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MY ADVENTURES DURING THE LATE WAR
MY ADVENTURES DURING THE LATE WAR
A NARRATIVE OF SHIPWRECK, CAPTIVITY ESCAPES FROM FRENCH PRISONS, AND SEA SERVICE IN 1804-14 BY DONAT HENCHY O’BRIEN CAPT. R.N. Edited by CHARLES OMAN FELLOW OF ALL SOULS COLLEGE AND DEPUTY PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD NEW EDITION, ILLUSTRATED WITH A PREFACE, NOTES, AND BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR LONDON EDWARD ARNOLD 1902 All rights reserved....
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PREFACE
PREFACE
While engaged during the last ten years in the task of mastering the original authorities for the history of the Napoleonic wars, I have had to peruse many scores of diaries, autobiographies, and journals of the British military and naval officers who were engaged in the great struggle. They vary, of course, in interest and importance, in literary value, and in the power of vivid presentation of events. But they have this in common, that they are almost all very difficult to procure. Very few ha
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BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Donat Henchy O’Brien was born in County Clare during the month of March 1785. Of his odd combination of names, the first was one common in the sept of the O’Briens since the earliest ages: it has nothing to do with St. Donatus, as the casual reader might suppose, but represents the old Erse Donough or Donoght. [1] His second name came from his mother, a Miss Henchy, sister of Counsellor Fitz-Gibbon Henchy, a Dublin lawyer of some repute in his day. Of Donat’s father we find nothing more in O’Byr
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CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
The Hussar Frigate is sent home with despatches, and wrecked on the Saintes —Efforts to save the ship—Attempt to escape in the boats foiled by bad weather—A surrender to the enemy. It was on Monday, the 6th February 1804, that the Hussar made sail from Ares Bay in Spain, being bound for England with despatches, from our commodore Sir Edward Pellew, and with orders first to communicate with our Channel Fleet off Brest. We had a fresh breeze from the S.W.; and on the succeeding day (Tuesday, 7th)
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CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
A kind reception by the enemy—Our shipmates all prisoners—Consolations under misfortunes—Prisoners sent to the hospital at Brest—Robbery by a French seaman—Running the gauntlet—Dilemma of wearing or giving up a sword—Kindness of the French nuns—Orders to march into the Interior—Wounded pride and hard fare—Bad faith of the Minister of Marine—The march begins for Verdun—Arrival at Landernau—Aristocratic differences in rates of pay or allowances amongst republicans—Landiviziau—An illustration of eq
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CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
Departure from Amiens—Arrival at Albert—Our French officers delicacy and liberality—A civic feast at Bapaume—Effects of champagne on French aldermen—A separation from our kind conductor—A new escort—A forced march to Cambray—Pitiable state and severe sufferings of the seamen—Entrance into Cambray—Imprisonment—Landrecies, Avesnes, Hirson—A billet upon the inhabitants—Rocroy—A brutal landlord—The robbery and abuse of prisoners—Givet—Charlemont—A description of the fortifications—An escape of priso
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CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
Our arrival at Verdun—A joyful reception—General Wirion—His indulgence towards the prisoners—The meetings of old shipmates and friends—Mental employment the best antidote against ennui and dissipation—Restiveness at confinement—Anxiety to be again in the active service of Old England—Meditations upon an escape—Contrivances to avoid a breach of parole or any breach of honour—Three comrades, or compagnons de voyage —Scaling ramparts—A descent of seventy-two feet—The open country—The march commence
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CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
The journey pursued—A bivouac in a wood—Dangers of being shot—Making free with an orchard—Crossing the Oise—A mode of obtaining provisions—A cabaret and a village fête —Kindness of the peasantry—Petit Essigny—Wringing drenched garments, and drying them over fading embers—A miserable landlord—A change of quarters—Luxuries of a hay-loft—A Samaritan of a hostess—Wretched sufferings of Mr. Essel—Resort to another village—A kind landlord—Sympathies for deserters—“A fellow-feeling makes men wondrous k
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CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
A false direction and an appalling repulse—A bribe refused—A deluge, and shelter in a barn—A fatal resolution—Dangers of fugitives journeying by daylight—A market-day at Étaples—Passing through crowds not very convenient for runaway prisoners of war—An attempt to reach the sand-hills on the coast—A bold progress through a despicable village—The last house—Parching thirst, and begging for a draught of water—An acquiescence, or reply, in the shape of two custom-house officers—Our capture—A clever
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CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VII
Our entrance into the gaol of Boulogne—Tantalising sight of Old England’s flag and white cliffs—A gaoler’s supper and a conscientious bill—Another examination—The route to Verdun—Arras—The gaoler kind, and the commandant full of indulgence—Bapaume—The baker, and inquiries for our lost money—Cambray—Cateau-Cambresis and its horrible dungeon—Landrecies—Our awkwardness in chains, handcuffs, and fetters—My dislike to them—Avesnes—Information that we were to be shot—The dungeon of Avesnes—A dungeon c
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CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER VIII
Our departure from Verdun for Bitche—Mars-la-Tour, Metz, and Sarrelouis—I receive a very useful present from Mr. Brown—Sarreguemines—A last chance—A mounted guard—Thoughts of an escape—Calculations upon a chase in a wood between horse-soldiers and prisoners on foot—Attempt resolved upon—Signal given—Flight from the prison caravan to the wood—French pursuit—A prisoner recaptured—My escape from the wood into another—My companions, I fear, less fortunate—My concealment—A swampy bed, and a stormy sk
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CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER IX
An inclement season—A retreat in a cavern—Somnambulism—The discovery of a shepherd’s hut—A traveller put out of a wrong road—Swimming in a winter’s night—Passing through a mill—A suspicious traveller may be an honest man—A Lorraine cottage seen through a fog—Dangers from over-kind people—Repugnance to be introduced to a mayor or any other good society—Concealment in a hollow willow—An honest fellow-traveller of fugitive reminiscences—An ingenious fiction—A perspective of Strasbourg. The inauspic
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CHAPTER X
CHAPTER X
The banks of the Rhine—Contemplations of crossing the river irregularly—Difficulties of finding a legal passage—Mistaking two armed officers for two harmless fishermen—An appeal to feelings, and a national assurance of patriotism—Cattle crossing the bridge of Kehl—An intermixture with the cattle, and a passage over the Rhine—Joy of being out of France—A progress towards Friburg—Contrast between a warm feather bed and bivouacing in the mud—An innocent landlord clever at a guess—An escape round Fr
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CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XI
A fresh incarceration—Stripping a prisoner naked a more effectual detainer than chains and padlocks—Hopes of escape prove delusive—Gaol surgery and gaol diet—A timely loan of books—A short visit from a Swiss captive—Orders to prepare for a return to France—A heavy chain and huge padlock—The mob at Lindau—Leave-taking between a prisoner and the gaoler and gaoler’s wife—The road to France—Going to bed in chains—Strict watchings—Chances of a rescue—Anticipations of the horrors of Bitche—Commiserati
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CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XII
Conjectures of the prisoners as to my country and crimes—Inferences from my chains that I had committed murder—Mr. Ashworth and Mr. Tuthill, with Mr. Baker, rejoin me—Lieutenant Essel dashed to pieces in attempting to descend the ramparts of Bitche—My grief at his death—The immense height of the ramparts—My horrible dungeon—Its revolting state of filth—Interview with the commandant—An application to be allowed to take the air granted for two hours a day—Meditations upon an escape—Our efforts baf
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CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIII
A trial at Metz—English officers sentenced to the galleys—Forging and using false passports—The consequences—A new scheme of escape—A favourable night but unfavourable sentinels—A farewell dinner—Another attempt at escape—A descent of ramparts by a rope—Concealment in a ditch—Rolling down a glacis—An adieu to the Mansion of Tears—Making towards the Rhine—Concealment in a wood—Refuge in a vineyard—Shooting a fox—Disturbed in our lair—A flight and its dangers—The banks of the Rhine—Passing the riv
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CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XIV
Refreshments at a village inn—The town of Rastadt—A civil traveller—Good accommodation—Baden—Awkward rencontre with a royal party—An alarm about passports—A genteel inn dangerous to fugitive travellers—The advantages of a drunken landlord—The town of Hornberg—To Kriemhieldsach, after passing the Black Forest—Banditti—The murder of a French general—A German inn and a rustic dance—The town of Tütlingen—A concealment of eight days—Vain attempts to smuggle passports—Progress of our journey—Crossing
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CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XV
Leaving Kaufbeuern on the left hand—Crossing the Wardach and the Lech—A welcome ferry-boat—The town of Weilheim—A long and exhausting march—The soporific of fatigue—The ferry over the river Inn—Frightened at a soldier—A false alarm—Crossing the river—The town of Reichenhall—Our approach to the Bavarian frontiers—The increase of dangers—Passing barriers with success—A supposition that we were in the Austrian dominions—A woeful miscalculation and a narrow escape from its fatal consequences—An unex
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CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVI
Our arrival at Salzburg—The Director of Police—Perseverance in our tale of being Americans—Suspected of being spies—Austrian feelings favourable towards England and Englishmen—Confession of the truth—Treated well as English officers—An excellent inn—A kind governor—Great civility—Despatches from Vienna—Passports ordered for us—A remittance of money from Vienna—Passports for Trieste—Our journey—German students and dog Latin—Clagenfurt—Laibach—Banditti—A mountain scene—An Irish watch-fire—Arrival
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CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVII
Receiving a lieutenancy—Lord Collingwood’s kindness—Joining the Warrior —An unexpected supply of dollars—An accident at sea—Capture of Ischia and Procida—Expedition against the Ionian Isles—Joining the Amphion —Captain Hoste’s activity in the Adriatic—Commodore Dubourdieu and his squadron at Ancona—Chasing the enemy—A wild-goose pursuit—Success at last—A glorious battle and a splendid victory—Details of the action of Lissa—My return to England—Interview with the First Lord of the Admiralty—A vis
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CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XVIII
Capture of General Bordé and his staff—A gallant boarding exploit—A horrible murder by Italian prisoners of war—Success of our navy—A balance of accounts—My promotion—Quitting the Bacchante —Pain of leaving old friends and brave shipmates—The plague at Malta—Captain Pell gives me a passage home—An ineffectual chase and a narrow escape—Stratagems of the enemy—Toulon—Gibraltar—The English Channel—Ingenious device of Captain Pell resulting in the curious capture of a French privateer—Arrival in Eng
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APPENDIX
APPENDIX
A Copy of Mr. Archibald Barklimore’s Letter to Capt. D. H. O’Brien , on his arriving in England . 14 Dean Street, Soho , My dear O’Brien —I hasten, knowing how anxious you will be to hear from your old fellow-traveller and fellow-prisoner, to inform you of my safe arrival in London, where I have been received and welcomed by numerous friends, as if I had actually been a resuscitated creature from the other world. When I now look around me and see the cheerful countenances of the people of Old En
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