In this state I lay till noon, when the old lady, the gaoler’s wife, brought me my dinner. It was a tolerably good meal, considering the quarters I was in. She informed me that I was allowed nothing but water to drink. This I considered very inhuman, as my miserable state required something more stimulating.
In this melancholy condition I received an unexpected consolation. A Swiss gentleman was confined in an adjacent cell, and he kindly sent me a few books, amongst which was a Life of Frederick the Great, which interested me very much. I naturally expressed a wish to see my benefactor, but the old lady told me that there were strict orders to prevent all intercourse between prisoners. On this point she was inexorable. I was now supplied with a shirt and a pair of stockings; but the latter, though large, were totally useless to me, my feet being so sore, and swollen to such an extraordinary degree.
At seven my kind old hostess brought me supper, made my bed, and took her leave, exhorting me to patience.
Eleven days passed in the same manner, except that latterly I prevailed upon my gaoler to deprive me of my breakfast, and to give me in lieu of it a half-pint of small wine at dinner and at supper, and to allow me a candle in the evening.
The Swiss gentleman at last managed to see me. He spoke a little English, and informed me that he had been in the Austrian service, and had had the honour of serving under His Royal Highness the Duke of York at Valenciennes, Dunkirk, and other places. He was confined for debt, had been in gaol eighteen months, and did not expect to be liberated for six months longer. He appeared to be very much surprised at the Bavarians using a British officer so cruelly; and after condoling with me a little, returned to his cell.
On the thirteenth morning, at daybreak, the gaoler appeared with breakfast and my clothes; and informed me that I was instantly to prepare for my journey back into France—that my escort would be at the door in a few minutes. He begged I would keep up my spirits. I assured him I was well pleased at the information and in being removed from so solitary a habitation. I certainly cherished the hope of escaping on the road back, not imagining that I should be treated as a criminal going to be executed. I had scarcely swallowed my breakfast when two military men were shown into my apartment; the foremost holding in his hands an immense iron chain with shackles or fetters, and a large padlock. The sight of this apparatus destroyed every hope that had before presented itself with respect to my getting off; however, I pretended to take no notice of them. This man spoke a little French, saluted me civilly, and asked, “If I were prepared?” “Yes,” said I, “perfectly so.” “I am sorry,” resumed he, “to be under the necessity of using these machines. It is the commandant’s orders; and, as you are an officer yourself, I need not observe how necessary it is to obey the orders of a superior. We are members of the volunteer corps of this town, our name is Schlatter, and we are brothers of the commandant’s secretary, chosen on purpose to reconduct you into France, lest you might be ill-treated by soldiers of the line.” I told him they were excessively kind, and desired them to proceed and do their duty; and added that what I suffered was no dishonour to me, for the efforts I had made had been for the sake of serving my country, and I gloried in them. The commandant’s secretary now joined the party, and expressed his satisfaction at his brothers being appointed to escort me. I pointed out to him the cruelty of putting so enormous a chain upon any human creature. He replied, “You have so often escaped, sir, even from the gendarmerie of France, and these are volunteers only, that the commandant thinks chaining you very necessary, and we have no small chains. There is a carriage ordered for your conveyance, and consequently the inconvenience will not be so very great.”
A little more palaver followed. I talked of the dishonour and indignities inflicted upon an officer, and poured forth all the torrents of eloquence I could call to my aid; but everything was in vain, the phlegmatic German stuck to his text of the chains; and accordingly my right arm and left leg were chained together, and the ends were securely fastened by a huge and clumsy padlock proportioned to the links of the chain, and both seemed proportioned to the limbs of a Goliath or Hercules. I was now carried to the gaol door, and putting my head outside to take a gasp of fresh air, to which I had been so long a stranger, I beheld an immense concourse of people assembled, to catch a sight of the unfortunate prisoner whom the commandant had thought proper thus twice or triply to secure. The wondering crowd came to view what they thought a monster; for such reports had been spread of my miraculous escapes, and such exaggerated and fabulous accounts had been given of what I had achieved, that the ignorant populace believed that I was some demon, or at least a magician in disguise.
At last the hour of my departure arrived. I took my adieu of my gaoler, who had not exceeded his office; and then I took a most affectionate leave of the old woman, who was crying the whole time, and parted from me as if I had been her son whom she was never to see again. I frankly own that I was deeply affected at the poor simple old creature’s kindness. There are cases in which neither old age nor the gaol can harden the heart.
My guards lifted me into the carriage, and one of them sat on each side, for they seemed to think that I might yet try to escape—as if the ponderous chains and huge padlock had been silken bands fastened by some true-lover’s knot. “God bless you!” cried the gaoler’s kind old wife, bathed in tears. “God bless you, kind old mother!” I replied. “Drive on!” roared the guard to the postilion. Whack went the heavy whip over the shoulders of both horses, and away went our carriage, rattling over the stones. In every street through which we passed, the windows were crowded with spectators, all wishing my guards a safe return, as if they either thought that they were bound to the most remote corner of the globe, or that they were in the company of some wizard that might play them an awkward trick on the road. The guards themselves seemed little at their ease; for although I was so heavily secured, they loaded their rifles, primed them, and looked significantly at me—a hint of what I might expect if I became restive.
Although, as I have already observed, one of my guards spoke French, such was the depressed state of my spirits that I entered into little or no conversation with him. Sometimes, indeed, I asked him a question respecting his country, but it was only for the sake of dry information that I might hereafter turn to advantage. Each question was drily put and as drily answered, and thus did my journey proceed.