FOOTNOTES:
Head-quarters, September 4, 1813.
Dear Sir,
I was very much concerned to hear of your misfortune, which, however, I don’t doubt will have been alleviated by the Comte Gazan as far as may have been in his power, as soon as he will have known that to your humanity in the first instance he owed the safety of his wife.
In former wars a person in your situation would have been considered a non-combatant, and would have been immediately released; but in this war, which, on account of the violence of enmity in which it is conducted, it is to be hoped will be the last for some time at least, everybody taken is considered a prisoner of war, and none are released without exchange. There are several persons now in my power in the same situation with yourself in that respect, that is to say, non-combatants, according to the known and anciently practised rules of war; among others, there is the Secretary of the Governor of St. Sebastian, and I authorize you to tell the Duke of Dalmatia or the Count Gazan that I will send back any person in exchange for you that they will point out.
I send you, with this letter, the sum of two hundred dollars, of which I request you to acknowledge the receipt, and that you will let me know whether I can do anything else for you.
Ever yours, most faithfully,
Wellington.
F. Seymour Larpent, Esq.