Donat Henchy O'Brien

A fresh incarceration—Stripping a prisoner naked a more effectual detainer than chains and padlocks—Hopes of escape prove delusive—Gaol surgery and gaol diet—A timely loan of books—A short visit from a Swiss captive—Orders to prepare for a return to France—A heavy chain and huge padlock—The mob at Lindau—Leave-taking between a prisoner and the gaoler and gaoler’s wife—The road to France—Going to bed in chains—Strict watchings—Chances of a rescue—Anticipations of the horrors of Bitche—Commiseration of my guards—Crossing the bridge of Kehl—A surrender to the French gendarmes—Captivity in the military gaol of Strasbourg—A kind gaoler and as kind a wife—His gratitude for English kindness when a prisoner of war—Examined by the police—Affectionate leave-taking of the honest gaoler and his wife—On the road to Bitche, heavily chained to eleven Corsicans going to suffer military execution—The horrible dungeon of Niederbronn—A revolting night’s confinement—Dreadful sufferings of two of the Corsican soldiers—Distant prospects of Bitche—Anticipations of a cruel confinement—Arrival at the fortress.

It was on a dreary Sunday night, the 29th of November (1807), that I was led into this gaol. The gaoler and his keepers placed me in a tolerably decent, well-furnished apartment, with a bed, stove, table, and chair. This was ample for the accommodation of unsophisticated man, but external conveniences are not a substitute for the cravings of hunger. I therefore pointed out to my keepers the exhausted state of my body, and begged that I might have some refreshment, however humble or however small. This they granted; but they previously searched me—stripped me—took away the whole of my clothes, with all that my pockets contained—which consisted, however, of nothing but a knife, a razor, and a few pieces of silver. They assured me that all my property should be returned to me at a proper time. But I entreated them to leave me at least my pantaloons. With this they at length complied. With respect to my shirt, as the collar and ragged sleeves were all that remained, I was indifferent to the comfort of preserving it.

I expostulated with my persecutors, and begged to know the reason of such cruel treatment. They surlily replied that it was the custom of their country, and that they would take care to prevent my getting away again. “People who had a great talent for getting out of gaols ought to be treated accordingly,” they said, and they added that they would prevent my escaping from their clutches. Saying this, the morose brutes swung-to the massy door, and my ears were greeted with the noise of locks, bars, bolts, and my eyes with the prospect of chains, that seemed heavy enough to secure the bodies of a regiment or an army.

In this state of nudity and solitude I began, with inexpressible grief and bitter affliction, to meditate upon my unfortunate destiny. At length a thought flashed upon my mind. Although my cell in its masonry seemed as strong as the bomb-proof casemate of a fortress, and my ears had informed me of the massive strength of the door and its ponderous securities and fastenings, yet it struck me that there might be some point of weakness of which I might avail myself to effect my escape. I even inferred, from their taking away my clothes, in order to prevent my escape, that they were conscious that the gaol was weak in some point or other. In this pleasant delusion I waited with anxiety till daylight, that I might make all the observations in my power, and I felt determined to be off on the following night, even if I should be stark naked afterwards.

Except when these hopes and frail calculations passed my mind, I was a prey to the most cruel torments. I never slept—I merely slumbered; and in those brief slumbers I was dreadfully agitated. At one time I was seized with the idea that all my late companions were safe, and that I was the only unfortunate wretch of the party that was doomed to suffer. In another paroxysm I was tormented with the thoughts of the ease with which I could have avoided the fatal gateway, had I been aware that I was on the road that passed it. With what bitterness did I reproach myself for want of circumspection: in short, I found myself in a state of distraction. I endeavoured to tranquillise my mind with the hope of being able to get out of my present prison, or, at all events, of escaping from my guards on our march back into France; I had already got away from the most strict guards in the universe, the French gendarmerie. These ideas proved to be a kind of salutary balsam to my tortured bosom. But I found myself excessively cold during the night. A severe frost and snow had set in; and at this season of the year I could not expect it to be otherwise.

In the morning, at an early hour, an old lady (the gaoler’s wife) presented me with a cup of coffee, which I eagerly swallowed. The poor woman felt very much for my distressed situation, and actually shed tears. I begged she would provide me with materials for writing a letter to the commandant; her husband brought me them, and I remonstrated with the Cerberus on his cruelty in having me stripped of my clothes in a gaol (which, to my grief, I now discovered to be too secure), when he could have no idea of my being able to get away from it. I begged, at least, to have a neck-handkerchief and cap returned to me, and desired he would order the money I had been deprived of to be laid out in purchasing a coarse shirt and pair of stockings, which I very much wanted. I also requested I might be allowed one of the military surgeons to dress my feet, that were still in a very bad state. All these demands he had the kindness to grant. The secretary came and informed me that I should be detained until they received orders from the Government at Ulm,[20] which would be in about twelve days. He expressed great sorrow for my misfortunes, and retired. Great consolation was this to a poor devil without clothes!

At length the surgeon came, and humanely dressed my sores; and he expressed his astonishment at how I could have travelled with my feet in so sad a condition. When I looked at their lacerated state my astonishment was not less than his; nor was that astonishment lessened by the extreme pain that they now gave me. I was amazed at how I could have walked such an immense distance with feet so swollen and so cut to pieces.

After the surgeon had quitted me, I went to bed, and I felt a little more calm in spirit; but vain were all my efforts to close my eyes. Pain would keep me awake, and busy thought, cheerless of the past, and hopeless of the future, would crowd into my restless mind.

In this state I lay till noon, when the old lady, the gaoler’s wife, brought me my dinner. It was a tolerably good meal, considering the quarters I was in. She informed me that I was allowed nothing but water to drink. This I considered very inhuman, as my miserable state required something more stimulating.

In this melancholy condition I received an unexpected consolation. A Swiss gentleman was confined in an adjacent cell, and he kindly sent me a few books, amongst which was a Life of Frederick the Great, which interested me very much. I naturally expressed a wish to see my benefactor, but the old lady told me that there were strict orders to prevent all intercourse between prisoners. On this point she was inexorable. I was now supplied with a shirt and a pair of stockings; but the latter, though large, were totally useless to me, my feet being so sore, and swollen to such an extraordinary degree.

At seven my kind old hostess brought me supper, made my bed, and took her leave, exhorting me to patience.

Eleven days passed in the same manner, except that latterly I prevailed upon my gaoler to deprive me of my breakfast, and to give me in lieu of it a half-pint of small wine at dinner and at supper, and to allow me a candle in the evening.

The Swiss gentleman at last managed to see me. He spoke a little English, and informed me that he had been in the Austrian service, and had had the honour of serving under His Royal Highness the Duke of York at Valenciennes, Dunkirk, and other places. He was confined for debt, had been in gaol eighteen months, and did not expect to be liberated for six months longer. He appeared to be very much surprised at the Bavarians using a British officer so cruelly; and after condoling with me a little, returned to his cell.

On the thirteenth morning, at daybreak, the gaoler appeared with breakfast and my clothes; and informed me that I was instantly to prepare for my journey back into France—that my escort would be at the door in a few minutes. He begged I would keep up my spirits. I assured him I was well pleased at the information and in being removed from so solitary a habitation. I certainly cherished the hope of escaping on the road back, not imagining that I should be treated as a criminal going to be executed. I had scarcely swallowed my breakfast when two military men were shown into my apartment; the foremost holding in his hands an immense iron chain with shackles or fetters, and a large padlock. The sight of this apparatus destroyed every hope that had before presented itself with respect to my getting off; however, I pretended to take no notice of them. This man spoke a little French, saluted me civilly, and asked, “If I were prepared?” “Yes,” said I, “perfectly so.” “I am sorry,” resumed he, “to be under the necessity of using these machines. It is the commandant’s orders; and, as you are an officer yourself, I need not observe how necessary it is to obey the orders of a superior. We are members of the volunteer corps of this town, our name is Schlatter, and we are brothers of the commandant’s secretary, chosen on purpose to reconduct you into France, lest you might be ill-treated by soldiers of the line.” I told him they were excessively kind, and desired them to proceed and do their duty; and added that what I suffered was no dishonour to me, for the efforts I had made had been for the sake of serving my country, and I gloried in them. The commandant’s secretary now joined the party, and expressed his satisfaction at his brothers being appointed to escort me. I pointed out to him the cruelty of putting so enormous a chain upon any human creature. He replied, “You have so often escaped, sir, even from the gendarmerie of France, and these are volunteers only, that the commandant thinks chaining you very necessary, and we have no small chains. There is a carriage ordered for your conveyance, and consequently the inconvenience will not be so very great.”

A little more palaver followed. I talked of the dishonour and indignities inflicted upon an officer, and poured forth all the torrents of eloquence I could call to my aid; but everything was in vain, the phlegmatic German stuck to his text of the chains; and accordingly my right arm and left leg were chained together, and the ends were securely fastened by a huge and clumsy padlock proportioned to the links of the chain, and both seemed proportioned to the limbs of a Goliath or Hercules. I was now carried to the gaol door, and putting my head outside to take a gasp of fresh air, to which I had been so long a stranger, I beheld an immense concourse of people assembled, to catch a sight of the unfortunate prisoner whom the commandant had thought proper thus twice or triply to secure. The wondering crowd came to view what they thought a monster; for such reports had been spread of my miraculous escapes, and such exaggerated and fabulous accounts had been given of what I had achieved, that the ignorant populace believed that I was some demon, or at least a magician in disguise.

At last the hour of my departure arrived. I took my adieu of my gaoler, who had not exceeded his office; and then I took a most affectionate leave of the old woman, who was crying the whole time, and parted from me as if I had been her son whom she was never to see again. I frankly own that I was deeply affected at the poor simple old creature’s kindness. There are cases in which neither old age nor the gaol can harden the heart.

My guards lifted me into the carriage, and one of them sat on each side, for they seemed to think that I might yet try to escape—as if the ponderous chains and huge padlock had been silken bands fastened by some true-lover’s knot. “God bless you!” cried the gaoler’s kind old wife, bathed in tears. “God bless you, kind old mother!” I replied. “Drive on!” roared the guard to the postilion. Whack went the heavy whip over the shoulders of both horses, and away went our carriage, rattling over the stones. In every street through which we passed, the windows were crowded with spectators, all wishing my guards a safe return, as if they either thought that they were bound to the most remote corner of the globe, or that they were in the company of some wizard that might play them an awkward trick on the road. The guards themselves seemed little at their ease; for although I was so heavily secured, they loaded their rifles, primed them, and looked significantly at me—a hint of what I might expect if I became restive.

Although, as I have already observed, one of my guards spoke French, such was the depressed state of my spirits that I entered into little or no conversation with him. Sometimes, indeed, I asked him a question respecting his country, but it was only for the sake of dry information that I might hereafter turn to advantage. Each question was drily put and as drily answered, and thus did my journey proceed.

At midnight we halted in a walled town, the name of which my guards concealed from me,[21] and I was so well watched that I could not ask the question, immaterial as it was, of anybody else. I, however, was civilly informed that I might go to bed here for two hours, and I as civilly or satirically replied, “That a bed was no comfort to a man encumbered with heavy chains and a ponderous padlock.” If I were rational in nothing else, I was deemed rational in this; and accordingly I was unpadlocked, unchained, and unmanacled, and allowed to go to bed; but so dangerous a character was I thought, that two police officers, in addition to my two guards, were stationed in my chamber to keep watch over me whilst I slumbered or lay in bed, seating themselves one on each side of it. I need scarcely observe that I could not sleep. If an eye were closed that night, it must have been in the head of one of my guards or in that of one of their assistants.

The time elapsed, and glad was I at the coming of the cold, damp dawn. I was again chained, and we were placed in another vehicle, and I discovered they were taking a more northerly direction towards Strasbourg. We had three relays before four in the afternoon, when we arrived at TÜtlingen, a small open town in WÜrtemberg,[22] and stopped, as usual, at the post-house, which was also a tavern. We found a number of very genteel people there. I attracted, of course, the notice of everybody; they appeared desirous and anxious to serve me, and reprobated very much the conduct of the Bavarians for using a British officer with such cruelty. I was in great hopes of staying here all night, as there was at first a difficulty in procuring a carriage. However, the Bavarians did not deem this prudent, and they got a common waggon, which was filled with straw, and placed me in the centre between them. They were not wrong in doing so, for had I remained there that night I certainly should have been rescued.

At midnight we changed our waggon at Rothweil. At dawn we again changed; and at four in the afternoon we passed through Gegenbach; and about midnight arrived at Offenburg, a fortified town in Baden, and only five or six leagues from Strasbourg. Here we went to bed, my guards having first placed their bedsteads on each side of mine.

My mind was too much occupied with the misery that awaited me to admit of sleep. The dungeons, in which I was perhaps inevitably doomed to drag out a miserable existence, appeared to my imagination with all their horrors. Bitche was the place that had been originally allotted for me, and I was of opinion, from the different accounts that I had received of this wretched place, that a prisoner’s life was prolonged, only to make his punishment the greater. My depression of spirits became extreme; and even my guards greatly commiserated my distress, and frequently expressed their regret at its being their lot to deliver me again into the hands of my enemies.

In justice to these, my conductors, I must say that they used their authority with as much mercy as possible. They anticipated as well as they could all my wants; and, in fact, in every respect they made me as comfortable as possible under our relative circumstances and positions. When I reflect on these and many similar facts, and, above all, when I reflect on the kind old wife of the gaoler of Lindau, I am bound to say that I found the Germans generally honest and kind-hearted, and the females of that country particularly so.

At eight the next morning we quitted Offenburg for Strasbourg, and at eleven we breakfasted at Kehl. This was our last stage, and here we procured our last change of horses. We crossed the bridge at one, and were most strictly searched by custom-house officers. All they found upon me was the heavy chains and the as heavy padlock. Would to heavens they had deemed those contraband goods, and had deprived me of them! These fellows, as well as the sentries, were enraged when I told them that they had not been so very particular a few mornings before, when I had passed the bridge without their deigning to speak to me. I put the latter into a most furious passion when I quizzed them upon their muffling themselves up in their warm cloaks, and keeping themselves in their sentry-boxes, whilst I was slipping by them amidst the cattle. How mad they were!—but the joke now was all against myself, for in half-an-hour I found myself securely lodged in the military gaol of Strasbourg. Thus ended all my hopes.

The keeper of this prison was, thank God, excessively civil and kind; and civility and kindness are by no means common qualities amongst the gaolers of this most civilised and polite nation. He showed me into an apartment where there was a tolerably good bed, and even asked me if I wished to have a fire. A good fire in a damp room of a gaol, on a bitterly frosty day of December, was certainly a great addition to a poor prisoner’s comforts, and I frankly replied that there was nothing, under his roof at least, that I should like so much to see as a blazing hearth; but I as honestly added that I had not one farthing to pay for it. The little money that I had possessed had been almost all spent by the Bavarians in getting me a shirt and a pair of stockings, and I saw them give the remainder, which was a mere trifle, to the French gendarmes when they handed me over to their custody. “In that case,” replied the feeling gaoler, “you shall go to my apartment and warm yourself, and you shall want for nothing that I can help you to.” This was a very different reception from what I had anticipated. It is astonishing what an effect kindness has upon the heart, and especially upon the heart of the afflicted and miserable. This man’s charity quite disarmed me from any thoughts of escape. Nothing could have induced me, by any misconduct, to have brought so good a man under rebuke or punishment from the authorities above him.

Shivering with cold, I left my dark, damp room, and soon found myself in a very comfortable apartment, and my eyes were greeted with the sight of a blazing fire, whilst the crackling of the burning logs “discoursed sweet music to my ears.”

My frank and charitable Samaritan soon gave me a reason why the benevolence of his nature was now poured forth so cordially towards me. He was an old soldier, and had twice been made a prisoner by the English during the last war. He had been captured up the Mediterranean, and on both occasions the English, he said, had treated him kindly; and he conceived that he was only paying off a debt of gratitude in availing himself of an opportunity to be kind to an English officer in distress. Never was logic more conclusive to my mind, or never did a debtor and creditor account of favours received and returned sound more delightfully to my ears.

He introduced me to his wife, a German woman, who insisted on my taking a seat near the fire; and the frank, hospitable creature seemed to vie with her husband in mitigating my sufferings. After the very many hours I had been almost perishing with the cold, and cramped and numbed with my chains, I need not say how comfortable I found myself. I supped with my worthy host and hostess, and next day I breakfasted and dined at their table.

This day the lieutenant of the gendarmerie of the Strasbourg district, with another officer, came to interrogate me with respect to my escape, the direction I had taken, and all the other circumstances of my flight. I was frank and communicative, and they both were very much astonished at the sufferings I had endured, and expressed their wonder at my having been able to cross the bridge of Kehl without detection. They informed me, to my grief, that Bitche was the place of my destination; and that at daylight the next morning I should be escorted to that fortress, in company with eleven Corsican soldiers who had lately deserted from their regiment at Deuxponts, carrying with them their arms, accoutrements, and knapsacks. These unfortunate fellows, they added, were all to be shot. I must confess that I by no means liked to travel in such company; but my informants assured me, that although they were sensible of the indignity, and sorry for it, it was out of their power to prevent it, and that I must submit with patience to my fate. I had only to express my resignation with the best grace I could assume.

The gaoler, being well aware of what sort of dungeons I should be placed in during my journey to Bitche, told me he had received only nine livres—about seven shillings and sixpence sterling,—which was all that had been handed over to the gendarmes as my property by the Bavarians; and as my funds were so very low he would demand only two shillings and sixpence for everything I had received at his table; and he gave the remainder of my money to my guard, to advance as I might have occasion for it. I felt grateful for this man’s generosity and disinterestedness. His was, indeed, the most reasonable bill I ever had paid in France, and I requested he would take more, as I was certain it must be in consequence of my reduced finances that his demands were so moderate; however, he resolutely refused, so I took my leave of him and his wife,[23] and got into my place, which was by the eleventh Corsican’s side, to whom I was chained and handcuffed, whilst another chain was also passed through the whole of the party, which completely linked us all together. About noon our guards were changed. The brigade that now escorted us consisted of the most cruel scoundrels I ever beheld. They placed the chain round my neck, under my handkerchief; and on my observing to them that it must certainly be their design to strangle me by putting the chain on so tight, they took in another link, d——d me for a rascally Englishman, and clapped on an immense padlock, which was dangling as an ornament under my chin the whole way; they afterwards screwed on my handcuffs until the skin was literally twisted off the wrists. They knew my name perfectly, and that I had lately escaped from my guards.

At night we arrived at Hagenau gaol, and the next morning at daylight went on our way. We were placed in the same order, with this exception—the chain was passed over the shoulder and under the arm, like a soldier’s belt, instead of round the neck. At about five in the afternoon we arrived at an open town, Niederbronn. The cold was very intense—snowing hard all day. For our comfort, we were put into one of the most filthy dungeons that ever mortal beheld, with scarcely room to turn round, and only a small hole in the door to admit air. The Corsicans appeared to feel a great deal for my situation; and observed, “that they ought not to complain, when a British officer was used in so horrid a manner.” They were permitted to go out of the dungeon to get some refreshments, which the charitable inhabitants sent them; but the sacrÉ Anglais was not suffered to move; and I had great difficulty to procure a morsel of food, which was handed me through the air-hole, and for which they charged double price. This air-hole was so small, and there was such an abominable smell, that I never expected to survive it. Two of these unfortunate wretches were seized with an illness, a sort of cholera, which continued the whole night, and added greatly to the mauvaise odeur we already had. I never passed a more dreadful night. At last the cheering moment arrived, which was announced by the usual sounds—rattling of keys, creaking of doors, bolts, etc. A gendarme presented himself, and, with a gruff, overbearing voice, desired us to prepare for our march. He had very little difficulty in getting this summons obeyed; but he told us we must first of all clean out our cell! “Where is the Englishman?” roared the brute; “let him do that part by himself!” I was full of disgust and indignation; and advancing boldly towards him, I resolutely told him that I would not. The fellow was getting into a furious rage, and I doubted not but that the consequences would have been serious to me, when, fortunately, the soldiers interfered, and said that as they had caused the evil, it was but just that they should clear out the cell. This done, we proceeded on our journey, in the manner of the preceding day.

The two sick soldiers, though the poor wretches looked extremely ill, were not exempted from their chains and fetters, although the weather was excessively inclement, and the heavy snow was drifted in our faces by a fierce and hard wind. They were evidently in a high state of fever, and wherever they saw a frozen rivulet they entreated that they might be allowed to halt, to procure either ice or water; but the flinty-hearted brutes were deaf to all supplication, and the wretched sufferers were obliged to eat handfuls of snow in order to allay their raging thirst. The cruel, savage behaviour of these guards exceeded everything I had witnessed; and yet I had seen and experienced enough to make nature shudder. They also accused the poor wretches of being traitors to their countryman, Napoleon.

At about noon, on the 21st of December 1807, the high turrets and massive towers of the gloomy fortress in which I was going to be incarcerated presented themselves to my sight. Their very appearance was sufficient to strike the mind with horror; and I cannot but believe that the engineer had this object in view when he gave such outward forms to his structure. The prospect of being shut up in that detestable fortress, perhaps for the remainder of my days, could only be relieved by the probability that my length of life would be shortened by the nature of my imprisonment. Death itself was preferable to protracted persecution, and I sometimes devoutly wished to be at rest. In this train of thought and feeling I proceeded; and so absorbed was I by my affliction, that I was almost unconscious of any objects or circumstances around me, until I was roughly awakened from my stupor and found myself in the centre of the fortress of Bitche.