‘The late Mr. Romanes of Harryburn (whose father had been Agent at Lauder) says about M. Espinasse, for long a distinguished French teacher in Edinburgh, who was for some time a parole prisoner at Lauder: “When I was enrolled as a pupil with M. Espinasse some fifty years ago, he said: ‘Ah! your fader had me!’ supplying the rest of the sentence by planting the flat part of his right thumb into the palm of his left hand—‘Now I have you!’ repeating the operation. And when my father called to see M. Espinasse, he was quite put out by M. Espinasse seizing and hugging and embracing him, shouting excitedly: ‘Ah, mon Agent! mon Agent!’“’
Smith at Kelso, Nixon at Hawick, Romanes at Lauder, and Bell at Jedburgh, were all held in the highest esteem by the prisoners under them, and received many testimonials of it.
The following were the Parole Towns between 1803 and 1813:
- Abergavenny.
- Alresford.
- Andover.
- Ashbourne.
- Ashburton.
- Ashby-de-la-Zouch.
- Biggar.
- Bishop’s Castle.
- Bishop’s Waltham.
- Brecon.
- Bridgnorth.
- Chesterfield.
- Chippenham.
- Crediton.
- Cupar.
- Dumfries.
- Hambledon.
- Hawick.
- Jedburgh.
- Kelso.
- Lanark.
- Lauder.
- Launceston.
- Leek.
- Lichfield.
- Llanfyllin.
- Lochmaben.
- Lockerbie.
- Melrose.
- Montgomery.
- Moreton-Hampstead.
- Newtown.
- Northampton.
- North Tawton.
- Odiham.
- Okehampton.
- Oswestry.
- Peebles.
- Peterborough.
- Reading.
- Sanquhar.
- Selkirk.
- South Molton.
- Tavistock.
- Thame.
- Tiverton.
- Wantage.
- Welshpool.
- Whitchurch.
- Wincanton.
CHAPTER XXII
PAROLE LIFE
The following descriptions of life in parole towns by French writers may not be entirely satisfactory to the reader who naturally wishes to get as correct an impression of it as possible, inasmuch as they are from the pens of men smarting under restrictions and perhaps a sense of injustice, irritated by ennui, by the irksomeness of confinement in places which as a rule do not seem to have been selected because of their fitness to administer to the joys of life, and by the occasional evidences of being among unfriendly people. But I hope to balance this in later chapters by the story of the paroled officers as seen by the captors.
The original French I have translated literally, except when it has seemed to me that translation would involve a sacrifice of terseness or force.
Listen to Lieutenant Gicquel des Touches, at Tiverton, after Trafalgar:
‘A pleasant little town, but which struck me as particularly monotonous after the exciting life to which I was accustomed. My pay, reduced by one-half, amounted to fifty francs a month, which had to satisfy all my needs at a time when the continental blockade had caused a very sensible rise in the price of all commodities.... I took advantage of my leisure hours to overhaul and complete my education. Some of my comrades of more literary bringing-up gave me lessons in literature and history, in return for which I taught them fencing, for which I always had much aptitude, and which I had always practised a good deal. The population was generally kindly disposed towards us; some of the inhabitants urging their interest in us so far as to propose to help me to escape, and among them a young and pretty Miss who only made one condition—that I should take her with me in my flight, and should marry her when we reached the Continent. It was not much trouble for me to resist these temptations, but it was harder to tear myself away from the importunities of some of my companions, who, not having the same ideas as I had about the sacredness of one’s word, would have forced me to escape with them.
‘Several succeeded: I say nothing about them, but I have often been astonished later at the ill-will they have borne me for not having done as they did.’
Gicquel was at Tiverton six years and was then exchanged.