Page:Statement of the attempted rescue of General Lafayette from Olmutz.djvu/9

 and several others. Before this, General Lafayette had withdrawn from France, and had been arrested by Prussian troops, but no certain accounts had been for some time received of him. Dr. Bollman further stated that the General’s friends had engaged him to go to the Continent, and endeavour to discover his place of imprisonment, and make efforts of any kind that appeared best calculated to procure his liberation.” He had discovered that General Lafayette was imprisoned in the Austrian Fortress of Olmutz; (after visiting various other places) he had recently gone to this stronghold apparently as a casual visitor; had made acquaintance with the Surgeon who had charge of the prisons, and by an adroit assertion of his knowledge that General Lafayette was then under his charge, (which was only a conjecture) induced the unwary physician to answer that the General was in fairly good health; and he even undertook to present Dr. Bollman’s compliments, and the assurance that he had lately left his friends in England well. This was answered by a polite message from the General, asking further questions about his friends. The message in reply was (as intended) rather difficult for the German Doctor’s memory or pronunciation, and looking about for a piece of