The Sun.
London, England, 1814-10-08 00:00:00

VIE SUN REVIEW:

• 6No. NULL)
The captive Muse. A Collection of Fugitire Poems, written
by the Authot; during his Captivity in France. Inter-
spersed with a variety of Anecdotes; illustrative of the
.Creiel Treatment of the. British Prisoners of War by tie
'i.'rench Government and its Agents. By TUOMAS
rom, Author of a Characteristic Sketch of his Majesty
George III.; The Literary. Census, a Satirical Poem ; Pi-
tarro,With Notes ; The Wise Man of the East, or t'he
Ap-
parition of Zoroaster, a Mock-heroic Poem, in four Cantos,
with Notes ; The Dramatic Censor, &c.; and Translator Of
• Nicolais' celebrated Satirical Romance, entitled Sebaidus
..Noth-Anher ; pp. 128. Price es. Published by Sherwood,
Neely, and Jones, Paternoster-row. •

(Concluded from our Paper of yeiterday.]

" Scarcely, had the unfortunale precursors on
this melancholy occasion, Cox and Marshall, in-
tyodikced themselves through tlre bole, when the
clashing of swords was distinctly beard. Almost
at the same instant the' thunder of fire arms re-
sounded in long and reiterated echoes, rolling
dreadfully along through the numerous souter-
ruins, vaults, and caverns of the fort. Suddenly
was all silent,—that silence as suddenly again in-
terrupted by a piercing shriek froni* Cox, which
rent our very hearts: " Good god! I'ni mur-
dered !"

" The author will not attempt to depict the
scene, which new ensued, and which indeed
hatlies all power of descriplion. Every man was
at his allotted place, in an instant—in an instant
every man undressed ; stretched himself on his
straw-sack ; drew his blanket over him, (for the
french Government allowed neither mattresses
nor sheets to the seamen) and placed his clothes
tinder head; to supply the want of a pat
low. A full half hour elapsed, when the grat-
ing of bolts and bars, and the railing of
keys, announced a visit from the gendarmes.
The ponderous doors of the, souterrain tirrned,
with grating sound, npon their hinges, and in
'rushed a formidable body of armed men, consist=
ing of a large -detachment of veterans, accom-
panied by all the gendarmes employed at Bitche,
with the General of the Fort, the Commandant
of tie Depot, and the whole of the Etat major at
their head.
"After making several times, with great parade,
in order to impress terror, the tour of the router-'
ruin (the gendarmes with their swords drawn, the,
veterans with fixed bayonets) silence was ordered
when an individual scrutiny and examination corn
meneed. Every prisoner was obliged to turn oat,
totation,•in his shirt ; his straw-sack was mi-
nutely searched, to see whether it t,vutained any
niaterials for making rapes,• any files, saws, or
other implements of desertion. This ceremony'
lasted nearly three hours, at the expiration of,
'which, these unwelcome visitors retired ; fasten-
ed, with great noise, the doors after them, and
left the soutcrrain, with its'agitated inhabitants;
to darkness, to'silenee, and to harrassing raze-
tion.

"'lt ►appears, that the plot.had been betrayed
to the Commandant, who, -in concert with the
General of the Fort, determined, -that the mea-
sures 'to he adopted, in consequence of this dis-;
covery, should be so conducted, as to pave the
way to some fatal catastrophe. Their wish was
to gain credit with the French Government for
Itoore than ordinary vigilance, firmness, and.zeal.
Hence, though nothing in the world was easier
than to put a stop to the escape of any of the pri-
soners on this occasion, and
,to,cOmpletely defeat
their scheme, without wounding or personl,:ly
harming a single individual, and which might have
been effected, either by .preventing their passage
through the hole cut in the door, or else by tak-
ing them into custody the moment they did enter
(for the prisoners were utterly defenceless, whereas
theft adversaries had upwards of one hundred and
Lfty veterans under arms, independent of the
gees-d'armes), they resolved that blood sliould be
spilt, in ordc.r to give importance_to
.the report,
which it was their intention to .found on this oe-
currence`. Cox and Marshal-were as much in their
power after they had got through the hole, as
they were before .for the place into which they
had introduced themselves was only another son-
terrain, strongly secured, and filled with armed
men. •

" Had the French, armed as they were, been

sufficiently courageous, after dispatching. t.,eir two
unfortunate victims, to enter the prisoners' sou-

terrain by the same door through which the latter
-sought to escape from it, they would havefound
them all completely dtessed, and thus have plainly
convicted the whole of them of complicity in the
plot. But their fears led them to prefer the cir-
cuitous passage, which led front the Crosse-tete ;
. and .this delay afforded the prisoners time to un-.
dress themselves, and repair each to his respective
'couch, as already related.
" The morning subsequent to this tragical event,
•the-door-of-the souterrain was opened at a very
late hour. The ridiculous farce of parading up
and down the place, with a file of soldiers under
arms; was repeated. Two of the seamen were
,then ordered to follow the guard, who le:l them
.to the spot where lay the mangled remains of their
murdered. countrymen, with injunctions to pick.
up their dispersed members (for they were liter-
, ally cut
_in pieces), and carry them on their
•shoulders into the yard. This done, another pri-
• umer, of the name of. Hugh Wilson, who had
_served as a Marine on board the same vessel as
Lox, was brought-into the court, and ordered to,
- sew the dead bodies in a sack, which was there-
von thrown into a hole, dug for that purpose, at
Cie foot of the ramparts.
" From this day the privilege of walkifigin the
yard, which had been granted to the'prisoners,
..tram eight in the morning- till dusk, vias with-
..Altawn ; they Were locked down in the souterrain
from eleven in the morning till four in the after-

-
noon, in ELIIIIIIICr.
. .
Three weeks after the murder of Cox and
• 'l4l,"itte.. of poor Cox was peculiarly regretted by all his
uclpinrunCes; the Mora so, as he left a poor or:Alan son, of'
evi ender.yetirs; behind him, who, 'however, we are happy',
*tiriderstand, was very humanely taken care of,. by some of
the opulent English, at \Tertian. Cox had been sent to Bitche
for desertion. He swam across the Rhine, with his little boy
an his back, but was arrested by the custom-bodse officers. •

*Matsloll, the,General and Comthnndant received,
by way, of remnneratitm for the Important ser-
vices they had tenth:red-to the State, their respec-
tive n9wination—the fionner as Officer, the latter,
as. illetnher, of the L=. ;ipn of fionour; or, as it
has been more justly denortihnqed, the Legion of
Horror ! The author makes no,•cOrninent ott this
transaction, ,which, in his opinion; suffitiently
speaks for, and explains itself.'' 't

t General VA.;Ion, whose bare--ficed exactions at Verdun
at last became so notorious as to compel the French Govern-
Ment to suspend him from his functions, and order an in.-
%airy into his adininistr:ition (to avoid the , result of which,
Le, at the express suggestion of Buonaparte, anticipated his
disgrace by blowing out hk brains in the By'.; 71e. Boingne);
was not only a- Member, 1)1.4 an. Officer of very high and
superior rants, a oon in this . self-same Legion of
Honour.- Buonaparte, on receiving Cyom the Minister of
Police the official report o GeneralTion's suicide, is said
to have exclaimed,- " This is.no more than what he ought •to
have done long ago." Quire—M•iglit not this self-same re-
Mark have been:apptied, with still more pertinency, tu Buu-
naparte himself, on a certain recent ocosion?