We presented
the cuirassiers with four dollars each, for their civility, and were
then hurried away to our place of captivity. I observed to O'Brien, that
I was afraid that we must now bid farewell to anything like pleasure.
"You're right there, Peter," replied he: "but there's a certain jewel
called Hope, that somebody found at the bottom of his chest, when it was
clean empty, and so we must not lose sight of it, but try and escape as
soon as we can; but the less we talk about it the better." In a few
minutes we arrived at our destination: the door was opened, ourselves
and our bundles (for we had only selected a few things for our march,
the colonel promising to forward the remainder as soon as we wrote to
inform him to which depot we were consigned), were rudely shoved in; and
as the doors again closed, and the heavy bolts were shot, I felt a
creeping, chilly sensation pass through my whole body.
As soon as we could see--for although the prison was not very dark, yet
so suddenly thrown in, after the glare of a bright sunshiny day, at
first we could distinguish nothing--we found ourselves in company with
about thirty English sailors. Most of them were sitting down on the
pavement, or on boxes, or bundles containing their clothes that they had
secured, conversing with each other, or playing at cards or draughts.
Our entrance appeared to excite little attention; after having raised
their eyes to indulge their curiosity, they continued their pursuits. I
have often thought what a feeling of selfishness appeared to pervade the
whole of them.
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