2o8 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



been disabled in battle, greatly distinguished himself 

 in this direction. 



In spite of the precautions taken to prevent the 

 escape of the prisoners, such incidents were not 

 unknown. We have already pointed out that the 

 position of the castle rendered escape exceptionally 

 difficult. Then at least one hundred sentries were 

 posted every night in and around the castle, while at 

 a certain hour the curfew was sounded, when the 

 prisoners had to retire to their sleeping quarters, 

 and when all lights had to be extinguished. The 

 prisoners, moreover, by way of identification, wore 

 conspicuous yellow jackets with grey and yellow caps. 

 And yet occasionally escapes were effected, as the 

 following extracts will show. One Sunday morning, 

 just as service had begun in Portchester church, the 

 sentry on duty at the water-gate noticed three naval 

 officers, in full uniform, coming towards him from the 

 churchyard. He naturally concluded that, having 

 seen their men safely into church, they were about to 

 take a morning walk. So he "presented arms," and 

 let them pass through the water-gate to the shore 

 outside the castle walls. On the following morning 

 three dashing privateer captains, who had been taken 

 while cruising against our West Indian trade, were 

 found to be missing ! There was one French seaman 

 "confined" in the castle, who, for a mere frolic or a 

 trifling wager, would scale the walls within a few 

 feet of the sentries, and make his way into the 

 woodlands to the north of Portsdown Hill, where he 

 would ramble at large, until his depredations among 

 the cottagers provoked their anger and led to his 

 recapture and return to prison. This man's name 

 was Fran9ois Dufresne. His term of captivity was 



