Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall sp4.djvu/251

 tea-spoons, which she placed on the table. They finished their repast, called for the bill, and found that this parsimonious old wretch had charged them a penny each for the use of her plate. The French officer, quite amazed, asked her what she could mean by such a demand? She replied, with sang froid, – “You see those Englishmen are so particular they cannot eat like other people. My spoons have not been out of my chest for a number of years; and I am determined they shall pay for the trouble they have put me to.” This circumstance, trivial as it may be considered, will give the reader an idea of the imposition to which Messrs. O’Brien and Mahoney were subjected throughout the whole of their long journey, during which they were pinched with cold and hunger, worn out by fatigue, often forced to herd with felons and sleep on straw, and frequently obliged to suffer insults from their guards that could not be resented.

About the 10th or 12th July, 1804, Messrs. O’Brien and Mahoney received a letter from Captain (now Sir Jahleel) Brenton, senior British officer at Verdun, stating that General Wirvion, commander-in-chief over the prisoners of war, had, after many applications, sent an order for them to be conducted to the officers’ dépôt; at which they arrived on the 23rd of the same month, after revisiting Fiumez and Rocroy, and passing through Mezieres, Sedan, and Stenay.

“We continued at Verdun,” says Captain O’Brien, “from July, 1804, amusing ourselves by study, learning to fence, skating in the winter, &c. until August, 1807, when I began to consider my situation minutely, and to deliberate upon n»y unfortunate captivity; and those deliberations had the effect of making me very uncomfortable and dissatisfied: I could not afterwards reconcile myself to study, or to any amusement. I reasoned with myself, that I was losing the prime of my youth in captivity. I saw no prospect of peace, or an exchange of prisoners; no hope of being promoted in my present state, nor of recommending myself through any personal exertions to the notice of the admiralty; deprived, while in France, of being able to afford my country, my friends, or myself, the least assistance.

“In this horrible state, almost of stupefaction, I remained for some days: when my poor friend Ashworth observed to me, that he and Mr. Tuthill, a particular friend of mine, and midshipman also, had been canvassing the cruelty and hardships they laboured under; and had, in consequence, formed the intention, if I would join them, of transgressing and getting deprived