I was no sooner on board the Alien Ship, than seals were placed upon my papers, and I was apprized that I must wait for final orders from Government. I had written to Lord Bathurst the very instant of our anchoring in the Downs; I now wrote to him again. I was ignorant of his intentions towards me; but it seemed to me impossible that he should not eagerly summon me before him; and, above all things, it could not enter into my mind that he would neglect to avail himself of so favourable an opportunity for hearing a counter-statement of all that had taken place at St. Helena. It will be seen, however, that I was mistaken in my suppositions.
With the exception of being kept in confinement, every mark of attention was shewn to me on board the Alien Ship. The Captain, who had had very little to do since the peace, and who never made his appearance but in the day time, gave me his own bed to sleep in.
Harassed by these fresh vexations, suffering from my habitual complaints, and wearied of my new prison, I had gone to bed at an early hour, when I was awaked on a sudden, in the silence of night, by a shrill voice. “Count, Count,” cried some one who was seeking for me in every corner, and who in his hurry had not even waited to procure a light, “It is the Prince Regent’s pleasure that you instantly quit Great Britain.” In the confusion of my broken sleep I chanced to reply, “Assuredly this is a very sorry and silly pleasure for his Royal Highness; but you, Sir, who are you?” He then told me that he was a government messenger. I requested that he would wait until I should be ready, and I tried in vain to complete my night’s rest. At daybreak my son and I were desired to step into a boat, landed with mystery, thrust into a post-chaise, and conducted by the shortest road to Dover, where my guide informed me that he had orders to see me on board of the packet for Calais or Ostend, whichever I preferred, as I was not allowed to fix my choice upon any other port.
It happened, from some cause or other, that we could not sail immediately from Dover, and I was told that there might be a delay of two or three days. We were shut up in an inn, where my keeper, under the specious pretence of consulting my convenience, practised upon me the meanest of all contrivances. If complaints are made on the Continent of disgraceful proceedings on the part of police agents, it must be admitted that the man we had now to deal with might well rival those of any other country.
Having happened to say that it was a pity my papers had been sealed up, as otherwise I might have taken advantage of my stay, in order to write a few letters, he immediately protested against the hardship of my being deprived of what he called a most innocent and a most natural satisfaction; and directly went himself to break the seals, and gave me up all my papers, recommending me to do all in my power to alleviate the unpleasantness of my present situation, of which he was the unwilling instrument. Will it be believed that this was nothing more than a snare laid for me, in order that he might afterwards have the pleasure of seizing whatever I might have written, under the delusion of a feeling of confidence which he thus excited! During the time we were together, this man had been remarkable for his officiousness towards us, coupled, it is true, with a thousand impertinent expressions, which sufficiently evinced all his baseness. He told me, for instance, that he and his colleagues considered it their duty to know no other law than the pleasure of the Prince: he spoke of his master, Lord Sidmouth, the Secretary for the Home Department; of his master who had preceded Lord Sidmouth, and so on; and as I observed, in joke, that I had thought that he belonged to the Administration, and not to the Minister, he replied, with the utmost candour, that I was mistaken; that he belonged to the Minister, as it was the Minister who paid him his salary, and who might take it away at his pleasure. He added much other nonsense of the same kind, which savoured more of the negro slave of Jamaica than of a white of Europe, and of a citizen of Great Britain; this, however, would have been a matter of perfect indifference to me, had not his base principles been put in practice upon me, as the sequel will shew.
At the very moment of our departure, and, when I was on the point of starting, this man, until then so complaisant and so officious, told me, in rather an insolent manner, that he had a trifling formality to fulfil towards me; and, seizing upon all my luggage, he searched most minutely amongst my linen and clothes, took possession of all my papers, without the least ceremony, and even refused to give me any kind of inventory of them. I complained aloud; I called for the protection of the Magistrates; I demanded that my protest, at least, should be received; I was answered that, in the situation in which I was placed, and being a foreigner, the benefit of the laws which I invoked could not be extended to me; and in this manner I was obliged to quit England, leaving, however, behind me, the following letter for Lord Sidmouth:—
“My Lord,—It is with feelings of the deepest regret that I do myself the honour of addressing your Lordship, aware that your reply, which might perhaps gratify the object of my wishes, will reach me too late.
“For the last four days I have been in the power of your messenger: who, upon his arrival, removed the seals which had been put upon my papers, saying that he again placed them at my disposal. He has since seen me write, has even encouraged me to do so, and has waited for the moment of my departure, to take possession, in your name, of every one of my papers. This is a snare, my Lord, which my heart forbids me to attribute to a higher quarter than the individual who has practised it. That messenger understood no language but English; he called another person to his aid, who pretended to understand a little French, and who has thought proper to peruse my papers, one after another, and even to detain them all. There was enough for a whole week’s reading, and I did not imagine that any private individual could have such a right over me.
“Every thing has been taken from me, letters, notes, my son’s exercises, title-deeds, family secrets, official documents from Sir Hudson Lowe and Lord Charles Somerset, my daily memoranda, even a letter to the French Minister of Police, and another to my wife, which I had prepared during my leisure moments here, in order that I might forward them on my landing at Ostend. They have been taken without allowing an inventory or register to be made of them. Such, they said, was your Lordship’s order. In the first burst of indignation, I have protested against this violence, and demanded that a Magistrate might receive my complaint. I shall not record here the reply that has been given to me. Recovered from the first moment of surprise, and dreading nothing so much as to see my name mentioned in public discussions; considering also how impossible it was that your Lordship should have ordered so great a deviation from the rules of every acknowledged system of jurisprudence, according to which governments are required, in cases like the present, to take such measures as will enable them to guard against the possibility of being accused of having withdrawn or superadded any document; I contented myself with urging and most earnestly entreating the messenger, who had my fate in his hands, to allow of my departure being retarded until I had been able to write to your Lordship, and until he had himself received a confirmation of his rigorous orders. But this man, who had already caused a delay of three days upon slight pretexts, proved quite inflexible on the present important occasion. In vain I represented to him that I had no objection to shew all my papers to the confidential persons whom your Lordship might have appointed to see them; that it was even for your Lordship’s interest that certain formalities should be observed towards me; that, in the examination of my papers, my presence would be useful, if not absolutely necessary, in order to explain many things that could not be understood without me; whereas, he was sending me to the Continent, and forwarding my papers to London; that no doubt there was some mistake, which twenty-four hours’ time would clear up. I was coolly told, in reply, that I need not be uneasy about returning from the Continent, if that was thought necessary, as your Lordship would defray all the expense of the voyage. My Lord, in what hands have you placed me? On another occasion, in which this man could surely not have consulted your wishes, I found myself compelled to silence my guard, in consequence of the gross and injurious expressions which he used concerning the illustrious personage whom I respect above all others in this world.
“In short, my Lord, since I have reached your shores, I have been treated as a malefactor; and yet, where is my crime? A difference of political opinion, perhaps, and a voluntary imprisonment at Longwood! But is not the latter act one of the most noble and most generous; one so highly honourable that the man does not exist who, at the bottom of his heart, would not be proud of having set the example of it? My Lord, the mildness of disposition and love of justice, which are said to distinguish your Lordship, cannot, I am confident of it, have authorized all that has been done to me. Having been allowed to affix my seal to the papers that have been taken from me, I have hastened to do so, not as a precaution against your Lordship, but on the contrary, to remedy, in your behalf, the want of formality of which your agents may have been guilty.