Page:Englishmen in the French Revolution.djvu/312

292 would be rather a bore, and would carry me beyond the limits of my paper; therefore, if you please, we will abridge it as much as possible.

To begin, then, I was arrested because I was born in one kingdom instead of in another; and also it was taken much amiss that my countrymen should accept of a town that was very kindly offered to them.

As I was above two hundred leagues distant from the town in question, and that I had not been consulted whether the offer should have been accepted or refused, I thought they might as well have found some other person to have punished instead of me. However, I was conducted to a high tower upon the sea-shore built by William the Conqueror. I was there placed in a room where there was, sure enough, no glass to the windows, but that deficiency was made up by the number of bars. What added to the agreeableness of the séjour was, that it happened to be exactly at the equinox, so I could not complain for the want of air. After a few days' residence there, an officer came into my room and told me he was ordered to accompany me to my house (which was about a mile from the tower), in order for me to be present at the examination of my papers. I accordingly followed him, and when I got into the street I was surprised to find guards to escort me sufficient in number to have defended the castle had it been besieged by an enemy. In this stately manner I was conducted to my house and back again.

After a few days I was informed they had found nothing among my papers but family matters and an innocent correspondence. However, they were sent to the National Deputy, who was then at Rennes, who put a different construction upon my correspondence; and he ordered me to be conducted thither. I was then thrown into a prison more disagreeable in every respect than that which I had quitted. After a few days there arrived a