SIEGE LADY By C. P. Hawkes and Marion Smithes
The lady whose letters give substance to this book (Peter Davies, 8s. 6c1r) was Mrs. Dorothy Procter, the wife of an English merchant at Oporto, and the siege was that which the city withstood in 1832-33 from the forces of Dom Miguel, the pretender to the Portuguese throne. As in Spain today, foreigners were active on both sides in this forgotten civil war and the victory for Dom Pedro, championing his young daughter Isabel against his brother Miguel, was largely due to Captain Napier who commanded the loyalist fleet. A British squadron, professedly neutral, kept a watchful eye on Oporto where there were large British interests connected with the wine trade. The actual siege was an amateur affair and is described somewhat ponderously. But the authors, with the help of Mrs. Procter's letters, give an amusing picture of the easy-going British colony which then as now conducted Oporto's trade and which was not unduly distressed by the military operations. Dom Pedro, who had resigned the throne of Brazil in order to support his daughter's claims in Portugal, is represented as a Byronic hero, such as was still popular in 1832.
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