudent enough to continue in your duty, profit by this terrible example! Our general in chief has not told you in vain that ♦OBSERVADOR PORTUGUEZ, 347.♦ clouds of rebels shall be dispersed before us like the sands of the desert before the impetuous breath of the south wind.”