INTRODUCTION. ly 
husband, and was landed at Morlaix ; but counter-orders 
had been received at this port, and she was detained ; and 
after many unsuccessful memorials, praying to be allowed 
to rejoin Mr. Tuckey at Verdun, and after a detention of 
six weeks, she was sent back to England. We have here 
another instance, in addition to the many on record, of the 
capricious cruelty of Bonaparte, which was equally exer- 
cised on either sex: and let it not be said by his advo- 
cates—strange, that such a man should find advocates, 
especially among Englishmen—that he knew nothing of 
such counter-orders. So it was said, with equal truth, in 
regard to the detention of Captain Flinders ; for it 1s well 
known that, in all matters relating to the British prisoners, 
his ministers stirred not a step without his special di- 
rections. 
On the advance of the allied armies into France, in 1814, 
the British prisoners were ordered ata moment's warning into 
the interior ; and Mr. Tuckey, with his two little boys, was 
obliged to travel, in the most inclement weather he ever ex- 
perienced, to Blois. His youngest son was taken ill on the 
journey, and fell avictim to fatigue and sickness. * Thad, in- 
deed,” says the father, “a hard trial with my little boy, for af- 
ter attending him day and night for three weeks, (he had no 
mother, no servant, no friend, but me to watch over him,) I 
received his last breath, and then had not only to direct his 
interment, but also to follow him to the grave, and recom- 
mend his innocent soul to his God; this was indeed a se- 
vere trial, but it was a duty, and | did not shrink from it.” 
Another severe trial was reserved for him, on his return to 
his family.in England, on the final discomfiture of Bona- 
parte; he had the misfortune to lose a fine child, a girl, of 
