The prisoners at most depôts were quartered in localities that were unhealthy and bitterly cold in winter, and lodged in buildings not always in repair, causing sickness to be rife among them; while many of the weaker men contracted diseases that proved fatal. And, as has been said, the supply of food was at times neither satisfactory nor sufficient. The rations of black bread proved often not only short in quantity, but also of bad quality, sour, and uneatable; and the small portion of meat and vegetables provided for the soup maigre on which they had to subsist as a principal item of their dinners was poor stuff, and unsatisfying for Englishmen accustomed to solid food at home.

To supplement their short commons the hungry men at dinner-time daily besieged the barred gates of their barrack-yards to buy, as far as their three sous each would go, extra food, and drink and tobacco, from the sutlers and local small shopkeepers whom the town authorities generally permitted to congregate outside and make what money they could from the prisoners. Brandy was cheap, and the smuggling of it into the prison was not difficult, with unfortunate consequences for too many of our poor fellows. To drown their sorrows they got drunk, and, in addition to quarrelling among themselves, broke out in riotous excesses, which sometimes culminated in acts of mad insubordination, insulting and attacking their French gaolers, in the result bringing down severe punishment on their own heads: separate confinement in underground cells on bread and water, or being marched off, sometimes in mid-winter through deep snow, to expiate their offences by disciplinary confinement for lengthy periods in the dungeons of the penal depôts.

A

AT VERDUN-THE OFFICERS' DEPOT

T Verdun most of the officers were quartered on parole, together with a large number of détenus, Napoleon's civilian captives. These comprised the English travellers-Peers and Members of Parliament on holiday, people of fashion, business men, tradesmen, officers returning from Egypt or on leave, officials on the way home from India, invalids gone abroad for their health, and others of all sorts and conditions, many with their families-pounced down on wholesale and summarily arrested by Napoleon's orders in May, 1803, on the outbreak of war. They were to be held as "hostages," according to the term ("otages") that Napoleon used by way of excuse when ordering them to be taken into custody; as a set-off against the first captures at sea of French subjects by Great Britain. With the affairs and doings of the Verdun détenus we are here only concerned incidentally; where their experiences affect or have to do with the regular prisoners of war.

This, in general terms, is what the everyday life of the place was like, and how the British officers usually passed their time.

"Before the arrival of the English," we are told, "there were but three or four good shops; the others sold gingerbread and fire-matches. The bourgeoises dressed like servant-maids; but soon after their arrival the whole. town was alive: the shops were ornamented with crystalglass windows, as at Paris, which were filled with jewellery and the most fashionable articles of dress; and the

shopkeepers' wives and daughters were attired in silks and muslins." "Verdun," to quote a British naval officer, one of the earlier arrivals there as a prisoner, "soon began to lose the appearance of a French town; and many shops with English signs and English designations were seen, such as, 'Anderson, Grocer and Tea-Dealer, from London,' 'Stuckey, Tailor and Ladies' Habit-Maker, from London,' etc., etc. The Rue Moselle, the principal street in Verdun, got the nom de guerre of 'Bond Street,' and was often called by the French themselves 'Bon Street.'" Anderson and Stuckey, and other English shopkeepers at Verdun, were themselves détenus, London tradesmen who had been on commercial business in France when the edict was issued to arrest all the English in the country.

With regard to the exorbitant prices charged for everything, the rapacity of the townsfolk over-reached itself. Napoleon himself, indeed, got to hear of the extortionate charges during the autumn of 1804, and peremptorily directed the town authorities to take action. He had an official warning sent from Paris to the Municipality of Verdun to the effect that unless it kept down the price of lodgings, to take one detail, which had risen from 30 to 300 francs a month, the English would be sent elsewhere, which, of course, would be a serious blow to local trade. These were Napoleon's words: "Si les habitants taxent à un trop haut prix les logements des Anglais et si la Municipalité ne prend pas des mesures pour que les logements qui se louaient 30 francs quand les Anglais sont arrivés ne soient plus loués aujourdhui 300 francs, ils contraindront le Ministre de la Guerre à les placer dans une autre ville."

"There were several clubs at Verdun," describes one of the détenus; "the principal one was the Café Caron Club -so called from the coffee-house where it assembled. It consisted of 120 members, and was the most in the style of a club in England. Members were elected by ballot; the price, 6 livres the month; the vacancies in 1805 were