“The great difficulty of my situation arose from hence. I knew that if I were found, directly or indirectly, opposing, or interfering with the business of the depôt, otherwise than with the consent of the Commandant, and as I was able to work upon his moral feeling, or regard to his character, I should be immediately sent away. I was permitted to go there only as chaplain; and it was evident, from every one else, who could have done anything for the prisoners, having been sent away, that I should not be allowed to stay in any other capacity. Traps were constantly laid for me,[4] and I knew, by examples before my eyes, that if they could find any such interfering to allege against me, they would say to me, as they always did, that the thing I complained of was a shameful abuse. But they would have denounced me, as one of the Commandants afterwards did, as having done something, which they knew the minister of war, without any inquiry would punish by sending me away from the depôt. And as they would be very angry, and their accusation be of a kind which he would consider serious, an order would come down, be put in execution, perhaps in the middle of the night; and without any explanation, or, probably, any one knowing it, till the following morning, I should have been marched from brigade to brigade, to the fortress of Bitche, subject to join company with deserters and criminals, and tied, it might be, hand to hand with them.[5] This might have been risked; but in what state would the poor fellows have been left? They would have been reduced to the same miserable condition in which I found them, with the additional oppression which would arise from the angry feeling left upon the minds of the officers who had charge of them. And thus, sound policy, and a conscientious regard to the object for which I was permitted to be at the depôt, the religious instruction and consolation of the prisoners, perfectly coincided. Under any circumstances, I could not have thought a disingenuous conduct right, and must have given up any advantage, or even usefulness, rather than resort to it. But I found that a plain and straightforward course enabled me to be more serviceable to the prisoners. And though, sometimes, I could not help making strong representations to the Commandant, I never worked indirectly, or endeavoured to set the men’s minds against him. My general resource was persuasion, and a direct appeal to his conscience, and his _amour propre_, which was particularly his weak side. And with the aid of a very kind and influential French officer in the Engineers, who was always ready to assist me, and favour the prisoners, I was enabled to accomplish more, by this open conduct, than I could have done by means of a more indirect and inimical nature. But it will readily be conceived, that circumstanced as I was, this would often subject me to misrepresentation, and render extreme circumspection necessary.