2. All commissioned officers of the Navy down to gardes-marine (midshipmen).
3. Three officers of privateers of a hundred men, but not under fourteen guns.
4. Captains and next officers of merchant ships above fifty tons.
The parole form in 1797 was as follows:
‘By the Commissioners for conducting H.M’s. Transport Service, and for the care and custody of Prisoners of War.
‘These are to certify to all H.M’s. officers, civil and military, and to whom else it may concern, that the bearer ... as described on the back hereof is a detained (French, American, Spanish or Dutch) prisoner of war at ... and that he has liberty to walk on the great turnpike road within the distance of one mile from the extremities of the town, but that he must not go into any field or cross road, nor be absent from his lodging after 5 o’clock in the afternoon during the six winter months, viz. from October 1st to March 31st, nor after 8 o’clock during the summer months. Wherefore you and everyone of you [sic] are hereby desired and required to suffer him, the said ... to pass and repass accordingly without any hindrance or molestation whatever, he keeping within the said limits and behaving according to law.’
The form of parole to be signed by the prisoner was this:
‘Whereas the Commissioners for conducting H.M’s. Transport service and for the care and custody of French officers and sailors detained in England have been pleased to grant ... leave to reside in ... upon condition that he gives his parole of honour not to withdraw one mile from the boundaries prescribed there without leave for that purpose from the said Commissioners, that he will behave himself decently and with due regard to the laws of the kingdom, and also that he will not directly or indirectly hold any correspondence with France during his continuance in England, but by such letter or letters as shall be shown to the Agent of the said Commissioners under whose care he is or may be in order to their being read and approved by the Superiors, he does hereby declare that having given his parole he will keep it inviolably.’
In all parole towns and villages the following notice was posted up in prominent positions:
‘Notice is hereby given,
‘That all such prisoners are permitted to walk or ride on the great turnpike road within the distance of one mile from the extreme parts of the town (not beyond the bounds of the Parish) and that if they shall exceed such limits or go into any field or cross-road they may be taken up and sent to prison, and a reward of Ten Shillings will be paid by the Agent for apprehending them. And further, that such prisoners are to be in their lodgings by 5 o’clock in the winter, and 8 in the summer months, and if they stay out later they are liable to be taken up and sent to the Agent for such misconduct. And to prevent the prisoners from behaving in an improper manner to the inhabitants of the town, or creating any riots or disturbances either with them or among themselves, notice is also given that the Commissioners will cause, upon information being given to their Agents, any prisoners who shall so misbehave to be committed to prison. And such of the inhabitants who shall insult or abuse any of the Prisoners of War on parole, or shall be found in any respect aiding or assisting in the escape of such prisoners shall be punished according to law.’
The rewards offered for the conviction of prisoners for the violation of any of the conditions of their parole, and particularly for recapturing escaped prisoners and for the conviction of aiders in escape, were liberal enough to tempt the ragamuffins of the parole places to do their utmost to get the prisoners to break the law, and we shall see how this led to a system of persecution which possibly provoked many a foreign officer, perfectly honourable in other respects, to break his parole. I do not attempt to defend the far too general laxity of principle which made some of the most distinguished of our prisoners break their solemnly pledged words by escaping or trying to escape, but I do believe that the continual dangling before unlettered clowns and idle town loafers rewards varying from ten guineas for recapturing an escaped prisoner to ten shillings for arresting an officer out of his lodging a few minutes after bell ringing, or straying a few yards off the great turnpike, was putting a premium upon a despicable system of spying and trapping which could not have given a pleasurable zest to a life of exile.