I have taken the liberty, my lord, of telling you all that passed between the Transport Office and me, about the young prisoner, whom they allotted to me, as servant, and of whom they deprived me, by sending him back to prison. My circumstances are known to you, and therefore it is easy for you to judge that they will not allow me an expensive servant, such as are the English ones, moreover, I do not speak the English language well enough to be served by one of these, and yet the unfortunate state of my health and a sort of propriety do not allow me to have any servants. I have recourse to your protection, my lord, and, if by what you deign to give me, and the interest which you have the goodness to take in me, it were in your power to have awarded to me, either by the Admiralty principally, or by the Transport Office, I might hope, not for the young man whom they allowed me before, and whom I do not ask back for private reasons, but for him whom I asked in his place, called Sebastian Sequelleux, a cabin boy, taken on board the Marie Françoise, aged about fifteen years, under the same conditions as the first whose passport I enclose, begging you not to give it up, but to keep it in your own hands, because it may be useful to me—a passport which will justify you that they had not the right to take him back again, nor to act in the manner towards me that they have done—I should be under a real obligation to you.
Since I had the honour of seeing you I have suffered much from vomiting of blood, to which I am subject, it is very hard and very trying for me, under these circumstances, to have no one near me. If I hazard this request, my lord, it is your kindness alone, which inspires this confidence, and I implore you to consider it null and void, if you see the least difficulty—and if it should compromise you in the least. If I can have the young man that I ask for, it is to you alone that I wish to be indebted, and to you alone that he will be granted, so that the Transport Office can see in all that, only the interest you have deigned to take in me. Forgive so much liberty, so much importunity—but an honest and unhappy Frenchman, who has the happiness to see you, finds in you his prop and stay.
I have the honour to be, with respect, my lord,
Your very humble and very obedient servant,
The Bishop of Moulins.
Stilton,
27th March 1808.
V
Mr. Commissioner Rupert George to Captain Moorsom, Secretary to Lord Mulgrave
Transport Office,
19th March 1808.
Dear Sir,