Page:Narrative of a captivity and adventures in France and Flanders between the years 1803 and 1809.djvu/244

 land after dark, slept on board. At daylight, of the 10th of May, having taken the foreigners to the Custom-house, thence to a public-house, and ordered them whatever they desired, we took chaises and departed for Betshanger, the residence of my father.

Mansell, on his return to England, anxious to bear glad tidings to my family, called at Betshanger, and, injudiciously, assured a younger sister, whom he happened to find alone, that "we should be either dead, or in England, in three weeks, as we had vowed not to be taken alive." Many months having elapsed since any letters from France had reached home, my parents received this information with mingled feelings of joy and fear, and, immediately set on foot every method ingenuity and affection could devise, to render assistance through the smugglers. As the time of the stipulated return drew to a close, so did parental fear and anxiety proportionably increase, till, at the expiration of six long weeks, hope itself sickened; still no returning child—no possibility of