After sundry exclamations of regret at having suffered himself to be made a prisoner without a struggle, he asked if there was a door of communication with the street running at the back of the house; and, on my replying in the affirmative, he proposed that I should lend him my military frock coat, and ask an English officer who had accompanied him and remained outside to meet him there with his horse--"_alors_"--said he--the reckless valour of the father showing itself--"_avec le sabre de Tupper[31] je m'en--de ces laches d'Espagnols_." This of course was out of the question; as however unfairly he might have been kidnapped--and of which we had yet to be convinced--it was clear that Sir George's honour, on the faith of which he had been permitted to enter and remain in the house, would have been compromised by our connivance at his escape from it. We did all we could to quiet his apprehensions until the return of Sir George, who informed him that it appeared from the statement of the officer of the escort, that orders had been received from the general officer commanding at Algeciras to arrest him, should he, on any pretence, again pass the limits of the British garrison. The kind-hearted old General expressed the utmost regret at his having been so imprudent as to trust himself a second time in Spain (for only a month before he had been conducted to Gibraltar under an escort from Malaga)--and hoping that his own consciousness of innocence would relieve him from any fear as to the result of the affair, gave him a letter to General José O'Donnell, who commanded in the _Campo de Gibraltar_; in which letter he requested, as a favour to himself, that every respect and attention might be paid to the young Frenchman:--a favour he had every right to ask, from one who had received so many more important ones at his hands.-- General O'Donnell, in his reply, stated that he had but acted in conformity with instructions received from Madrid--that Monsieur Murat had some months previously landed at Malaga from a vessel which, when on its passage with him to America, had been obliged to put into that port to repair some slight damage experienced in a gale of wind--that, during his stay there, he had publicly expressed his hostility to the king's government, and, instead of proceeding to his destination when the vessel again put to sea, he had appeared rather disposed to establish himself in that (not over-loyal) city.--The Spanish government viewed these circumstances with a very suspicious eye; particularly as his elder brother had, but a few years before, been one of the _aspirans_ to the constitutional crown of Spain;--and he had consequently been sent with a _guard of honour_ to Gibraltar, from whence opportunities for America are more frequent than from Malaga.