Page:Englishmen in the French Revolution.djvu/293

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NAPOLEON'S CAPTIVES.
273

present Duke of Northumberland—the father of fourteen children, one of whom became Bishop of Carlisle—was to be exchanged for a French general, privy councillors and peers' sons for colonels or navy-captains, baronets and knights for military or naval officers of lower rank, untitled gentlemen for captains of the line or navy lieutenants, tradesmen for subalterns, and servants or artisans for soldiers or sailors. It is easy to say that the concession made in 1810 might have been made seven years earlier, but in 1803 there were no French prisoners to be given up in exchange, and the length of the war could not be foreseen. The negotiations of 1810, however, broke down on the question of Hanoverians and Spaniards, and in November Mackenzie returned to England.

This must have been a cruel disappointment. All hope of release before the end of the war was at an end, and on both sides the temptation to breach of parole became very strong. In the autumn of 1812 the Transport Office issued a list of 590 attempted and 270 successful escapes by French officers. The Moniteur retaliated by a catalogue of 355 English escapes, which number, it argued, was proportionately much larger. First on the list stood Sir James Craufurd, consul at Rotterdam in 1788, and Secretary of Legation at Copenhagen in 1796. He might have left Calais in 1803, but chose to wait, and lost the chance. "The arrival of a lady