After a time an attempt was made by the body of détenus themselves--this being the name that they were known by, in distinction from regular and lawfully-made prisoners--to obtain their release. They sent a carefully-worded petition to the French Minister of War, entreating to be set free, and offering, if their petition were granted, to pay out of their own pockets the value of those vessels which had been first seized by the English, as well as to do their utmost to obtain the release of the French sailors who had been on board those vessels. This request was flatly refused. The French Minister, in his reply, plainly declared that the English had not been detained merely on account of those captured vessels, as was stated in Napoleon's manifesto, but for other reasons as well. War, once begun, was carried on with energy by both the English and the French. Napoleon marched his troops about Europe, as it pleased him, meeting with little or no resistance. Germany, Austria, and other nations, all meekly and tamely submitted; the only continental power which had the pluck to offer even a faint resistance at that date being little Denmark. Great Britain alone faced the usurper with a scornful and fearless determination; and the most ardent desire of Napoleon's heart was to crush the haughty island, which would have none of his pretensions, and which refused to bow before him. As a first step, he did his best to damage English commerce, by closing continental markets against her--supremely careless of the suffering which, by this move, he inflicted on his own friends and subjects. But at this particular game England was the better hand of the two. At that time ironclads were unknown; and though the great three-deckers, with their fifty or seventy guns a-piece, could not be built in a day, yet war vessels were of every description, from such three-deckers down to merchant ships, hastily fitted with a few guns, and sent forth to do their best. In a short time England had about five hundred war vessels of divers kinds, large or small, with which she swept the seas, recaptured such colonies as had been yielded to France by the Treaty of Amiens, blockaded harbours in countries subject to the First Consul, and made descents upon French ports, carrying off prizes in the very teeth of French guns and fortifications.