ESCAPE OF THE REPUBLICAN EXILES. 143 



Their voyage was not without its alarms, for the 

 seas swarmed with Victor Hugues's privateers ; and, 

 in his hands, they would have fallen into the hands 

 of one of the most infamous tyrants that was ever 

 shaped by the education of a negro overseer, still 

 more envenomed by unbounded Republicanism. 

 One of these privateers drove them, fortunately for 

 themselves, under the guns of Berbice, then in pos- 

 session of our troops. Here they were prisoners on 

 parole, but received with much attention ; conveyed 

 by Colonel Hislop, since Sir Thomas, to Berbice, and 

 there put on board of one of our frigates for Europe. 

 The voyage gave them a new experimental know- 

 ledge of the life of a sailor. They were attacked by 

 the yellow fever, were tossed through a dozen degrees 

 of latitude by the equinoxial storms, in which some 

 ships of the convoy were lost, and the passage lasted 

 sixty-four days. But on the 20th of September, 

 they were in the Channel, and saw the French coast. 

 Of course they were all overflowing with sentiment ; 

 some gave themselves over to " melancholy "; there 

 was an abundance of speeches, " serious reflections," 

 and astonishment " that the land by which they 

 were sailing could no longer be called their country." 



On the passage they had been transferred to the 

 Aimable frigate, Captain Granville Lobb, who with 

 his officers treated them with the characteristic good- 

 nature of British sailors. They were now ordered to 

 London, where they had some interviews with Mr 



