Queen of the Sea by Barry Hatton

Author:Barry Hatton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hurst
Published: 2018-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

SIX—FOREIGN RULE, TURMOIL AND TEMPTATION

For three straight days as winter approached in 1807, a constant flow of horse-drawn carriages hurried through the streets of Lisbon to the quays and jetties that punctuated the Belém riverbank. There, they hastily unloaded passengers, trunks and boxes, turned round and went to fetch some more. The carriages drove through pelting rain that drenched clothes and turned the city’s unpaved roads into treacherous seas of mud. Storm winds tore at clothes and canvas on the exposed riverbank. Small boats ferried people and cargo out to three dozen ships that were riding at anchor in the Tagus, waiting on the choppy water with their sails folded. Around 15,000 people squeezed onto those ships. They included the royal family and members of the royal household, noble families and their retinues, including ladies-in-waiting, cooks and servants. Members of the clergy, ministers of state, magistrates and lawyers, military officers and soldiers, civil servants, diplomats, doctors and advisers boarded the ships, too, as did their wives and children. The normal hubbub of departure was amplified by fear. All along the riverbank, there was feverish haste. Panic was not far from the surface. The pressure-cooker atmosphere was understandable: Napoleon’s army was bearing down, unopposed, on the Portuguese capital.

During those hectic seventy-two hours, Portugal’s destiny once more converged on Belém. It was the epicentre of frantic efforts to save the Portuguese regime and its riches—the movable ones, anyway. Royal palaces were stripped. Paintings were taken down from the walls; carpets and tapestries were rolled up. Gold, silver and porcelain ornaments were wrapped. A legendary gold nugget mined in Brazil in 1732 and weighing more than 20 kilograms merited special care. The famous silver dinner service of the Ajuda Palace, made up of more than 1,000 pieces, was crated up and placed in the carriages heading to the port. Some 60,000 books from the Ajuda Royal Library were taken down to the river in more than 300 boxes. About half the coins in circulation departed, after the Treasury was emptied. It was as if the Portuguese were ransacking their own city before the French could.

Tents and awnings were erected along the riverbank to shelter the distinguished waiting passengers from the rain. Officials handed out the chits and waybills that people needed to get themselves and their possessions on board. Not everything went according to plan. The royal master of the horse, Bernardo Pacheco, though permitted to leave, had failed to pick up his authorization, and the frigate captain refused to let him climb aboard: no chit, no voyage. He was left on the riverbank.

Along the waterfront, luggage trunks, storage chests and lockers were piled up in the rain. They contained clothes and jewels and everyday objects that would be needed in a future home. The clergy gathered what they could of the Church’s wealth. Documents from the royal archive and clerks were added to the enormous cargo. Food and barrels of drinking water were stacked on board. On the shore there were cursory but emotional farewells.

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