Torres-Vedras

A town of Estremadura, kingdom of Portugal, on the left bank of the Sizandro, about 30 miles north of Lisbon. It derives its reputation solely from having given name to those famous lines of defense within which Wellington took refuge in 1810, when he found it impo ible to defend the frontier of Portugal against the French armies; and from which, in the year following, he i ued on that career of slow and hard-won victory which ended in the expulsion of the French from the Peninsula. The first , or outermost of these lines, extending from Alhandra, on the Tagus, to the mouth of the Sizandro, on the sea-coast, and following the windings of the hills, was 29 miles long; the second (and by far the most formidable) lay from 6 to 10 miles behind the first, stretching from Quin tell a, on the Tagus, to the mouth of the St. Lorenza, a distance of 24 miles; the third , situated to the southwest of Lisbon, at the very mouth of the Tagus, was very short, being intended to cover a forced embarkation, if that had become nece ary. The entire ground thus fortified was equal to 500 square miles.