Lanterna Rally

Author: W. H. Fitchett

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2017-11-25

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13: 9780331931310

Excerpt from How England Saved Europe: The Story of the Great War (1793-1815) To carry out this ingenious bit of vivisection, men under J unot were to march across Spain and seize Lisbon. J unot, however, received instructions from Napoleon to make a military survey of Spain as he crossed it, and to put French garrisons into every place in Portugal he occupied. Napoleon, in a word, was not merely about to cheat his accomplice of its share of the Spoil; he was already arranging to plunder it of its own possessions. On October 28, 1807, Napoleon writes to his Minister of War I desire my troops shall arrive at Lisbon as soon as possible, to seize all English merchandise. I desire they Shall, if possible, go there as friends, in order to take possession of the Portuguese fleet. J unot was instructed by Napoleon himself to issue a proclamation declaring that the shedding of blood is repugnant to the noble heart of the Emperor Napoleon, and if you will receive us as auxiliaries, all will be well. By these means, Napoleon explains cynically, J unot may contrive to get to Lisbon as an auxiliary. The date of his arrival will be calculated here to a couple of days, and twenty-four hours later a courier will be sent to inform him that the Portuguese proposals have not been accepted, and he is to treat the country as that of an enemy. Eight or ten ships of war and all those dockyards, Napoleon coolly adds, would be an immense advantage to us. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.