Rodriguez, knowing better than any one how well founded my apprehensions were, set himself at once to the work.

He went to the captain-general, and made him feel what would be the danger of his position if I should disappear in a popular riot, or even if he were forced to give me up.  His observations were so much the better comprehended, as no one could then predict what might be the issue of the Spanish revolution.  “I will undertake,” said the captain-general Vives to my colleague Rodriguez, “to give an order to the commander of the fortress, that when the right moment arrives, he shall allow M. Arago, and even the two or three other Frenchmen who are with him in the castle of Belver, to pass out.  They will then have no need of the means of escape which they have procured; but I will take no part in the preparations which will become necessary to enable the fugitives to leave the island; I leave all that to your responsibility.”

Rodriguez immediately conferred secretly with the brave commander Damian.  It was agreed between them that Damian should take the command of a half-decked boat, which the wind had driven ashore; that he should equip it as if for a fishing expedition; that he should carry us to Algiers; after which his reentrance at Palmas, with or without fish, would inspire no suspicion.

All was executed according to agreement, notwithstanding the inquisitorial surveillance which Don Manuel de Vacaro exercised over the commander of his “Mistic.”

On the 28th July, 1808, we silently descended the hill on which Belver is built, at the same moment that the family of the minister Soller entered the fortress to escape the fury of the populace.  Arrived at the shore, we found there Damian, his boat, and three sailors.  We embarked at once, and set sail.  Damian had taken the precaution of bringing with us in this frail vessel the instruments of value which he had carried off from my station at the Clop de Galazo.  The sea was unfavourable; Damian thought it prudent to stop at the little island of Cabrera, destined to become a short time afterwards so sadly celebrated by the sufferings which the soldiers of the army of Dupont experienced after the shameful capitulation of Baylen.  There a singular incident was very near compromising all.  Cabrera, tolerably near to the southern extremity of Majorca, is often visited by fishermen coming from that part of the island.  M. Berthemie feared, justly enough, that the rumour of our escape having spread about, they might dispatch some boats to seize us.  He looked upon our going into harbour as inopportune; I maintained that we must yield to the prudence of the commander.  During this discussion, the three seamen whom Damian had engaged saw that M. Berthemie, whom I had endeavoured to pass off as my servant, maintained his opinion against me on a footing of equality.  They then addressed themselves in these terms to the commander:—­

“We only consented to take part in this expedition upon condition that the Emperor’s aide-de-camp, shut up at Belver, should not be of the number of those persons whom we should help off.  We only wished to aid the flight of the astronomer.  Since it seems to be otherwise, you must leave this officer here, unless you would prefer to throw him into the sea.”