of
the workmen, whom we commanded, had been set down for the raft; he thought
that in his quality of commander of engineers, it was his duty not to
separate from the majority of those who had been confided to him, and who
had promised to follow him wherever the exigencies of the service might
require; from that moment his fate became inseparable from theirs, and he
exerted himself to the utmost to obtain the governor's permission to have
his men embarked in the same boat as himself; but seeing that he could
obtain nothing to ameliorate the fate of these brave men, he told the
governor that he was incapable of committing an act of baseness: that since
he would not put his workmen in the same boat with him, he begged him to
allow him to go on the raft with them, which was granted.

Several military officers imitated their example; only two of those who
were to command the troops did not think fit to place themselves upon the
raft, the equipment of which, in truth, could not inspire much confidence.

One of them, Captain Beiniere, placed himself in the long-boat with 36 of
his soldiers. We had been told that these troops had been charged to
superintend the proceedings of the other boats, and to fire upon those who
should attempt to abandon the raft. It is true, as we have seen above, that
some brave soldiers listening, perhaps, more to the voice of humanity and
French honor, than to the strict maxims of discipline, were desirous of
employing their arms against those who basely abandoned us, but, that their
will and their actions were paralized by the passive obedience which they
owed to their officers, who opposed this resolution.

The other, Mr. Danglas, a lieutenant, who had lately left the
_gardes-du-corps_, had at first embarked with us upon the raft, where his
post was assigned him, but when he saw the danger which he incurred on this
unstable machine, he made haste to quit it, on the pretext that he had
forgotten something on board the frigate, and did not return. It was he
whom we saw, armed with a carbine, threaten to fire on the barge of the
governor, when it began to move from the frigate. This movement, and some
other actions which were taken for madness, nearly cost him his life; for
while he was thus giving himself up to a kind of extravagance, the captain
took flight, and abandoned him on board the frigate with the sixty-three
men whom he left there. When M. Danglas saw himself treated in this manner,
he ga