OFF MARSEILLES. 75 
Scarcely had we arrived on board the vessel, when I 
set myself to the work, and acted without scruple or re- 
morse the part of an official of the black chamber, with 
this sole difference, that the letters were unsealed without 
taking any precautions. I found amongst them several 
dispatches, in which Admiral Collingwood signified to the 
Spanish Government the ease with which the prisoners 
might be delivered. Immediately on our arrival at 
Marseilles these letters were sent to the minister of 
nayal affairs, who, I believe, did not pay much attention 
to them. 
I knew almost every one at Palma, the capital of Ma- 
jorca. I leave it to be imagined with what curiosity I 
read the missives in which the beautiful ladies of the 
town expressed their hatred against los malditos cava- 
chios, (French,) whose presence in Spain had rendered 
necessary the departure for the Continent of a magnifi- 
cent regiment of hussars; how many persons might I not 
have embroiled, if under a mask I had found myself with 
them at the opera ball! 
Many of the letters made mention of me, and were 
particularly interesting to me; I was sure in this instance 
there was nothing to constrain the frankness of those who 
had written them. It is an advantage which few people 
can boast having enjoyed to the same degree. 
The vessel in which I was, although laden with bales 
of cotton, had some corsair papers of the Regency, and 
was the reputed escort of three richly laden merchant 
vessels which were going to France. 
We were off Marseilles on the 1st of July, when an 
English frigate came to stop our passage: “I will not 
take you,” said the English captain; “but you will go 
towards the Hyéres Islands, and Admiral Collingwood 
will decide on your fate.” 
