The Winding Stair
Page 38
In the summer of 1806, the Whigs were still hoping to make peace with Napoleon, and had sent Lord Lauderdale to Paris to negotiate. Napoleon kept him in play while preparing to attack Portugal. The Portuguese dithered; the British sent a naval squadron under Lord St. Vincent, and two generals, Rosslyn and Simcoe, to try and organise resistance. The Portuguese went on dithering, but luckily for them Napoleon had to change his plans at the eleventh hour because of a sudden threat from Russia, whose Tsar kept changing sides.
Napoleon marched East, defeated Russia and her Allies, made peace at Tilsit, and was ready, by the autumn of 1807, to have another try at Portugal. He sent a rather scratch army under Marshal Junot, who had been French Ambassador at Lisbon and had managed to create a considerable pro-French party there. It is not known whether the Portuguese ministers were actually treacherous or merely incompetent, but first they did nothing, and then they panicked. Once again, the British sent a naval squadron to their help, this time under the flamboyant Sir Sidney Smith; but despite all he and the Ambassador, Lord Strangford, could do, the Portuguese submitted so tamely to the French demands, and showed so little sign of defending themselves, that there was a time when Britain and Portugal were almost at war. Junot’s army was actually approaching Lisbon when Dom John saw a copy of the French official paper (the Moniteur) with the flat statement that the House of Braganza had ceased to reign in Europe. Recognising his danger at last, he agreed to flee with his court to his rich overseas domain of Brazil. He got away just in time, as described in the last chapter of the book, but not much good came of it.
The Portuguese Scene. Many English travellers have left their impressions of Portugal in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but those of William Beckford (author of Vathek) are outstanding among them. His Portuguese Letters and Journal provide bad-tempered, brilliant sketches of the priest-ridden and lethargic society of the time. More recently, Rose Macaulay’s They Went to Portugal gives a fascinating picture of the continuing relationship between Britain and Portugal. The Sons of the Star are as imaginary as the rest of the story.
A Note on the Author
Jane Aiken Hodge was born in Massachusetts to Pulitzer prize-winning poet, Conrad Aiken, and his first wife, writer Jessie McDonald. Hodge was 3 years old when her family moved to Great Britain, settling in Rye, East Sussex, where her younger sister, Joan, who would become a novelist and a children’s writer, was born.
From 1935, Jane Hodge read English at Somerville College, Oxford University, and in 1938 she took a second degree in English at Radcliffe College in Massachusetts. She was a civil servant, and also worked for Time magazine, before returning to the UK in 1947. Her works of fiction include historical novels and contemporary detective novels. In 1972 she renounced her United States citizenship and became a British subject.
Discover books by Jane Aiken Hodge published by Bloomsbury Reader at
www.bloomsbury.com/JaneAikenHodge
A Death in Two Parts
Greek Wedding
Leading Lady
Polonaise
Rebel Heiress
Strangers in Company
Wide Is the Water
Last Act
Red Sky at Night Lovers’ Delight
The Winding Stair
Watch the Wall, My Darling
Whispering
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This electronic edition published in 2013 by Bloomsbury Reader
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First published in Great Britain in 1968 by Hodder and Stoughton Ltd
Copyright © 1968 Jane Aiken Hodge
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eISBN: 9781448213986
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