ESCAPE OF THE REPUBLICAN EXILES. 145 



new light seems to have flashed upon the governor ; 

 he may have thought that the seizure of this corre- 

 spondence, which was connected with Royalisme in 

 France, would establish him with the Directory for 

 ever. He instantly started up, threw down the table 

 between them, called to the guard, and ordered the 

 unlucky confidant to be put in irons, preparatory to 

 being shot next day. But cooler deliberation told 

 him that the captain's death would not bring him so 

 much advantage, as his shooting an American citizen 

 must bring him trouble ; a remonstrance to the 

 Directory, which might vacate his government, and 

 a frigate from the United States, which might carry 

 himself off to be hanged by the populace at Phila- 

 delphia, would be consequences which it became the 

 Frenchman's prudence to avoid. But he could still 

 tyrannise, and the American was thrown into a 

 dungeon, ironed hands and feet, and kept there on 

 bread and water through the months of June and 

 July, under the equator. Yet the tenuity of this 

 regimen may have saved his life in this horrible 

 confinement. He was at length sent on board the 

 Decade on her return to France, to be dealt with 

 according to the pleasure of the Directory, a 

 pleasure Avhich would probably have sent him to 

 perish in the ditch of some provincial fortress. But 

 a better fate awaited him. The Decade was met on 

 her way by an English frigate, which attacked and 

 took her. Captain Pierepoint, the commander of 



VOL. II. K 



