Page:Englishmen in the French Revolution.djvu/284

264 answered in the affirmative, yet no sooner had he landed than ship, passengers, and crew were declared prisoners. He was interned at Verdun and elsewhere, but as he had been a boon companion of the Prince of Wales, the latter induced Fox to make representations in his favour, and Talleyrand, imagining that he was a favourite with Fox himself, not only liberated him but made him the bearer of overtures for peace. Elgin, Yarmouth, and General Abercromby sailed together from Morlaix in May 1806. Yarmouth was promptly sent back with a response, and Lord Lauderdale followed him, but the negotiations came to nothing. It is said that Napoleon not only had Lauderdale's papers searched by surprise, but sent an order to stop his departure; Fouché, however, intentionally delayed its execution until the bird had flown. Yarmouth, afterwards Marquis of Hertford, is the Lord Monmouth of "Coningsby" and the Lord Steyne of "Vanity Fair." His wife, Maria Fagniani, whose paternity was disputed by George Selwyn and the Duke of Queensberry, left him, according to Lady Hester Stanhope, for a Frenchman, and lived in Paris, but occasionally obtained a passport for England to make arrangements for the children. One of these, Lord Henry Seymour, was not only born but chiefly lived in France, was one of the eighteen members of the English Jockey Club at Paris in 1830, and was very eccentric. At the