“Thursday, April 16th, sailed from England for Holland.“18th, arrived at Rotterdam after a passage of fifty-two hours.“20th, left Rotterdam, took a carriage from thence to Antwerp, crossed to Williamstadt, slept at Breda.“21st, arrived at Antwerp.“22nd, arrived at Brussels.“23rd, left Brussels for Namur.“24th, arrived at Namur.“25th, left Dinant, passed through Givet, and the forest of Ardennes, and arrived at Mezieres. Friday, April 26th, hired another carriage to take us to Sedan, or to Verdun, in case of not meeting my beloved Brenton; but heaven allowed me to enjoy that supreme happiness, and I thought no more of the fatigues of the journey. Grant, O most merciful God, that I may never cease to feel a proper sense of Thy goodness, however impossible it must be for me to express half the gratitude I feel for Thy continued proofs of mercy, and favour, to myself and all dear to me.“Saturday, the 27th, slept at Stenay, and arrived at Verdun on Sunday the 28th.”
“Thursday, April 16th, sailed from England for Holland.
“18th, arrived at Rotterdam after a passage of fifty-two hours.
“20th, left Rotterdam, took a carriage from thence to Antwerp, crossed to Williamstadt, slept at Breda.
“21st, arrived at Antwerp.
“22nd, arrived at Brussels.
“23rd, left Brussels for Namur.
“24th, arrived at Namur.
“25th, left Dinant, passed through Givet, and the forest of Ardennes, and arrived at Mezieres. Friday, April 26th, hired another carriage to take us to Sedan, or to Verdun, in case of not meeting my beloved Brenton; but heaven allowed me to enjoy that supreme happiness, and I thought no more of the fatigues of the journey. Grant, O most merciful God, that I may never cease to feel a proper sense of Thy goodness, however impossible it must be for me to express half the gratitude I feel for Thy continued proofs of mercy, and favour, to myself and all dear to me.
“Saturday, the 27th, slept at Stenay, and arrived at Verdun on Sunday the 28th.”
These memoranda may appear unimportant, and irrelevant to the subject of our present biography; but yet they seem to justify Captain Brenton in having planned a journey, which, by those less deeply interested, might have been condemned as being too full ofperil, and involving too much hardship to the object of his affection. His wife’s example may also serve to animate some drooping spirits placed under similar circumstances; and if it be true, as no member of the Church of England will deny, that matrimony was ordained for the mutual society, help, and comfort, that the one ought to have of the other, both in prosperity and adversity; we cannot but feel that the purposes of this merciful ordinance were singularly realised in the case before us. His own grateful reflections on the subject, are thus further expressed. “Our meeting was indeed one of pure, and unmixed felicity. My beloved wife forgot in a moment all her fatigue, and anxieties; and the recollection of captivity itself was instantly banished from my thoughts, or if I remembered it at all, it was as a blessing which brought me the happiness I enjoyed. I had been long impatiently expecting this joyful event, and the evening before had received a letter from my beloved wife, informing me of her arrival at Rotterdam. I was then living in the little village of Clermont, a few miles distant from Verdun. On this notice reaching me, I requested permission of the General to go as far as Sedan, to meet my family, which was kindly granted. On my road I was most anxiously examining every carriage as it approached. At sunset I had got within three miles of Sedan, and had begun to give up all hopes of seeing the object of my wishes; when I espied a travelling carriage, I felt a presentiment that it contained all I held most dear in the world, and was soon convinced of it.
“We only stopped one day at Verdun, and then removed to Clermont, where we passed some days in perfect happiness. The distance however from Clermont to Verdun was too great for convenience, as the village afforded but few requisites for a family, and I was also frequently called upon in behalf of the prisoners. I therefore procured a lodging at Charni, a little village on the Meuse, about two miles from Verdun, in a most commodious house, with a very respectable family.” Of the events of the following year, which was passed in captivity, we can only find any account by referring to the memoranda and notes, out of which the following extracts have been taken.
In reference to Charni, Captain Brenton says, “Our retreat here was a most delightful one, in a spacious mansion belonging to Monsieur de Beaumont, who was of an ancient and noble family. We had an excellent suite of apartments, and the use of an extensive garden. The season of the year was particularly delightful; and every thing for some time conspired to make us enjoy as much felicity as human nature is capable of doing. If I had not entirely forgotten that I was a prisoner, I ceased to feel the pressure of captivity, and was resigned to my lot. An anxious thought of being deprived of the active exercise of my profession would now and then intrude, but it was soon dispelled in the recollection of the happiness I enjoyed. This however received some interruption a short time afterwards, from my health being seriously attacked. I had caught a cold, which in the month of June brought on spitting of blood. I hope the precaution I took of concealingthis alarming symptom from my beloved companion, rendered her apprehensions less dreadful to her; but I allowed my own mind to be extremely depressed. I considered a rapid decline to be the inevitable consequence; and the thoughts of my dear and helpless family, left unprovided for, and unprotected, in a foreign land, and in an enemy’s country, preyed upon my spirits with a force that I cannot describe. It is unknown to all but myself, how many hours of dreadful anxiety I suffered on this account, and indeed on my own; for these very feelings prove that I was not prepared for death; that I was but a nominal christian. So blind, and worldly minded I was, that I derived no comfort from the assurances given in every part of scripture, of the mercy and goodness of God. I could not then comfort myself by resigning all I held dear into the hands of that Bountiful Creator, who gave them to me. I felt as though their happiness depended upon my sole exertions; and that without me they must be destitute. It is this way of thinking, this practical want of faith, disguise it as we may, which is the cause of all our anxiety, and even of all the misery we meet with. It could not exist, were we as sensible, as we persuade ourselves we are, of the Omnipotence, and the Omnipresence, and the merciful goodness of God. Often have I tried to reason myself into this firm trust and confidence in the Divine mercy, but the sick bed, the dear disconsolate widow, and the unprotected infant were objects, which with all my efforts, I could not look beyond; and yet, I should have thought the greatest injustice had been done me, if any one at thetime had called in question the sincerity of my religious profession. I felt as though I were living in a general, if not a constant practice of its duties. How little do we know ourselves, till the day of trial comes. I could read treatises upon patience and resignation with the most cordial concurrence in every argument; and even wonder that they were not universally efficacious; but when called upon to practice what they prescribed, I found I was indeed living without God in the world. I did not dare to impart these wretched feelings to my beloved and inestimable wife, in the apprehension of affecting her, and thus I lost the balm of her affectionate counsels.
“The attack which I experienced, would, I am now convinced, have been of little importance, but for the effect I allowed it to have upon my mind. This aggravated its force, and it soon assumed so serious an appearance as threatened to realize all my apprehensions. What a lesson is this for you, my dear children, to teach you the folly as well as the wickedness of worldly anxiety. How often do the evils we dread never reach us; whilst the blow which humbles us comes from a quarter where we least expected it. Even the events, which seem to menace us with some serious calamity, frequently become instruments of good to us. Nearly thirteen years have now elapsed since this period; and instead of the evil I foreboded, my health has probably been strengthened and preserved, by the care and precaution which that illness rendered necessary. It was the cause of my removing from Verdun to the interior of France, to the most delightful climate, where I soonnearly recovered. All my apprehensions were groundless. I was mercifully preserved to those so justly dear to me, and preserved by a gracious Providence to be the humble instrument of their future welfare.
“It was impossible to enjoy greater advantages than we possessed, in the retired village of Charni, during the summer months; and I avoided the bustle and constant interruption, which I met with at Verdun from various quarters. We had some excellent and valuable friends, in whose society we found much gratification; their habits were similar to our own; with them we lived on terms of the kindest intimacy, and avoided, by having this residence, the necessity of keeping up an intercourse with others who found enjoyment only in society of a very different description. As the autumn however approached, we thought it necessary to remove into Verdun, as Charni was too low for a winter residence. We continued to live in retirement, as my health was too weak to admit of my entering into evening parties, and it was with great difficulty that I could prevail upon my beloved and excellent companion to leave me only for a few hours. Even the change from Charni to Verdun was beneficial to me. The progress I made towards recovery was very apparent, and my mind being consequently relieved, I was in a great measure restored to happiness. The mercy and goodness of God has visited me through life, in a very remarkable manner; and this ought to excite the warmest gratitude, and the most entire resignation to all He should in future require of me.
“One other circumstance at this period occurred mostprovidentially, which relieved me from much anxiety. My pecuniary circumstances had always been far from affluent. The loss of my ship just fitted out; the necessity of keeping two houses; and the other unavoidable expences of my situation, had exhausted the little which I had made in the late war. At this time I received two sums most opportunely, namely £468, prize money from Genoa, of which I had given up all hopes; and nearly £400 as a remuneration from the Admiralty for the charge I had taken of the prisoners. This materially increased our comforts; but the circumstance derived its chief value in the estimation of my angelic wife, from the effect it produced in tranquillizing my mind. To please and obey her God; to share in, or contribute to the happiness of those dear to her, was the great and invariable object of her life. She thus gave additional charms to prosperity itself, by the delight she took in the joy of all around her: but how often have I felt her sweet influence of still greater value in cheering me under the pressure of adversity.
“In order to re-establish my health entirely, I was anxious to remove into a milder climate; I was also very desirous of procuring a residence for my family, at a distance from the general depôt, where much of the society was very exceptionable, and where we were constantly unsettled, by the multitude of reports daily in circulation, suggested without any foundation by the hopes and fears of our fellow prisoners, or from mere idleness. With this view I solicited permission to pass the winter at Tours. The Minister of Marine, M.Decrés again stood my friend, and after some delay, in consequence of Buonaparte being at Berlin, he at length succeeded, and informed me in the kindest manner of my request being granted. We made our preparations with almost as much pleasure, as though it had been for a journey to England. I employed myself during the remainder of our stay at Verdun, in concluding all my affairs relative to the prisoners at that depôt. The French government had recently forbidden any further supplies being given to the British prisoners, by their own country; declaring that each nation should support its own prisoners. The fact was, that whilst the Englishmen were so liberally provided for by their own government, there was no hope of inducing them to desert; and all intrigues carried on by the French to seduce them from their allegiance proved fruitless. In consequence of this new arrangement, my presence was no longer necessary at Verdun. I settled all my affairs relative to the prisoners, and this was rendered less complicated by an order recently issued by the French Government, that all supplies sent from England to her people should cease, and each nation support their own prisoners. I had nothing therefore now to do, but to close my accounts previous to my departure. The situation of the prisoners of inferior rank, became in consequence wretched in the extreme. They were now deprived of the comforts to which they had been accustomed; they neither saw nor heard of their officers; they knew nothing of the continued solicitude of their truly paternal government, and of the efforts it had made in their behalf. Allhopes of exchange had died away, and complete despair seemed to have taken possession of the sufferers. Numbers attempted to make their escape, and some few succeeded; but many were intercepted and cruelly treated; whilst additional measures of severity were adopted to prevent further attempts at desertion. All who were taken at this time, were sent off, as close prisoners to the fortress of Bitche, and confined in the dark and gloomy souterrain. It was at this time that Mr. Wolfe, finding that the principal objects of his solicitude, the children, were all removed to the distant depôts, and that none would be permitted to reside at Verdun, came forward in a manner most creditable to himself, as a volunteer to reside at Givet, a depôt in which there were twelve hundred prisoners, but no officers. He was aware that he must deprive his family of all the advantages they possessed of comfort and society at Verdun, and subject them to many privations; but this excellent man did not hesitate, whatever sufferings or inconveniences might await him, to put in execution a resolution which was made in the hope of being instrumental to the temporal and eternal welfare of his suffering countrymen.”