fact gradually becoming known, in time
crowds of devotees used to come secretly
to worship, much to the profit of its
preserver. When the reaction came, the saint
was carried back to his niche with great
rejoicing.

In 1792 the Prussians took Verdun, after
a bombardment of fifteen hours, though
Marceau, Lamoine, and other French leaders
wished to hold out longer. It was soon
evacuated after Valmy, when Kellerman
beat the Germans out of France.

Verdun is famous for sweetmeats and
liqueurs, and when the Prussian army and
the emigrés entered France in the
revolutionary war, thirteen of its most beautiful
young girls were selected by the royalists
to present the Duke of Brunswick with
confectionery, and to strew flowers in his
path. When Brunswick fell back before
the Jacobins, these poor girls were dragged
to Paris, and eleven of them guillotined
for their treason to the nation. The other
two were pardoned on account of their
extreme youth, and one of these, a very
handsome woman, is mentioned as still a
lion by several of our détenus who were
imprisoned by Napoleon at Verdun. The
town, which at present boasts a bishop's
palace, a cavalry barrack, military magazines,
a theatre, a Protestant church, a
synagogue, a communal college, and a
library with fourteen thousand volumes,
manufactures fine striped serges, flannels,
and cotton yarn, and it is also a depôt of
tanneries.

But it was the tyrannical and cruel
detention of English residents by Napoleon,
when war broke out in 1803, that made
Verdun at one time a place so much talked
about and dreaded in England. Scarcely
had our ambassador, Lord Whitworth, left
Paris, than all Englishmen were arrested,
from Brussels to Montpellier, from
Bourdeaux to Geneva. Travellers waiting at
Calais for a favourable wind were
detained, others were dragged from theatres
or lodging-houses. The three first depôts
were at Fontainebleau, Nîmes, and
Valenciennes. In December, 1803, these three
depôts were united at Verdun, whither the
prisoners were sent at their own expense,
under care of gendarmes. The first batch
of détenus thus ungenerously arrested
numbered three hundred, and consisted of
tourists of rank and fortune, and of clergymen,
physicians, merchants, tradesmen, and
servants. In 1805, about one hundred of
them were marched off to Valenciennes,
Bitche, Saarlouis, Metz, and Saarbruck, and
not marched back again to Verdun until
1807. In 1809, a détenu at Verdun
computed the number of his companions in
misfortune in that place at two hundred, and
calculated that there were about one
hundred more in the other towns and prisons
of France. The number of English prisoners
of war at Verdun generally amounted
to about four hundred, consisting chiefly of
naval officers, captains of merchant ships,
a few officers of the army who had been
shipwrecked on the French coast, and some
passengers taken on their return from the
East Indies. The common sailors were sent
to Givet or Saarlouis, a few only being
permitted to remain as servants to the richer
détenus at Verdun. As the détenus spent
at least forty thousand pounds a year at
Verdun, a town which they found less dirty
than Fontainebleau and less clean and
comfortable than Valenciennes, Metz and other
towns intrigued at Paris for the honour of
entertaining the unwilling visitors.

These détenus were compelled to answer
the roll-call once, and sometimes twice, a
day. They had to attend at the Maison
de Ville, and enter their names in the
gendarmes' book. If they missed the appel
they were fined half a crown. They also
paid a soldier for calling daily to see that
they were safe in their lodgings. At first,
many of the English received permission to
answer the appel only every fifth day, but
in 1804 the restrictions became greater.
Those who wished to shirk the morning
appel (nine o'clock) paid a bribe every
month to the doctor to put them on the
sick-list, while for a louis-d'or a month
a gendarme would write a détenu's name
twice a day, and excuse him both appels.
If a détenu wanted to visit the suburbs,
or attend a picnic, he had, like a schoolboy,
to beg to be excused his appel. The
poorer men, who neglected to pay the fines,
were confined in the citadel a day or two
for each offence, while the richer prisoners
were kept to their houses with gendarmes
quartered on them at the rate of about ten
shillings a day. The general often, however,
forgave the fines to those detenus who
gave him presents, lent him carriages, or
who lost to him freely at cards. Every
Englishman wishing to be allowed to take
a walk out of the town was obliged to
obtain a passport from the general, which
he gave up to the gendarmes when he went
out. If he were not back when the gates
were shut a search was made for him, and
a cannon fired as a signal to the peasants
to stop the runaway.