After this, Max reigned
supreme in his hulk, thanks to the wonderful ease and address with
which he handled weapons, to his bodily strength, and also to his
extreme cleverness.
[1] The cruelty of the Spaniards to the French prisoners at Cabrera
was very great. In the spring of 1811, H.M. brig "Minorca,"
Captain Wormeley, was sent by Admiral Sir Charles Cotton, then
commanding the Mediterranean fleet, to make a report of their
condition. As she neared the island, the wretched prisoners swam
out to meet her. They were reduced to skin and bone; many of them
were naked; and their miserable condition so moved the seamen of
the "Minorca" that they came aft to the quarter-deck, and asked
permission to subscribe three days' rations for the relief of the
sufferers. Captain Wormeley carried away some of the prisoners,
and his report to Sir Charles Cotton, being sent to the Admiralty,
was made the basis of a remonstrance on the part of the British
government with Spain on the subject of its cruelties. Sir Charles
Cotton despatched Captain Wormeley a second time to Cabrera with a
good many head of live cattle and a large supply of other
provisions.--Tr.
But he, in turn, committed arbitrary acts; there were those who
curried favor with him, and worked his will, and became his minions.
In that school of misery, where bitter minds dreamed only of
vengeance, where the sophistries hatched in such brains were laying
up, inevitably, a store of evil thoughts, Max became utterly
demoralized.
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