pains to spread, in order to justify their treatment of the detenus, and which was at one time believed by the people in France.

Nor did Colonel Swayne behave with less gallantry afterwards at Verdun, when one of our young countrymen, being rather in liquor, was making too much noise at the gaming-table. A gendarme, who was there for his pleasure, had the presumption to lay hold of him, and without further ceremony was going to conduct him to the guardhouse. Such was the terror of a gendarme, that the other English looked on as passive spectators; the fellow was not on duty, but had come to win or lose his money like another. Colonel Swayne interposed, reprimanded him for his insolence, and though he was not personally acquainted with the young man, threatened to knock down

the first gendarme who ventured to lay his hand upon a British officer.

The distance between Valenciennes and Verdun was thirty posts, or about one hundred and fifty miles. The detenus had been permitted to remain quietly at the different depôts during the best season for travelling, and now, in the depth of winter, when the ground was covered with snow, those, who could not afford a carriage, were obliged to march so many leagues on foot.

The distress of many families with young children, and who perhaps had left England from motives of economy, was beyond description. Many of them had laid in their stock of fuel, and perhaps paid for their lodgings for the winter. The French would not buy their wood, as it was certain that they would in the end be obliged to give it away. Colonel Philips of the Marines,

who had sailed round the world with Cooke, was reduced to travel with his wife and children, one of them a suckling, in an open cart, not better than a baggage waggon. Many a party from Valenciennes had the appearance of strolling players; and though the gendarmes, when they have to deal with people in affluence, are generally civil; they give themselves every air of insolence to those who are not in a way to pay their politeness.

Mr. Storer, of Jamaica, was among the number who were ordered to Verdun from the South of France. He, with his tutor, the Rev. Mr. Gorden, were proceeding on their way in their chaise, under the guard of a gendarme, when Mr. Storer, pretending that he was tempted by the fineness of the weather, desired the gendarme to take his seat in the carriage, and to let him ride his horse: the fellow having complied,

Mr. Storer rode off and effected his escape, leaving his companion to continue his route with the gendarme. Upon their arrival at Verdun, Mr. Storer's carriage and wardrobe were sold by public auction, for the benefit of the Grand Nation.

At length the different parties arrived at Verdun. Every town looks dismal at this season of the year, and the appearance of this was not calculated to dissipate their gloomy thoughts. As they passed over the draw-bridge, and through the arched gateway, the idea of a citadel and fortress, of dungeons and chains, occurred to many of them. Every company on passing the guardhouse was attended by a gendarme to the citadel, where they were described from head to foot in the commandant's register, and obliged a second time to give their parole in writing, as if a person would scruple more to break his

second parole than his first. They were enjoined not to miss the appel the next morning, and suffered to return into the town to look for lodgings.

The number of the detenus who arrived at Verdun might have amounted to three hundred, consisting of people of rank and fortune: clergymen, physicians, merchants, tradesmen, and

servants.

In September, 1805, about one hundred detenus having been marched off to Valenciennes, some individuals being permitted to reside in other towns, and several being confined in the fortresses of Bitsche, Saarlouis, Metz, &c. the number at Verdun on the 3d of December, 1805, consisted of one hundred and nine persons of distinction (qualifiés) seven artisans, and forty-one servants, all named in the appel-book. In 1807, the one hundred detenus were marched back again to Verdun from