Page:Englishmen in the French Revolution.djvu/134

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114
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

entrusted to him by aristocratic ladies, and that he had earned 300 or 400 louis by journeys to and from émigrés (Blackwood, however, insisted that most of the money was the result of a bet with a fellow-Englishman, that he would get from Brussels to Angoulême in forty-four hours.) They held that he had dealings with the enemies of the Revolution, but "to set Europe an example of the virtue of hospitality," they recommended the Convention to release him, which was accordingly done. Though authorised to remain and travel in France, we may be sure the young midshipman lost no time in returning home.

He was more fortunate than Eraser Frisell, who, taught at Glasgow University to admire the ancient republics, went over to France at sixteen, in 1792, to live under a modern one. He spent fifteen months in prison at Dijon, and there formed some lifelong friendships. He became, indeed, so attached to France, that save a short visit to Scotland in 1802, he spent the rest of his life there. At the rupture of the peace of Amiens he was again arrested, but in consideration of his literary pursuits and his previous imprisonment, was released, with permission to remain in Paris or to travel about France, for travelling, coupled with shooting and Greek, was his passion. Chateaubriand styled him the "Greco-Anglais," and while in prison in 1832 for supposed complicity with the Duchesse de Berri,