done. The Spanish and Portuguese authorities united in pressing him to
advance, the former urging upon him that his presence would be the signal
for the Spanish armies in the south to unite and entirely overthrow the
French, while the latter were desirous that he should march to
Ciudad-Rodrigo, defeat the French at Salamanca, and so protect Portugal
from invasion from that side.

That Portugal might be attacked from the north and south simultaneously by
Soult and Victor did not enter into their calculations, but while urging
an advance, the Junta would take no steps whatever to enable the army to
move; they would neither afford him facilities for collecting transport,
nor order the roads that he would have to traverse to be put in order, and
thwarted all his efforts to raise a strong force among the Portuguese.

There was, indeed, some improvement in the latter respect. At their own
request, Lord Beresford had been sent out from England to take the command
of the Portuguese armies, and as he had brought many British officers with
him, some 20,000 men had been armed and drilled, and could be reckoned
upon to do some service, if employed with British troops to give them
backbone. The Portuguese peasantry were strong and robust, and by nature
courageous, and needed only the discipline--that they could not receive
from their own officers--to turn them into valuable troops. According to
the law of the country every man was liable for service, and had the
corrupt Junta been dismissed, and full power been given to the British, an
army of 250,000 men might have been placed in the field for the defence of
the country, with a proper supply of arms and money.

But so far from assisting, the Junta threw every possible impediment in
the way. They feared that any real national effort, if successful, would
get altogether beyond their control, and that they would lose the power