South the undersigned deems it his duty to bring to your knowledge the following facts in order that his position as a Frenchman may be well established, and that if hereafter any difficulties should arise in regard to him he may be claimed by the consuls of his nation.

In a note written in English which I had the honor to address to you on the 22nd of April- a note which has remained unanswered-in which I claimed of you to have me set at liberty on my parole on which citizens of the United States embarked on the Royal Yacht had been released. The same favor had been granted to citizens of the United States embarked on the same privateer as myself. These latter alone had taken oath of allegiance.

It is useless to recall to Your Excellency the facts which have led to my captivity. These facts have been transmitted to you by the consul at Philadelphia.

On the 3rd of June last we were at City Point about to be exchanged. The officer who was in charge of the exchange caused all the officers of the privateers to sign a parole by which they bound themselves not to communicate with the enemy and not to take up arms before being regularly exchanged. I refused to Colonel Whipple to sign this parole, giving as a reason that I had no need of crossing the Confederate lines; that no engagement bound me to the Confederate States; that my sole engagement was with the privateer Petrel; that this vessel being sunk my engagement was in fact broken; that my case was very different from that of a foreigner engaged in a regiment, which foreigner in order to elude his engagement might wish to remain North. In spite of all these good reasons the only answer which I could obtain was this: We have taken your near the South; we return you to the South.

(Sic.)

The negotiations being broken up I had no opportunity of protesting.

Such was my intention if I had been forced to return to the South, for should the contingency arise I declare to you, Mr. Minister, that I will only yield to armed force and after protestation.

If I am forced to go to Richmond I hope that the consul of France may be able to obtain for me a pass to return North. Perhaps I shall be compelled to claim this of this functionary if the Confederate on the strength of having given an officer in my place for the exchange should wish to compel me to take service, for once arrived in Richmond I am free from all engagement and become a French shope therefore that the consul may be able to furnish me with a pass to return North. I speak here on the hypothesis of an exchange should the case occur. If I returned North would I be liable to be arrested again by the Federal authorities?

I must observe to Your Excellency that I have addressed to the Secretary of War several requests which have remained unanswered, and in which I offered to give my parole in the terms which might be desired provided it were not an oath of allegiance which compelled me to other duties than those which I owe to my own flag. Every oath of allegiance to another nation draws on a Frenchman the loss of his civil rights; would lead at the same time in my case to the withdrawal of my commission as a captain of merchant vessel trading with foreign ports and to the loss of my nationality, and I am too sure of my title as a Frenchman to wish in any case to lose it.

You are not unaware, Mr. Minister, that many foreigners were in the South at the time when its revolution broke out. Not having means