ESCAPE OF THE KEPUBLICAN EXILES. Ill 



They were now almost dying of hunger, for they 

 had not eaten a regular meal for the last thirty-six 

 hours. At length a couple of loaves and a pail of 

 water were let down among them. They were, how- 

 ever, scarcely able to touch either from the disgust 

 that rose from everything round them. A horrible 

 feeling, too, took possession of them as the night fell. 

 One of the customary instruments of republican 

 justice was a prison-ship, with a trap-door in the 

 hold, through which the victims were quietly 

 dropped at midnight into the bottom of the river. 

 The noyades at Nantz were the first displays of this 

 compendious invention, which had the merit of 

 saving all trouble, avoiding all public clamour, if 

 such could have arisen on the side of humanity ; 

 cost neither powder nor ball, and cost not even the 

 trouble of putting a new edge on the knife of the 

 guillotine. The bed of the Charente was as deep as 

 the Loire, and the little privateer was as likely to be 

 the instrument as any other in the hands of the 

 Republic. The situation was undoubtedly an embar- 

 rassing one. For some hours the prisoners expected 

 every moment to be their last ; they had wrought 

 themselves into the conviction that they were to be 

 drowned. Every step of the sailors above their 

 heads, every word uttered, every rope handled, was 

 actually taken as a direct preparation for their 

 deaths. At length, after an unusual bustle above, 

 the vessel weighed, and began to move. Terror con- 



