The Spaniards always cherished the idea that the ship and her cargo might be confiscated; a commission came from Girone to question us.  It was composed of two civil judges and one inquisitor.  I acted as interpreter.  When M. Berthemie’s turn came, I went to fetch him, and said to him, “Pretend that you can only talk Styrian, and be at ease; I will not compromise you in translating your answers.”

It was done as we had agreed; unfortunately the language spoken by M. Berthemie had but little variety, and the sacrement der Teufel, which he had learnt in Germany, when he was aide-de-camp to Hautpoul, predominated too much in his discourse.  Be that as it may, the judges observed that there was too great a conformity between his answers and those which I had made myself, to render it necessary to continue an interrogatory, which I may say, by the way, disturbed me much.  The wish to terminate it was still more decided on the part of the judges, when it came to the turn of a sailor named Mehemet.  Instead of making him swear on the Koran to tell the truth, the judge was determined to make him place his thumb on the forefinger so as represent the cross.  I warned him that great offence would thus be given; and, accordingly, when Mehemet became aware of the meaning of this sign, he began to spit upon it with inconceivable violence.  The meeting ended at once.

The next day things had wholly changed their appearance; one of the judges from Girone came to declare to us that we were free to depart, and to go with our ship wherever we chose.  What was the cause of this sudden change?  It was this.

During our quarantine in the windmill at Rosas, I had written, in the name of Captain Braham, a letter to the Dey of Algiers.  I gave him an account of the illegal arrest of his vessel, and of the death of one of the lions which the Dey had sent to the Emperor.  This last circumstance transported the African monarch with rage.  He sent immediately for the Spanish Consul, M. Onis, claimed pecuniary damages for his dear lion, and threatened war if his ship was not released directly.  Spain had then to do with too many difficulties to undertake wantonly any new ones, and the order to release the vessel so anxiously coveted arrived at Girone, and from thence at Palamos.

This solution, to which our Consul at Algiers, M. Dubois Thainville, had not remained inattentive, reached us at the moment when we least expected it.  We at once made preparations for our departure, and on the 28th of November, 1808, we set sail, steering for Marseilles; but, as the Mussulmen on board the vessel declared, it was written above that we should not enter that town.  We could already perceive the white buildings which crown the neighbouring hills of Marseilles, when a gust of the “mistral,” of great violence, sent us from the north towards the south.

I do not know what route we followed, for I was lying in my cabin, overcome with sea-sickness; I may therefore, though an astronomer, avow without shame, that at the moment when our unqualified pilots supposed themselves to be off the Baleares, we landed, on the 5th of December, at Bougie.