We were now beginning to enter the Channel without, however, having yet seen land, by which means our true position was unknown to us. Prudence required us to stand out to sea, but fortunately it was not for a long time; and, having resumed our course, we at last came within sight of the Lizard Point; but we seemed doomed not to have twenty-four hours of comfort. A thick fog almost immediately came on, and a sixth gale sprung up under the most inauspicious appearances. It blew from the south, and therefore threatened to drive us ashore; we were now in the Channel and without shelter: on one side we had the Lizard, and on the other the Scilly isles, which are extremely dangerous; there was a very heavy sea: we did not know precisely where we were; night was coming on, and a night of fourteen hours! How many causes of uneasiness! What a state of perplexity both for the mind and for a calculation of the chances! We were all completely downcast and disheartened; when a shower of rain, accompanied by thunder, although it was then in the middle of November and the weather very cold, broke the spell. The wind suddenly veered to the proper quarter, and this time it put an end to all our difficulties by bringing us into the Downs, where we anchored. Happy, and ten times happy, to have escaped dangers so formidable and so numerous!
VOYAGE FROM THE THAMES TO
FRANKFORT.
An Interval of Twenty Days.
From November 16 to December 11.
I AM NOT ALLOWED TO REMAIN IN ENGLAND.—REMOVAL TO OSTEND.—PERSECUTIONS IN BELGIUM, PRUSSIA, &C.—AGREEABLE COMPENSATIONS.—ARRIVAL AT FRANKFORT.
On the preceding evening we had anchored in the Downs, merely for that night; the next morning, at day-break, we set sail for the Thames, London being our place of destination. It now appeared as if no occurrence could henceforth keep me from that city, and I was already calculating the hour of arrival. All my hopes might at last be realized; my confidence was returning; but how greatly was I mistaken!
Arrived at Gravesend, where a vessel is stationed for the special purpose of superintendence over foreigners, I no sooner gave my name than an agent of government informed me that I could not proceed any further, and that I must follow him immediately, with my luggage, on board of the Alien Ship. In vain I remonstrated, and represented to him that, with my passport, I was in strict conformity with the regulations: that very document it was which condemned me. I have been since informed that this measure had been ordered against me in every port of England, long before my arrival.