210 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



they endeavoured to conceal among the rubbish, it 

 was with difficulty that the soldiers were restrained 

 from putting them to the bayonet. They were im- 

 mediately put in irons and sent on board a prison- 

 ship, there to atone on half-rations for their intended 

 mischief." From these hulks in the harbour attempts 

 to escape were, we learn, much more frequent. In 

 the year i8o6 "seven French prisoners cut a hole in 

 the side of the Crown prison-ship at Portsmouth. Six 

 of them were taken at once ; the other supposed 

 drowned." On October 8, iSiS, " two French prisoners 

 escaped from a prison-ship at Portsmouth at night : 

 one was drowned ; the other was found in the mud 

 and sent back to the ship from whence he had 

 escaped." The last extract is specially interesting, 

 as the unfortunate captive was the marine painter, 

 Louis Garneray, whose name we have already men- 

 tioned, and who was afterwards released on parole, 

 and lived for some years at Bishop's Waltham. 



It will be easily understood that among the large 

 number of captives confined in the castle and in the 

 hulks were many men of dangerous character, and 

 acts of savagery were only too frequent among them. 

 An informer being discovered on board the Prothee 

 in Portsmouth harbour, he was seized by his fellow- 

 prisoners, and tattooed on the face with the terrible 

 sentence, " This villain betrayed his brethren to the 

 EngHsh." Maddened with agony and shame, the poor 

 wretch, when released by his tormentors, rushed on 

 deck and tried to leap overboard, but fell and broke his 

 leg. He afterwards entered the English service, being 

 afraid to return to his own country. Here is another 

 extract. "In November 1796, the prisoners on board 

 the Hero prison-ship detected a thief in their midst. 



