KING OF PORTUGAL ASSASSINATED.

The king of Spain wisely persisted in reaping the advantages of a neutrality, notwithstanding the intrigues of the French partisans at the court of Madrid, who endeavoured to alarm his jealousy by the conquests which the English had projected in America. The king of Sardina sagaciously kept aloof, resolving, in imitation of his predecessors, to maintain his power on a respectable footing, and be ready to seize all opportunities to extend and promote the interest of his crown, and the advantage of his country. As for the king of Portugal, he had prudently embraced the same system of forbearance; but in the latter end of the season, his attention was engrossed by a domestic incident of a very extraordinary nature. Whether he had, by particular instances of severity, exasperated the minds of certain individuals, and exercised his dominion in such acts of arbitrary power as excited a general spirit of disaffection among his nobility; or, lastly, by the vigorous measures pursued against the encroaching Jesuits in Paraguay, and their correspondents in Portugal, had incurred the resentment of that society, we shall not pretend to determine: perhaps all these motives concurred in giving birth to a conspiracy against his life, which was actually executed at this juncture with the most desperate resolution. On the third day of September, the king, according to custom, going out in a carriage to take the air, accompanied by one domestic, was, in the night, at a solitary place near Belem, attacked by three men on horseback, armed with musquetoons, one of whom fired his piece at the coachman without effect. The man, however, terrified both on his own account and that of his sovereign, drove the mules at full speed; a circumstance which, in some measure, disconcerted the other two conspirators, who pursued him at full gallop, and having no leisure to take aim, discharged their pieces at random through the back of the carriage. The slugs with which they were loaded happened to pass between the king’s right arm and his breast, dilacerating the parts from the shoulder to the elbow, but without damaging the bone, or penetrating into the cavity of the body. Finding himself grievously wounded, and the blood flowing apace, he, with such presence of mind as cannot be sufficiently admired, instead of proceeding to the palace, which was at some distance, ordered the coachman to return to Junqueria, where his principal surgeon resided, and there his wounds were immediately dressed. By this resolution he not only prevented the irreparable mischief that might have arisen from an excessive effusion of blood; but, without all doubt, saved his life from the bands of other assassins, posted on the road to accomplish the regicide, in case he should escape alive from the first attack. This instance of the king’s recollection was magnified into a miracle, on a supposition that it must have been the effect of divine inspiration; and, indeed, among a people addicted to superstition, might well pass for a favourable interposition of Providence. The king being thus disabled in his right arm, issued a decree, investing the queen with the absolute power of government. In the meantime, no person had access to his presence but herself, the first minister, the cardinal de Saldanha, the physicians, and surgeons. An embargo was immediately laid on all the shipping in the port of Lisbon. Rewards were publicly offered, together with the promise of pardon to the accomplices, for detecting any of the assassins; and such other measures used, that in a little time the whole conspiracy was discovered: a conspiracy the more dangerous, as it appeared to have been formed by persons of the first quality and influence. The duke de Weiro, of the family of Mascarenhas; the marquis de Tavora, who had been viceroy of Goa, and now actually enjoyed the commission of general of the horse; the count de Attougui, the marquis de Alloria, together with their wives, children, and whole families, were arrested immediately after the assassination, as principals in the design; and many other accomplices, including some Jesuits, were apprehended in the sequel. The further proceedings on this mysterious affair, with the fate of the conspirators, will be particularized among the transactions of the following year. At present it will be sufficient to observe, that the king’s wounds were attended with no bad consequences; nor did the imprisonment of those noblemen produce any disturbance in the kingdom.