This formidable position, extending about twelve leagues between the sea and the Tagus, placed the port of Lisbon and the adjacent territory in the secure possession of the English general.  Massena might flatter his master with the announcement that he was besieging Lisbon; but in reality his own army very soon suffered all the inconveniences and privations of a besieged garrison.  The country around him had been laid waste:  every Portuguese peasant was a deadly enemy.  To advance was impossible, and there was infinite difficulty in keeping his communications open behind.  Thus, during many months, the two armies lay face to face in inaction.

[Footnote 60:  The leopards had been changed into lions in the English shield five hundred years before this!  To such small matters could Buonaparte’s rancour stoop.]

CHAPTER XXVIII

     Events of the year 1811—­Birth of the King of Rome—­Disgrace of
     Fouche—­Discontents in France—­Relations with Russia—­Licence
     System—­Napoleon prepares for War with Russia—­The Campaign in the
     Peninsula—­Massena’s Retreat—­Battle of Fuentes d’Onor—­Lord
     Wellington blockades Ciudad Rodrigo—­Retreats—­Joseph wishes to
     Abdicate.

On the 20th of April, 1811, Napoleon’s wishes were crowned by the birth of a son.  The birth was a difficult one, and the nerves of the medical attendant were shaken.  “She is but a woman,” said the Emperor, who was present:  “treat her as you would a Bourgeoise of the Rue St. Denis.”  The accoucheur at a subsequent moment withdrew Napoleon from the couch, and demanded whether, in case one life must be sacrificed, he should prefer the mother’s or the child’s.  “The mother’s,” he answered; “it is her right!” At length the child appeared, but without any sign of life.  After the lapse of some minutes a feeble cry was heard, and Napoleon entering the ante-chamber in which the high functionaries of the state were assembled, announced the event in these words:  “It is a King of Rome.”

The birth of the heir of Napoleon was received with as many demonstrations of loyal enthusiasm as had ever attended that of a Dauphin; yet, from what has been said as to the light in which various parties of men in France from the beginning viewed the Austrian alliance, it may be sufficiently inferred that the joy on this occasion was far from universal.  The royalists considered the event as fatal to the last hopes of the Bourbons; the ambitious generals despaired of any future dismemberment of the empire:  the old republicans, who had endured Buonaparte’s despotic power as the progeny of the revolution, looked forward with deep disgust to the rule of a dynasty proud of sharing the blood of the haughtiest of all the royal houses of Europe, and consequently more likely to make common cause with the little band of hereditary sovereigns than with the people.  Finally,