SOME ACCOUNT OF A CAPTIVITY. 315 



troops to quarter on the enemy ; but if any such order were given, it 

 had been obeyed with the strictest military discipline. Right glad 

 was I when day-light appeared ; but still more so when our prison- 

 door was thrown open, and we were ordered to turn out, and prepare 

 for our day's march. We received each our pound and a half of 

 bread and five sous, and, being ironed in the same manner as the day 

 before, were escorted through the town and along the road. 



Although our march, on this occasion, was much shorter than that 

 of the previous day, still it was attended with its full share of incon- 

 venience and suffering. The rain fell in torrents, and we, as I have 

 already said, were obliged to walk through thick and thin. We had 

 not yet reached the Correspondence, or half-way house, when both 

 our captain and mate complained of fatigue, and declared their ina- 

 bility to proceed farther ; and, in proof of this assertion, the latter, a 

 great hulking burly fellow, knelt on the road and began to cry. 

 Fancy, for a moment, an English sailor crying ! It was much to the 

 shame and disgrace of even the most humble seaman or boy of the 

 party. For myself, though brought up with the greatest tenderness 

 and care, I could not help laughing heartily at the pair. However, 

 it was a difficulty, and the gen-d'armes, after a few sacres, found the 

 necessity of seizing the first cart which came along, and into this cart 

 both captain and mate were bundled. In the evening we arrived at 

 Abbeville, where we were shown into the common prison, supplied 

 with a little straw, and left to our cogitations. 



I have often been surprised that, during this period of suffering, 

 although passing whole days in the rain, and lying night after night 

 in wet clothes, that no one of us took cold ; but " God tempers the 

 wind for the shorn lamb ;" shorn, indeed, we were, and that to the 

 quick ! Many a time and oft, did I think what my poor father and 

 mother would have felt, had they known the extent of suffering to 

 which I was exposed ; and I solemnly declare that the pleasure which 

 I felt at the consciousness of their being ignorant of it, counter- 

 balanced any feeling of suffering which I underwent. But all was 

 not to be suffering all was not to be pain and privation. When- we 

 were turned out to march next morning, we were not ironed ; we were 

 not strung together by that eternal cord we were now permitted 

 the free use of our limbs, and, with an escort of six soldiers and two 

 gen-d'armes, were conducted on our third day's march. All went on 

 very well during the early part of the day j it did not rain, and things 

 began to wear a brighter prospect. We reached the half-way house, 

 when, to our dismay, the first thing which caught our attention was a 

 set of handcuffs ; they were to us then the climax of horror. We 

 made up our minds that they were intended for us, and not one of us 

 could venture to utter a word of inquiry, so fearful were we of the 

 appalling fact ; but we were happily mistaken they were not in- 

 tended for us. After our scanty meal, we resumed our march with- 

 out irons. If any one who reads this, without having been ever sub- 

 jected to a similar apprehension, then I tell him that he is incapable 

 of understanding my feelings at that moment ; if he has so felt and 

 so suffered, it would be useless to add a word of explanation. 



At five o'clock we arrived at Arras, in the citadel of which some 



