Even those employed upon the works knew of nothing
save the section upon which they happened to be engaged, and had no
conception of the stupendous and impregnable whole that was
preparing.
To these lines it was the British commander's plan to effect a slow
retreat before the French flood when it should sweep forward, thus
luring the enemy onward into a country which he had commanded should
be laid relentlessly waste, that there that enemy might fast be
starved and afterwards destroyed. To this end had his proclamations
gone forth, commanding that all the land lying between the rivers
Tagus and Mondego, in short, the whole of the country between Beira
and Torres Vedras, should be stripped naked, converted into a desert
as stark and empty as the Sahara. Not a head of cattle, not a grain
of corn, not a skin of vine, not a flask of oil, not a crumb of
anything affording nourishment should be left behind. The very
mills were to be rendered useless, bridges were to be broken down,
the houses emptied of all property, which the refugees were to carry
away with them from the line of invasion.
Such was his terrible demand upon the country for its own salvation.
But such, as we have seen, was not war as Principal Souza and some
of his adherents understood it.
Pages:
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81