CHAPTER XXVII
ESCAPES OF PRISONERS ON PAROLE
The newspapers of our forefathers during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries contained very many advertisements like the two following. The first is from the Western Flying Post, of 1756, dated from Launceston, and offering Two Guineas reward for two officers, who had broken their parole, and were thus described:
‘One, Mons. Barbier, a short man, somewhat pock-marked, and has a very dejected look, and wore a snuff-coloured coat; the other, Mons. Beth, a middle-aged man, very strongly set, wore his own hair and a blue coat. The former speaks no English, but the latter very well. They were both last seen near Exeter, riding to that city.’
The second is from the London Observer of April 21, 1811:
Breach of Parole of Honour.—Transport Office, April 12, 1811.
‘Whereas the two French Officers, Prisoners of War, named and described at the foot hereof, have absconded from Chesterfield in violation of their Parole of Honour; the Commissioners for conducting His Majesty’s Transport Service, etc., do hereby offer a Reward of Five Guineas for the recapture of each of the said Prisoners, to any Person or Persons who shall apprehend them, and deliver them at this office, or otherwise cause them to be safely lodged in any of the Public Gaols. Joseph Exelman, General of Brigade, age 36, 5 feet 11½ inches high, stout, oval visage, fresh complexion, light brown hair, blue eyes, strong features.
‘Auguste de la Grange, Colonel, age 30, 6 feet high, stout, round visage, fair complexion, brown hair, dark eyes, no mark in particular.’
Excelmans was one of Bonaparte’s favourites. He and De la Grange induced Jonas Lawton, an assistant to Doctor John Elam, the surgeon at Chesterfield, to make the necessary arrangements for escape, and to accompany them. They left Chesterfield concealed in a covered cart, and safely reached Paris. Here Lawton was liberally rewarded, and provided with a good post as surgeon in a hospital, and retained the position long after the conclusion of peace.
Merely escaping from the parole town did not become frequent until it was found necessary to abolish virtually the other method of returning to France which we allowed. By this, an officer on parole upon signing a declaration to the effect that unless he was exchanged for a British officer of similar rank by a certain date he would return to England on that date, was allowed to go to France, engaging, of course, not to serve against us. But when it became not a frequent but a universal rule among French officers to break their honour and actually to serve against us during their permitted absence, the Government was obliged to refuse all applications, with the result that to escape from the parole town became such a general practice as to call into existence that profession of escape-aiding which was dealt with in the last chapter.
The case of Captain Jurien, now to be mentioned, is neither better nor worse than scores of others.
On December 10, 1803, the Transport Office wrote to him in Paris:
‘As the time allowed for your absence from this Kingdom expired on November 22nd, and as Captain Brenton, R.N., now a prisoner of war in France, has not been released in exchange for you agreeably to our proposal, you are hereby required to return to this country according to the terms of your Parole Agreement.’