166 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO. 



This account spoke of the two executed men in very different terms. 

 M. Bertheraie was a Huguenot; lie had been deaf to all exhortations; 

 he had spit in the face of the ecclesiastic who was present, and even on 

 the image of Christ. As for me, I had conducted myself with much 

 decency, and had allowed myself to be hung without giving rise to any 

 scandal. The writer also expressed his regret that a young astronomer 

 had been so weak as to associate himself with treason, coming under 

 the disguise of science to assist the entrance of the French army into 

 a friendly kingdom. 



After reading this article, 1 immediately made my decision. "Since 

 they talk of my death," said I to my friend Rodriguez, " the event will 

 not be long in coming; I should i)refer being drowned to being hung. 

 I will make my escape from this fortress; it is for yoa to furnish me 

 with the means." 



Eodriguez, knowing better than any one how well founded my appre- 

 hensions were, set himself at once to the work. He went to the captain 

 general, and made him feel what would be the danger of his position if 

 I shonld disappear in a i)opular riot, or even if he were forced to give 

 me up. His observations were so much the better comprehended, as 

 no one could then predict what might be the issue of the Spanish revo- 

 lution. "I will undertake," said the captain general Vives to my col- 

 league Eodriguez, "to give an order to the commander of the fortress, 

 that when the right moment arrives, he shall allow M. Arago, and even 

 the two or three other Frenchmen who are with him in the castle of 

 Belver, to pass out; they will then have no need of the means of escape 

 which they have procured. But 1 will take no part in the preparations 

 which will become necessary to enable the fugitives to leave the island; 

 I leave all that to your responsibility." 



Rodriguez immediately conferred secretly with the brave commander 

 Damian. It was agreed between them that Damian should take the 

 command of a half-decked boat which the wind had driven ashore; that 

 he should equip it as if for a fishing expedition; that he should carry 

 us to Algiers, after which his reiintrance at Palmas, with or without 

 fish, would inspire no suspicion. All was executed according to agree- 

 ment, notwithstanding the inquisitorial surveillance which Don Manuel 

 de Vacaro exercised over the commander of his "mistic." 



On the 28th July, 1808, we silently descended the hill on which Bel- 

 ver is built, at the same moment that the family of the minister Soller 

 entered the fortress to escape the fury of the populace. Arrived at the 

 shore, we found there Damian, his boat, and three sailors; we embarked 

 at once, and set sail. Damian had taken the precaution of bringing 

 with us in this frail vessel the instruments of value which he had car- 

 ried off from my station at the Cloj) de Galazo. The sea was unfavor- 

 able; Damian thought it prudent to stop at the little island of Cabrera, 

 destined to become, a short time afterward, so sadly celebrated by the 

 sufferings which the soldiers of the army of Dupout experienced after 



