We think it superfluous to detain the reader any longer, with two or three other attempts, which were still more unfortunate, and only revived painful recollections in the mind of Mr. Correard.

At last he received a letter from the Minister of the Marine, dated the 4th of June:  it was a thunder-clap to him, for he was made to understand that all his applications would probably be in vain.

However, on the 20th of July, he received a note from Mr. Jubelin, inviting him to call at the Office of the Marine.  His heart opened at this ray of hope; it was merely to know whether it were true, that he had received a pass to repair from Rochefort to his home.  He answered in the affirmative, which seemed to cause much surprise, for one had just been refused to Mr. Richefort, who solicited it in vain, though he was also one of those shipwrecked.  He profited by the opportunity to inquire whether the expedition to Cayenne was soon to depart?  A vague answer being returned, he represented how unfortunate he and his companions on the raft were, that they could obtain nothing, while some officers of the frigate had been appointed to commands.  Mr. Jubelin answered that the minister owed them nothing, and particularly to him:  that he had gone of his own free will, and had engaged to ask nothing of the minister, except what was stipulated and mentioned in the treaty of May 16, 18l6, by which His Excellency made to the explorers, numerous concessions (which it would be too long to mention here) on condition that they should correspond with His Excellency, through the Governor of Senegal; that they should be placed under the orders of that governor, and that they should undertake nothing without his approbation.

The impartial public will judge if, after such conventions, and having allowances, and passes from the government, it was to be presumed that he, who had been thus treated, would be told that they owed him nothing, not even assistance.

He learned, in the office, that the counsellor of State, Baron de Portal, had the intention to obtain for him, the decoration of the Legion of Honor, and that, for this purpose, he had had a memorial drawn up in his favour:  but the minister had written in the margin, "I cannot lay this request before the King." Thus the voice of the unfortunate Correard could not reach the throne; the minister would not permit it.  Doubtless if His Majesty had been informed, that some unhappy Frenchmen, who had escaped from the raft of the Medusa, had long and in vain solicited his minister, his paternal goodness would have given them proofs of his justice and his benevolence.  His kind hand which is extended even to the guilty, by conferring his favors upon us his faithful subjects, would have made us forget our misfortunes and our wounds; but no, an unfriendly power, between us and the throne, was an insuperable barrier, which stopped all our supplications.

Mr. Correard persuaded of the inutility of making fresh applications, gave up for the present all farther solicitation for what he had so well deserved by his courage and his services.  The change in the ministry has revived his hopes:  a letter from that department informs him that his Excellency would willingly embrace an opportunity to serve him[60].