comprenant parfaitement la langue espagnole, il lui paraissait que cette traduction était tout au moins conforme au fond. Ont signé D. DIEGO PONCE DE LÉON. Manuel José SAENZ DE CAVIA, Scribe de Sa Majesté. APPENDICE D DOCUMENT TIRÉ DES ARCHIVES DU FOREIGN OFFICE. Lettre du secrétaire d'État au Foreign Office à l'ambassadeur d'Angleterre auprès de la Régence de Cadix. M. Wellesley. SIR, Foreign Office, 28 1810 may I am directed by the marquess Wellesley to request that you would apply to the spanish government for the release of a french gentleman of the name of de Sassenay, who is represented as having lately arrived from Buenos-Ayres in the Mercury, sloop, and to be now a prisoner at Cadiz. Should the spanish government consent to his release, lord Wellesley desires that you would recommend that he should be embarked on board one of His Majesty's ship at Cadiz and conveyed to England. I have the honour to be, etc., etc. Signé William HAMILTON. APPENDICE E Extrait de l'article sur M. de Liniers, par Peltier, rédacteur de l'Ambigu, dans le Times du 24 août 1810. ...Preparations had been made at Buenos-Ayres for the august ceremonies of taking the oath of fidelity, but while the entertainements and public rejoicings were preparing, an emissary of Napoleon arrived with despatches in the name of Charles IV... The bearer of these despatches was the baron de Sassenay, formerly deputy from Burgundy to the states general, but who afterwards emigrated and served under Prince de Condé in the first campaign of the revolution, and having subsequently become an inhabitant of the United States of America, had in the character of a merchant, made two voyages to the river Plate. The natural sentiment of love of his country had carried him back to France and made him abandon the happy asylum where he dwelt in tranquillity. The tyrant snatched him from the bosom of his family, causing him to be taken by the gendarmerie from his estate at the foot of the Pyrénées and forced him to take charge of these despatches and to set sail within twenty four hours, without taking leave of his wife and children, and even without giving him time to provide himself with any other article of clothing for the voyage than what could be hastily procured at Bayonne. Don Santiago de Liniers was not apprised of the name of this envoy extraordinary until within a few hours of his entering at Buenos-Ayres. He however had time to think upon the delicacy of receiving an emissary of that kind and resolved to receive him only in the presence of the magistrates and two members of the municipal body. Baron de Sassenay approached don Santiago with open arms as an old friend. He was much astonished at the return of these tokens of friendship, which consisted only in telling him in spanish that he regarded him only as an envoy of Napoleon, and that he must declare the purpose of his mission in the presence of the persons there assembled. M. de Sassenay then opened his portmanteau and laid all his packets upon the table before don Santiago, who caused them to be opened and read aloud. While they were reading, the indignation of the assembly manifested itself to a degree which it is impossible to describe. Don Santiago informed the envoy that he had, through a legitimate channel, received orders to proclaim Ferdinand VII king of Spain and the Indies, that he (don Santiago) would receive no orders from the Emperor of the French and that the ceremony of administering the oath of fidelity which had been defered only to give more splendour to the proclamation, should take place without delay (1)... (1) M. de Sassenay was transported to Cadiz and put on board the hulks with the rest of the french prisoners. Ilis spouse came to London to solicit the liberation of her husband; and had her petition granted at the moment when she learned thas he was on board one of the hulks which the prisoners had carried to the other side of the bay of Cadiz and that her husband was then already liberated. |
