“Sir,—I think it right, on landing on the Continent, to inform your Excellency of the circumstances in which I am placed; and I trust that you will approve the motives that induce me to do so.
“A year ago, I was suddenly removed from Longwood, and have been, since that period, carried from shore to shore like a captive. On entering the Thames, I received an order to depart instantly to the Continent, having no other choice allowed to me but to proceed either to Calais or Ostend.
“A feeling of delicacy and prudence has prompted me to prefer Ostend.
“France is, of all countries, that where my appearance is most likely to be watched, and I have wished to spare the department over which you preside, and myself, the inconveniencies attending such a measure. This double consideration has induced me to adopt the cruel resolution of self-banishment. I have also been actuated by another motive, viz. the hope of possessing in this country greater facilities (setting aside all political views, influenced only by private and personal feelings of affection), for procuring through the legal channel allowed by the English regulations, and even under the cover of the British Ministers, some alleviation and innocent consolations for the martyrs at Longwood. In France, this pious and sacred care might have been misinterpreted, and might consequently have given rise to impediments.
“I hope that a statement so open and candid will remove all unfavourable impressions that might have been suggested to your mind by the circumstances of my case; and, in furtherance of that object, I now take the liberty of enclosing under cover to you, an unsealed letter for my wife, in whose favour I request the interposition of your kindness, in any thing relating to your functions, that may facilitate the means of her coming to share my voluntary exile. Receive,” &c.
To the Minister of the Netherlands I wrote, that it is usual to endeavour to escape from being rendered subject to superintendence; but that I, on the contrary, came to request to be placed under his. I repeated to him, as in the preceding letter, what had happened to me in the Thames, and that I had been thrown on the Continent without any motive having been adduced, or any cause assigned for this measure.
I informed him that I had just written to the Minister of the Police of France, to lay before him the motives which induced me to expose myself to voluntary exile. I represented to him that I was very ill, and that the state of my son’s health was most alarming; that I had just made a passage of a hundred days’ duration in a very small vessel—that I was entirely ignorant as to whether my wife and family were still in existence—that I was totally in the dark respecting the state of my domestic concerns; and, taking all these circumstances into consideration, I entreated him to allow me to reside for a few days at Brussels, to breathe and look around me, to send for my wife, and have the benefit of the attendance of a physician; adding that, perhaps, in the mean time, the British Ministers, whose harsh and precipitate conduct towards me must necessarily have been founded on some error, would consent to allow me to be present, agreeably to my request, at the examination of the papers which they had taken from me.
In conclusion, I assured him that I entertained no political views or feelings, that my sentiments were solely sentiments of individual affection and personal attachment; that such sentiments were natural and honourable, and that my open avowal of them must afford a perfect security that they were not calculated to give any cause of uneasiness.
I owe it to justice and to gratitude to state that my letter to the Minister of the Police of France had at least the effect of obtaining from him, when occasion offered, all that might be expected from a gentleman.
Such was not the case with respect to the Minister of the Netherlands; the only answer I received from him was the arrival of guards to secure my person. Orders were sent in every direction to find me out again, for they thought I was lost. As I had been told by the person intrusted with the superintendence over me, the permission from the Governor to continue my journey soon arrived, and I had immediately taken advantage of it; choosing, on account of the weak state of my health, the easy, but obscure and slow, conveyance of the barges and canals. This had not been thought of; and they were seeking for me at a great distance from Ostend, whilst I was still almost at its gates. My unsuspecting confidence and security had baffled all their calculations; they had not yet got the exact description of my person, and were consequently much embarrassed to know me; however, I myself soon put an end to their perplexity by throwing myself up, as the saying is, into the wolf’s jaws.