concluded he had lost his senses: but I found afterwards that he had actually married a French woman under the revolutionary forms when in France, that she had separated from him, that upon his return he had consulted the emigrant priests, who affirmed the marriage to be null, that another advantageous match offering, he had proposed, but not concluded, the second marriage, for which crime, as he told me, he had been long in this dungeon. His anxiety about the negress was, that if she had got out by means of an examination, he would have concluded himself to have been passed over, and to have no more hope. He begged of me to purchase him some bread, as for myself, offering me at the same time the price of it through the hole, from which I judged that hunger was a part of his punishment. I do not take upon myself to say what might have been the degree of this unfortunate being's crime, but his punishment was certainly severe. I saw him when at night he had got a candle to pick the vermin off his body. His beard was long, and his aspect miserable. His dungeon was deep and narrow; and in a corner was a little door, through which he must have crept in, and which served now to thrust in his food. It was from the depth of this dungeon, and the effort he had to make in clinging by his fingers in order to raise his mouth to the orifice in the stair, that the utterance of that abrupt sentence, La négresse est-elle sortie? had such an extraordinary effect.

But this was not the only miserable being of my species of whose sufferings I was forced to partake. There was under the corridor another inferno, into which the descent was by a trap-door, over which I had often walked without perceiving it. This dungeon was damp and dark, and so foul, that when the trapdoor was opened twice in the day to give provisions. to the wretch that inhabited it, the whole surrounding place was infected with a pestilential smell for a length of time, and yet the entire operation of opening and

shutting, did not last more than half a minute, nothing further taking place on the occasion than the handing down one little earthen dish and receiving another, which was given up by the prisoner. But lest any thing should interrupt the fearful seclusion of this mortal from the rest of his species, or that any means should be conveyed to him of quitting an existence so terrible, his meal was regularly and diligently searched each day before his trap-door was opened, and even his bread torn asunder for fear of some concealment. It would be too tedious to detail the histories of my other fellow-prisoners. Those most immediately my neighbours, whose door gave into the corridor, were a Corsican smuggler, and a soldier imprisoned for stab. bing with a knife.

The predecessor of the negress had been an American captain, called William Atkinson, from Philadelphia; his name was written with a pencil on the wall: he had been a length of time in secret, on account of a barrel of gunpowder which he had been charged with purchasing unduly, as belonging to the stores. length, when he had no more money, the gaoler inquired of the minister who sent him there, what was to be done with him; and the minister, not recollecting his name, so totally had he been forgotten, he was let

out.

At

The gentleman who came on the same night with me, and with whom I had conversed only by stealth, through the flaw in his door, was a Mr. Rivet, of Nantes, formerly consul-general of the Portuguese in France. It was not until a day or two before our departure, that we were permitted to see each other. But I found afterwards great resources in the company of this new fellow-sufferer, who was, for what reason I know not, and he declared he knew not, to be sent on board the same vessel which was to transport me against my will to France.

M

LETTER XXII.

Kidnapped-Transported-Our Adieus-State affairs

Protest.

AT length after a series of vexations, which had now lasted six weeks, I was called upon suddenly one morning by an ecrivano, a man of authority, to prepare for an immediate departure, and was scarcely allowed time to thrust my clothes into my trunks. In vain I demanded where I was going. I was desired to pay ten moidores for my passage; I forget whether any thing more, or how much for my servant: but I recollect that the government paper money which remained in my hands, and which I had been obliged to take at par, was discounted at fifteen per cent. Small considerations these, it is true, in any other circumstances, but serious, seeing the position I was in. As certainly, had I yielded to much extortion in the beginning, and my little stock beens ooner exhausted, I should have been destitute beyond measure, and perhaps have perished in that double-doored vault, where I was first plunged, and from which it required money to redeem me.

I now remonstrated that I had very little remaining, and that if I went to a strange country as a prisoner, where I might have neither credit nor connexions, I must necessarily be exposed to great distress: and I begged at least to be informed where I was going, and to be allowed to make some arrangements. The officer replied, in a peremptory and insulting strain, that if I had no money, none would be taken from me, but that my trunks and my person should be searched. This necessarily produced some warmth on my part. And transported and trembling with rage, and perhaps fear,

(for he often repeated that he was not afraid of me,) he called upon his followers, who, I believe, were twenty in number, to tie me: however, this, as on the former occasion, was not put in execution, and the whole scene ended in courtesy and complaisance.

The Danish vice-consul attended below, with a captain of his nation, to see the passage-money paid. But neither of them would inform me where we were to go. Mr. Rivet and his servant were in like manner treated, and we were all four taken out by a gate which led to the place of embarkation. It was through this gate that I had often observed files of convicts to be taken, who had been previously secured, each by an iron ring about his neck, and by this ring to an iron bar which held them altogether in a row. I was glad that we had no such shackles, as we should have thereby lost the opportunity of saluting our young ladies as we passed. They were looking on, as I hope, with eyes of tender compassion from their window, where they were placed, together with their father and the elderly lady, their mother or gouvernante, all of whom returned our salute politely. And I thought that the fair person, to whose compassion I laid claim, seemed touched with the hardships of my case. I had found means, before I left the prison, to learn a little of her history. She was by birth a Spaniard. Her father, a gentleman of the court, being a volante, or running footman to the prince of Brazil. She herself had passed some heavy hours in the melancholy spot from which I addressed my prayers to her. Her lover being ordered to the East, she determined to share his fortunes, and to that end put on the garb of a sailor, in which disguise she fell into the hands of the police, and, refusing to discover herself, was shut up in the identical cell which was afterwards allotted me, and had learned a lesson of pity in an excellent school.

We were now put on board a royal gilded barge with the speed of twenty oars. We had the consola

tion of another salute from our fair spectators as we passed their windows, which overlooked the water: but, from that day to this, having heard or seen nothing further from them, I endeavour to flatter myself with the hope that they are both happily married and settled in the world. Whilst I may have yet many years and many leagues to wander; and other countries, in all human probability, yet to visit.

I waited with patience to see what was to be done with me, and was soon put on board a certain little Danish dogger, called the Die Hoffnung, which I understood to mean The Hope, a fair sounding name, but, alas! a deceitful one, as you shall presently acknowledge. The pilot was on board, the sails were full, the anchor weighed. In the barge with us had been sent, by whose care or whose bounty I could not learn, a provision of wine, fowls, onions, and other articles, amply sufficient for a short voyage, but very inadequate to that long and cruel erration which we were destined to undergo.

The officer of whom I have before spoken, and who conducted us on board, before his quitting us, and immediately before our sailing, put into the hands of Mr. Rivet and me separate passports for the port of Hamburg, where we were told that we were now to go; and to the captain he delivered, as had been stipulated, several certificates, one from the English consul, one from the Danish consul, and, for more authority, endorsed by the ambassador of Denmark. There was another from Mr. Lafargue, the agent for French prisoners in Portugal; all evidently for the same purpose of securing the captain against seizure by armed vessels of all nations. The only one of these certificates, which mentioned me solely, was that of Mr. Lafargue, whilst that of Mr. Crispin mentioned only Mr. Rivet, each covering with his protection the prisoner of the opposite nation. For this piece respecting me, which I insisted upon having from the captain on landing,