INTRODUCTION. Iv 



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 is 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 Bri tish prisoners were ordered at a 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 th^ 

 journey, and fell a victim to fatigue and sickness. " I had, 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 I 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 



