PRISONERS AT PORTCHESTER 205 



as was the lot of the Portchester prisoners, it was 

 comfort compared with that of the men immured at 

 Forton, where there was hardly room to stand in the 

 exercise ground, and they lay at night as thick 

 as herrings in a barrel ; or with those who were 

 confined on the hulks, which were chiefly used as 

 punishment ships, where the refractory and desperate 

 were sent, and where half-rations brought them to 

 reason and obedience. At Portchester the prisoners 

 got at least plenty of fresh air, sunshine, and room to 

 walk about." Outside the castle walls, the ancient 

 moat, which during long years of neglect had become 

 choked with rubbish, was cleared out and filled with 

 water, beyond which other barracks were erected for 

 the militia regiments on guard. 



The ordinary number of prisoners confined in the 

 castle during the French war was about eight thousand, 

 while the hulks in the harbour — the Prothee, San 

 Dainaso, Sultan, Captivity, Vigilant, Fortanee, and 

 others, were crowded with them. In the castle were 

 confined, among other prisoners, the French and negro 

 garrisons of St. Vincent ; those captured in Lord 

 Howe's celebrated victory of " the First of June " ; 

 eighteen hundred Dutch seamen taken at the battle 

 of Camperdown ; the French galley-slaves who, with 

 General Tate, were captured at Fishguard in Wales ; 

 together with hundreds of soldiers and seamen captured 

 by our cruisers on the coast of Ireland, in the West 

 Indies, and elsewhere. A few notable prisoners were 

 among them. Tallien, who played so infamous a part 

 in the bloody orgies of the French Revolution, was at 

 Portchester for a short time; and General d'Hilliers, 

 an officer in high favour with Napoleon ; and Fongaret, 

 the daring leader of Charette's vanguard ; while among 



