THE DEY PROCURES OUR RELEASE. 57 



The next day things had wholly changed their appear- 

 ance ; one of the judges from Girone came to declare to 

 us that we were free to depart, and to go with our ship 

 wherever we chose. What was the cause of this sudden 

 change ? It was this. 



During our quarantine in the windmill at Rosas, I had 

 written, in the name of Captain Braham, a letter to the 

 Dey of Algiers. I gave him an account of the illegal 

 arrest of his vessel, and of the death of one of the lions 

 which the Dey had sent to the Emperor. This last cir- 

 cumstance transported the African monarch with rage. 

 He sent immediately for the Spanish Consul, M. Onis, 

 claimed pecuniary damages for his dear lion, and threat- 

 ened war if his ship was not released directly. Spain 

 had then to do with too many difficulties to undertake 

 wantonly any new ones, and the order to release the 

 vessel so anxiously coveted arrived at Girone, and from 

 thence at Palamos. 



This solution, to which our Consul at Algiers, M. Du- 

 bois Thainville, had not remained inattentive, reached us 

 at the moment when we least expected it. We at once 

 made preparations for our departure, and on the 28th of 

 November, 1808, we set sail, steering for Marseilles; 

 but, as the Mussulrnen on board the vessel declared, it 

 was written above that we should not enter that town. 

 We could already perceive the white buildings which 

 crown the neighbouring hills of Marseilles, when a gust 

 of the " mistral," of great violence, sent us from the north 

 towards the south. 



I do not know what route we followed, for I was lying 

 in my cabin, overcome with sea-sickness ; I may there- 

 fore, though an astronomer, avow without shame, that at 

 the moment when our unqualified pilots supposed them- 



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