But a letter I have just received from the Prince Regent [of Portugal] leads me to presume that this last measure will not be necessary, that the Portuguese ports will be closed to the English by the time this is read, and that Portugal will have declared war against England.

On the other hand, my flotilla will be ready for action on 1st October, and I shall have a large army at Boulogne, ready to attempt a _coup de main_ on England." The letter concludes by ordering that all British diplomatists are to be driven _out of Europe_, and that Sweden must make common cause with France and Russia.

Such were the means to be used for forcing affrighted Peace again to visit this distracted earth.
In truth, the fate of the British race seemed for the time to hang upon the events at Copenhagen and Lisbon.

Very much depended on the action of the Prince Regent of Portugal.

Had he tamely submitted to Napoleon's ukase and placed his fleet and his vast colonial empire at the service of France, it is doubtful whether even the high-souled Canning would not have stooped to surrender in face of odds so overwhelming.