From Pelet, The French Campaign in Portugal 1810-1811

"Unfortunately, the raids were the occasion for many horrors. The men, full of wine, committed violent acts against the peasants they met in order to discover their hidden supplies. The peasants avenged themselves whenever they found isolated or drunk soldiers. The abandoned houses were first pillaged. As they left, the soldiers would set them on fire and the flames soon spread, resulting in frequent conflagrations. No-one was there to put out the fires when they started, and no-one came for assistance or help. These careless soldiers would allow the fire to feed itself; villages and towns would become its prey.

Thus the magnificent convent of Alcobaça and the immense factory still full of woven cotton were burnt, and the horrors of war increased in this unfortunate country. We often found hidden caches at Santarém or Torres Novas. We finally ordered full scale investigations of the larger homes, to search for grain which we believed was hidden there." [I accept the convent referred to was not razed to the ground, but it did suffer a great amount of damage – and not just to Inez’s nose!].

pp 347 – 348

"We found Pombal in a terrible state of devastation. A great number of the houses had been ruined or burned by our marauders. It was said that Tomar and Leiria were in ashes. We saw an immense column of smoke rising in the direction of the latter. These last misfortunes were the work of our stragglers for we then began to experience this plague of the army. The devastation was caused especially by the abandoned state in which the soldiers left the houses. Here we must complain about a rumour that may have been spread by those who might themselves have been negligent in this regard and whose principles, obvious for a long time, made them suspect of at least a lack of supervision. It was claimed that the prince had given orders to burn everything in retreat. Infact he himself always prescribed, recommended, and observed every measure which could mitigate the horrors of war when it did not necessitate imperilling the rigorous needs of the service.

Torres Novas was proof an example of the care the prince [Massena] had taken and of the policy he maintained there. We were assured that orders had been effective until the last moment. Whether any help could bring its unfortunate inhabitants back to life even if all those who had created so much mischief has bothered to remedy it. We found the peasants crammed into a few houses in each village. Fifty were in a miserable hut at Branco, and in a few hours we had removed six dead."

pp 431 - 432

As you well know, given these issues have been discussed at length on this forum previously, Pelet asserts that the horrors and devastation wrought by the marauders only started on the retreat, However, they had in fact begun much earlier. This is borne out by a significant number of French diarists – across the three main corps involved – Lemonier Delafosse, Guingret etc. During the time the French were in front of the lines of Torres Vedras and when they retired to the area around Golegã: Tomar, Leiria, Pombal etc were all within French control – moreover, the militia could not stop the majority of the French incursions once they started to be undertaken on such a large and unremitting scale. Being assured that orders had been effective until the last moment is not the same and ensuring they were implemented and seen through to the last.! Moreover, although Pelet assserts the wanton destruction was caused by stragglers - this was stragglers on a grand scale. And, in some cases, these stragglers were soon to be followed by the French corps following immediately behind / or to their rear - not the pursuing enemy!

So, even the acount provided by this diarist is damning

Anthony