And finally the Emperor's great marshal, Massena, gathering his hosts to overwhelm the kingdom of Portugal, availed himself of all this to appeal to the Portuguese nation in terms which the facts would seem to corroborate.
He issued his proclamation denouncing the British for the disturbers and mischief-makers of Europe, warning the Portuguese that they were the cat's-paw of a perfidious nation that was concerned solely with the serving of its own interests and the gratification of its predatory ambitions, and finally summoning them to receive the French as their true friends and saviours.
The nation stirred uneasily.

So far no good had come to them of their alliance with the British.

Indeed Wellington's policy of devastation had seemed to those upon whom it fell more horrible than any French invasion could have been.
But Wellington held the reins, and his grip never relaxed or slackened.
And here let it be recorded that he was nobly and stoutly served in Lisbon by Sir Terence O'Moy.

Pressure upon the Council resulted in the measures demanded being carried out.

But much time had been lost through the intrigues of the Souza faction, with the result that those measures, although prosecuted now more vigorously, never reached the full extent which Wellington had desired.