Page:Englishmen in the French Revolution.djvu/287

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
NAPOLEON'S CAPTIVES.
267

allow them to be sent out of France. On the young man's death, however, in 1804 they were forwarded to his father. "Formerly a famous democrat," Greathead, according to Sir George Jackson, had been "cured by his French treatment." Possibly the effect was the same on Stuart Kydd, one of the English radicals prosecuted in 1794, but discharged without trial after three years' detention. Ferguson, a mineralogist and F.R.S., was released in 1804. Sir Elijah Impey, the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle, the Dowager Marchioness of Donegal, and Sir John Morshead, were also released. Mrs. Tuthill, a great beauty, managed to present a petition to Napoleon while out hunting, and gallantly obliged him to concede her husband's release. Sir James de Bathe is said to have secured the Pope's good offices by representing that his absence made his children in England in danger of becoming Protestants, and the papal mediation was effectual.

Others got back to England by less straightforward means. Some shammed illness, some broke their parole, the inevitable result being that the French authorities were obdurate towards persons really ill, and were more stringent towards those whose word was their bond. Astley, of circus fame, had leave to go to Piedmont to introduce equestrianism there, but he made his way to London, where his amphitheatre had been burnt down. He, like Pinkerton, was doomed to end