[1] The most celebrated bearers of the name were Donogh O’Brien, King of Thomond (1208-1244), and Earl Donough O’Brien (1577-1624), one of Queen Elizabeth’s few Irish loyalists and a noted fighter in her behalf.

[2] One of the ships surrendered at the Texel in 1799.

[3] I here feel it a duty to state, that, for the boats which we seized from the poor fishermen, bills of exchange were given to the full amount of their value upon the English Government.

[4] Pointe St. Mathieu, on the left upon entering Brest.

[5] The step is that part of the mast that fixes in the boat; the fore-tye, the rope by which the foresail is hoisted up.

[6] He escaped, subsequently to me, with some other naval officers, from Bitche.

[7] Probably the PrÉfet Maritime of Brest is meant; the Minister of Marine would of course be at Paris.

[8] In Sir Jahleel Brenton’s interesting Autobiography the reader may find a long account of the misery prevalent among the British prisoners at Givet, and of the efforts which he took to get their grievances redressed.

[9] He died at Port Mahon on the 25th of July 1811, having been mortally wounded on 28th June, the day of the storming of Tarragona by Marshal Suchet.

[10] They made midshipmen, notwithstanding their officers were responsible for them, attend two appels, or musters, per diem; the not appearing at the exact time was formerly a fine of three livres (2s. 6d.), but afterwards the offenders were sent to Sarrelouis or Bitche, the depots of punishment.

[11] This town is seated on the banks of the river Serre, in Picardy. We learned since that it is famous for serge manufactories.

[12] Ashworth and Tuthill, as we shall see, were recaptured by the gendarmes almost immediately. They were sent to Bitche and shared O’Brien’s captivity there. Ultimately they escaped, though not in our hero’s company, and made their way, like him, to Trieste, where they reached an English ship.

[13] Certainly not ZÜrich, which is over thirty miles away, with some high ground between. Perhaps O’Brien means Schaffhausen.

[14] The Ueberlinger See, or northern arm of the forked Boden See.

[15] O’Brien’s political geography is all wrong here. Both Constance and his destination, Meersburg, were in Baden territory. Hence there was no frontier difficulty, or requisition for passports. He really crossed the WÜrtemberg and Bavarian frontiers without knowing it, during his night march between Meersburg and Lindau.

[16] Erroneous geography. Meersburg, the town to which the ferry from Constance ran, is still in Baden.

[17] Probably Fischbach in WÜrtemberg, seven miles east of Meersburg. O’Brien must have eluded the frontier guard without knowing it.

[18] This would be Nonnenhorn, four miles west of Lindau, on the lake-shore.

[19] But before I quitted the commandant’s presence, I took the liberty of assuring him, that even if I was sent back to France, I felt confident that, by the blessing of God, I should again effect my escape, and in which case I would write and inform him of my success. This I eventually did from Trieste. I recollect relating this anecdote to Lord Collingwood at his table on board the Ocean, his flag-ship, off Toulon, and at which he appeared highly pleased.

[20] Evidently a slip for Munich, to which the application would be forwarded. Ulm is in WÜrtemberg, not in Bavaria.

[21] This was probably the town of Stockach.

[22] This small town had suffered greatly by fire, and had been lately entirely new built. It is situated on the Danube, thirty-three miles N.W. of Constance.

[23] This is the person I alluded to as an exception, with the kind gaoler at Arras, to all others that I met with in France.

[24] In the Franco-German war of 1870-71 Bitche was still so strong, even against modern artillery, that it maintained itself long after Strasburg, Metz, and all the other eastern fortresses had fallen, and was, along with Belfort, the only place where a really lengthy and obstinate defence was made.

[25] For a full text of the proceedings of this court-martial, the reader may consult Mr. Ashworth’s account of his adventures, published in Nos. 28, 31, 33 of the Naval Chronicle.

[26] Apparently Lauterburg.

[27] Batley was destined to escape. For the details of his adventures see Barklimore’s letter in Appendix A.

[28] It is impossible to say what O’Brien means by this. The hereditary prince of Baden, though in great favour with Napoleon, and married to Stephanie Beauharnais, his adopted daughter, was never made a king.

[29] Pope, in the “Essay on Man.”

[30] O’Brien alludes to the Wagram campaign, then only six months in the future.

[31] Napoleon’s last wild extension of the Continental System provided that a neutral ship should be considered fair prize if it had visited a British port, or even been searched by a British cruiser.

[32] This certificate I have still by me. It was given me by Lieut. Henry T. Lutwidge, our second lieutenant, a worthy officer, in Verdun, on 21st February 1807, and now a commander.

[33] In November 1808, the date of O’Brien’s stay in Trieste, all the eastern shores of the Adriatic were French territory save the small strips of land about Trieste and Fiume, which were Austrian. Dalmatia and Istria, like the other old dominions of Venice, had been annexed to Napoleon’s kingdom of Italy. In 1809 the Emperor appropriated Trieste and Fiume also, after his victory over Austria at Wagram. Thus O’Brien, a year later, would have found Trieste French.

[34] For this very serious wound, I have never received any pension, as it was not considered equivalent to the loss of a limb, when I was surveyed by order of the Lords of the Admiralty in May, 1817; and yet what is the difference between the loss of a limb, and the loss of the use of a limb?

[35] I.e. the Mediterranean squadron, then under Lord Collingwood, engaged in the blockade of Toulon.

[36] It appeared that the brigadier of gendarmes had been invited by them to take a share of their dinner, on the very day that my letter had arrived. He handed Tuthill this letter, saying it was not an English but a German one, and, contrary to the usual custom, he did not break the seal or inspect it: of course, it was not perused until after dinner, and after he had departed.

[37] From Ashworth’s narrative in the Naval Chronicle, vol. xxviii., it appears that he, with Tuthill, Brine, and two others escaped on 8th December, 1808, by means of a rope just similar to that which O’Brien had employed. They got safely off, and reached Trieste in February.

[38] The reader will find in vol. v. of James’s Naval History many similar extracts from this same source.

[39] In order to realise the disparity of force, it is only necessary to give the list of the two squadrons—

Franco-Italian.

[The first three ships were of the French, the others of the Italian navy.]

With the Mercurio brig (16 guns), a 10-gun schooner, a 6-gun xebek, and two gunboats.

British.

Excluding the small vessels the enemy had 224 guns, the British 124!

[40] This twenty-line sentence deserves note as being perhaps the longest in modern English literature.

[41] In justice to an intrepid Gallic son of Neptune, who called forth general admiration, I must say that at the moment the Flore made the effort to board the Amphion, a seaman appeared standing on her fore yard-arm, holding a fire-grapnel ready to hurl upon our decks; nor did he quit his perilous position until dislodged by our musketry, after several balls had struck the grapnel, when he flung it, but, being too far off, without effect, and, hastening to the opposite yard-arm, jumped overboard. The ultimate fate of this heroic fellow we could never learn, but I fear he must have perished.

[42] The guns being double-shotted.

[43] This letter Captain Hoste afterwards forwarded, under a flag of truce, to the captain of the Flore, to which an answer was written by the captain of the DanaË, stating the inability of M. PÉridier to reply on account of his wound, and denying that the Flore had struck; but the DanaË’s captain, as if ashamed of his name, sent his letter without a signature.

[44] See Appendix, No. II.

[45] This was the midshipman who made the sketch from which the illustration facing page 314 is reproduced.

[46] Captured by the Constitution, Aug. 19, 1812. The American frigate was decidedly a larger and stronger vessel, yet hardly enough so to justify O’Brien in calling her a “leviathan.”