turb the usurpation of an upstart of the
House of Bonaparte. But, even during the last war, how many of our ships
of the line, frigates, and cutters, did you not take, which had landed
rebels in Ireland, emissaries in Scotland, and malefactors in Wales; and
yet your generosity prevented you from retaliating, even at the time when
your Sir Sidney Smith, and this same unfortunate Captain Wright, were
confined in our State prison of the Temple! It is with Governments as
with individuals, they ought to be just before they are generous. Had
you in 1797, or in 1798, not endured our outrages so patiently, you would
not now have to lament, nor we to blush for, the untimely end of Captain
Wright.

From the last time that this officer had appeared before the criminal
tribunal which condemned Georges and Moreau, his fate was determined on
by our Government. His firmness offended, and his patriotism displeased;
and as he seemed to possess the confidence of his own Government, it was
judged that he was in its secrets; it was, therefore, resolved that, if
he refused to become a traitor, he should perish a victim. Desmarets,
Fouche's private secretary, who is also the secretary of the secret and
haute police, therefore ordered him to another private interrogatory.
Here he was offered a considerable sum of money, and the rank of an
admiral in our service, if he would divulge what he knew of the plans of
his Government, of its connections with the discontented in this country,
and of its means of keeping up a correspondence with them. He replied,
as might have been expected, with indignation, to such offers and to such
proposals, but as they were frequently repeated with new allurements, he
concluded with remaining silent and giving no answers at all. He was
then told that the torture would soon restore him his voice, and some
select gendarmes seized him and laid him on the rack; there he uttered no
complaint, not even a sigh, though instruments the most diabolical were
employed, and pains the most acute must have been endured. When
threatened that he should expire in torments, he said:

"I do not fear to die, because my country will avenge my murder, while my
God receives my soul." During the two hours of the first day that he was
stretched on the rack, his left arm and right leg were broken, and his
nails torn from the toes of both feet; he then passed into the hands of a
surgeon, and was under his care for five weeks, but, before he