Through the closed door came faintly from the distant ballroom the strains of the dance music.
With perhaps the single exception of the Principal Souza, the British policy had no more bitter opponent in Portugal than the Marquis of Minas.

Once a member of the Council of Regency--before Souza had been elected to that body--he had quitted it in disgust at the British measures.

His chief ground of umbrage had been the appointment of British officers to the command of the Portuguese regiments which formed the division under Marshal Beresford.

In this he saw a deliberate insult and slight to his country and his countrymen.

He was a man of burning and blinded patriotism, to whom Portugal was the most glorious nation in the world.