Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/120

108 number of French emigrants who were in the interior of Holland, at the time when it was over-run by their countrymen, was considerable, but through the clemency of general Pichegru, or his humane connivance, the interposition of the Dutch government, and the activity of their own fears, which, furnished them with wings to fly, three only were publicly executed. On the departure of the prince from Scheveling, an order was sent from the states-general to prevent the sailing of any more vessels from that place: had it been strictly attended to, three or four fishing boats crowded with wretched emigrants would have been detained, but their unhappy situation, and the urgency of their case, procured them a ready exemption from an order which, perhaps, was only meant to conciliate the conquerors.

A French general of high rank, whose acquaintance I gained through the kindness of General Chorié, conversing with me respecting the lives of the emigrants, assured me that many of these unhappy men would have been saved, had the powers who coalsced against France