SEIZURE OF MY GRANDFATHER

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According to his daughters, it was my grandfather's firm belief that he had been pointed out to the French Government as a man whose capture would repay them, by a lady with whom he was on very intimate terms, and who was remarkable for her beauty as well as for the romantic circumstances attending her birth and after life. That this person was accessory to the seizure of the British representative seems partly confirmed by the fact that she was closely connected with the Irish refugees then residing at Hamburg, on whom it was part of my grandfather's duty to keep a strict watch. His removal, in fact, was a matter of importance to these fugitives from British rule. Sir George was released, at the end of three days, after having undergone a searching interrogatory by Fouché, the Minister of Police, which, together with an examination of the correspondence seized with him, no doubt convinced the French authorities that they wrongly believed him to have been implicated in any way in the Cadoudal conspiracy so sternly suppressed six months before. He principally owed his release, however, to a peremptory summons from the King of Prussia, who, as Director of the Circle of Lower Saxony in the German Empire, was bound to take cognizance of the outrage committed, and threatened war if his demand was not complied with. Before being released and sent under a strong guard down to Cherbourg, Sir George was made to sign a socalled déclaration d'honneur, by which he engaged

not to reside at any place situated "within fifty p leagues of the present station of the French arm during the war." This he did on the distinct und standing that his papers would be returned to hi At the last moment, however, the French poli broke faith with him on this important point, t consequence being that, on his reporting himself at t Foreign Office in England, he was severely censu for having accepted his liberty under such conditio

The unfortunate man volunteered "to return France under a flag of truce, and to reclaim déclaration d'honneur so strongly objected t by "returning to his confinement in the Temple This proposal was, however, rejected, and as had bound himself by the terms of the docum not to serve again at Hamburg, at the very ga of which lay the French forces which occup Hanover, he lost his appointment and remai unemployed. From England he soon went abr again, and took up his abode at Berlin, whit he had at first gone to thank the king for intervention in his favour. The Prussian Co received him very kindly, and, like all those v had the privilege of approaching her, he beca a devoted admirer of the lovely and unfortur Queen Louise. Jena and the disastrous eve that ensued still found him at Berlin; and, v two or three other English familiars of the Co he followed the royal family in their retreat, 1 Quoted from his letter to Lord Hawkesbury.

w

MY GRANDFATHER'S PAPERS

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to Königsberg and finally to Memel. At the latter place he died, very unexpectedly, in December 1807, of a fever, during which he was assiduously nursed by Prince Augustus of Prussia.

Some seventy years after his death I endeavoured to trace his papers in the State Archives at Paris. I had considerable difficulty at first in obtaining leave to search for them, they being classed among the documents belonging to the secret police, but, thanks to Lord Lyons, then Ambassador at Paris, at last attained my object. The papers I was allowed to see and take copies of were of no real importance, although of some family interest to me. They were in an extraordinary state of confusion-washing bills, accounts, lists of books for the use of my father, then a lad at school, being jumbled up with drafts of despatches and secret reports from agents told off to watch the Irish refugees at Hamburg. All the papers, in short, remained apparently as they were when Sir George had been dragged out of bed in the dead of night, his drawers ransacked, and their contents tied up in sheets and hustled, together with him, into the post-chaise waiting at the door with its escort of French Dragoons. Judging by those I looked through, I feel morally certain that most of the papers were withheld from me, and will never see the light again.

1 The late Emperor William told me many years afterwards that he remembered, as a child, often seeing my grandfather.

One more curious circumstance in connection with this affair perhaps deserves mention. On a journey home from Sweden a few years ago I happened to pass through Hamburg. Not being familiar with this somewhat complicated route to England, I had arranged by telegraph to meet at Copenhagen a Stockholm friend who had often made the journey. We travelled together as far as the old Hanseatic city, reaching it early in the morning, and, having a couple of hours to spare, went to breakfast at that well-known tavern Wilken's Keller. All at once, in the midst of our sociable meal, it crossed my mind that this was the first time I found myself at Hamburg, and that my companion-a most agreeable one-was no other than the grandson of the man who had been mainly instrumental in causing my grandfather to be kidnapped in this very place.

CHAPTER II

HOLIDAYS IN FRANCE-SOCIETY UNDER

LOUIS PHILIPPE

ALTHOUGH Our excellent relations seem themselves to have had no liking for country life, and were content to remain on in Paris all the year round, we small boys were generally sent out of town with our tutor during the great heat of July and August. Lodgings were taken for us one year at St. Germain, and the next at Versailles, and a third year we went down to a village called Breval, on the borders of Normandy, between Mantes and Bonnières. Joyous days were those we spent wandering in the leafy depths of the noble forest of St. Germain, feasting on gingerbread at that curious local fair the Fête des Loges, or watching from the terrace the winding river and the great city glittering on the horizon in the rays of an August sunset. As delightful, and far more crowded, are my recollections of Versailles. The stately, almost empty avenues, and vast untenanted buildings, the gilded railings of the immense cour d'honneur, the terraced gardens with their dazzling wealth of marble fountains and statues, I can see them now in all their deserted splendour.

We had a private key of the reserved bosquets, as they are called, of the Royal Park, as well as

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