The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1804-11-15 00:00:00

' ti-en Prefect, you are acquainted with the civil laws
and the General knows those of honour :"—upon'
which the latter took mety the hand, saying, " You
are d—d hot; these kind of expressions will escape
us sometimes, hut I h:lci no intention of offending
you."—" Since you say so, General, that is suffi-
cient."
The next day t was inform 'd, that diti.2reirt re•
ports were circulated iu the town, to my prejudice
that a Danish vessel had taken 1110 on hoard at see,
out of an English ship ; that I did not know a word
of Swedish ; that I w;ts an agent of England, &c.
To these I paid little attention ; but en the Gtr of
January, an Aid-de-Camp came to invite me to dine
with the General. I had not been there above a
quarter of an hour, when the Pretea, accompanied
by a Captain, and four gens d'armes, arrived.
The Captain began to speak, and asked me for
what reason I came to France ? I demanded for
what reason he asked me that qiiestien ? The l're-
feet replied: " Because you are arrested by the or-
ders of the Grand Judge."—" What are the mo-
tives?" "The motives of the Grand .leJge are never
communicated."
The General then expressed a wish that I would
go ro the military prison. This I refused to do, ob-
serving, that, being a Swedish Officer, and bolding
a commission, I could not consent to be put under
arrest, but in my own apartment.
In this proposal they acquiesced, on condition of
my paying each of the gcns d'arnics nine livres per
day. The Captain accompanied me, and seized all
my papers, of which the treachery of my landlord
had furnished him a list.
The Commissary, Chanterayne, entirely desertt d
me ; and the wife of M. Duper: Crestey, my cor-
respondent, was the only person by whom I was
befriended. She offered to be bail for me, but it
was refused.
In this state, I drew up and dispatched a report
of all that had passed, to 1.11.., Swedish Minister at
Paris, the Baron von Erenschwardt. He replied,
by the next Courier, that he was gieatly surprised
at my being taken into custody, that my passport
was regular, aisd.that he would demand my liberty.
I repaired, with this letter in my hand, to the
General ; he was at dinner, and immediately sent
his Aid-de-Camp to the stair-ease, to desire me to
wait. I charged the latter to say, that a Swedish
Officer is not made of such humble materials, as to
wait on the stairs of a French Officer. I was then
desired to enter; nobody rose, or asked me to sit
down ; on which, taking that permission, I placed
myself by the side of the General, and gave him
my letter. Ile read it, laid it on the table, and
vented his imprecations on what he called my im-
portunity. I left him with indignetion.
When I had returned home, the Captain of
Gendtarmerit came and informed me, that, in Inture,
I must always apply to him when I had any thing
to communicate to the General.
I thought I should experience nn more vexations,
when I re'eived a note written by the Grand Judge
to the Swedish Minlster, informing him that I was
confined upon the denunciation of the civil and mi-
litary authorities of Caen, for having endeavoured
to insinuate myself into the coeipany of the milita-
ry; fir having maintained a correspondence with
the North of Europe ; for having kept a dangerous
journal, insetted the public authorities, and being
the bearer of a letter coming from the enemy.
In vain I addressed to the Ambassador a refuta-
tion of these impostures ; in vain he twice claimed
me officially ; in vain I caused a petition to be pre-
sented to the Grand Judge, requiring my removal
to Paris, &e. &c. On the 20th of February, I was
carried to the civil prison, and confined in a cell,
where I remained three weeks on bread and water;
after which a room was assigned me, on condition
that I would pay the rent of it. Among the new
interrogatories towhich they attempted to subjea me,
I was asked, whether I knew George and Pichegru,
Messrs. Drake and Spencer Smith ? My usual re-
ply was, that as soon as I was removed to Paris,
would answer every thing through the Minister of
my country.
At length, on the 19th of April, the Minister
transmitted me a decree of the French Government,
purporting that I should remain three months in
confinement, and should afterwards be conduard to
the extreme boundary f the republic, with a pro-
hibition never to enter France again, upon pain of
being treated as a spy.
The Swedish Minister repeated his demands,
claimed my release from the operation of the decree,
without which I should have been heard in my de-
fence, and npnn the single denunciation of the Ge-
neral and the Prefea. All was ineffectual; the
malignity of those two men vigorously supported the
measure of my confinement for three months, en-
titely at my own expence, though considered as a
state-prisoner. The General feand it more conve-
nient to keep me in prison than to give me satisfac-
tion for his insults. The Prefea, who, on account
of his station, had nothing of that kind to fear, ne-
vertheless endeavoured n glee me one of his country
dishes. Three days after I had quitted the prison,
some poisoned soup was brought` me; lett I was
fortunately apprise.: of the circumstance at the mo-
ment 1 was going to cat it. The person who brought
it being delivered up to tire Police, and sent to pri-
son, was released in .1 I:.s day . by the direaion of
the Prefea.

Finally, on the 1 lth of jcly, t,x3 gene d'armrs
setted my person, and carried ine hum brigade to
brigade, from prison to prison, a distance of 1942
leagues, thst friar Csen to Punt de Kehl, where,
God be thanked, they kft me.
(Signed) Jon. FIEND. Vo% SCUPS El DAN.
LOadon, Nuveutlier 2, 1804.