XIII.
NAPOLEON'S CAPTIVES.
Elgin—Yarmouth—Liberations—Refugees—Escapes—Life at
Verdun—Release.
The detentions of 1803 were so much a second edition of those of 1793, that this alone would justify me in regarding the Revolution as lasting till the fall of Napoleon. The sufferers, moreover, were more numerous, though they did not exceed a thousand. The French Government pretended, indeed, that there were eight or ten times as many, but this was to conceal its disappointment at the smallness of the haul. Charles Sturt, ex-M.P. for Bridport, and brother-in-law to Lord Shaftesbury, who was probably well-informed, assures us that the detention of British visitors had been contemplated by Napoleon for six weeks, and that he had ordered returns of their numbers, which were estimated at 7000. Sturt adds that only 700 were entrapped, and that 400 of these were small tradesmen, with a sprinkling of Irish and English refugees. The embargo placed on French shipping in British ports a day prior to the declaration of war
