French Prisoners. 271 



which their creditors had from them. He added : — " As I 

 only received your letter after the prisoners had left this 

 depot, I think it right to inform you that the debts thus 

 contracted have been for clothes, provisions, shoes, and 

 money lent," and wound up by asking the Honble. Commis- 

 sioners to transmit to their Government the documents in 

 question. The Commissioners did so, and recommended pay- 

 ment of the debts. 



Towards the close of 1812 one of the officers, Jean B. 

 Arnaud, Enseigne (Sub-Lieutenant), of the Neptune Man-of- 

 War, died — on 19th November, 181 2 — at the age of 25 years. 

 A notice of his death appeared in the obituary column of some 

 of the public prints in these terms : — " At Sanquhar of the 

 small-pox one of the French prisoners of the name of Arnaud." 

 It was rare to announce their deaths in this way, and it was 

 perhaps done by some mourning friend. 



There is a tradition that a sword duel was fought between 

 two of the officers on the Washing Green (a piece of common 

 land on Nithside, about half-a-mile from Sanquhar), and one 

 was severely wounded, and an old man stated that he, with 

 other lads, had traced the blood marks from the Green into 

 the town. A recent writer* connects this event with 

 Lieutenant Arnaud, whose death is commemorated in San- 

 quhar Kirkyard. " In memory of J. B. Arnaud, aged 27 

 years, Lieutenant in the French Navy, prisoner of war on 

 parole at Sanquhar. Erected by his companions-in-arms and 

 fellow-prisoners as a testimony of their esteem and attach- 

 ment. He expired in the arms of friendship, igth November, 

 1812." 



James Brown, the historian of Sanquhar, alludes to a 

 prisoner, " Angus MacGregor," whose father had to take 

 refuge in France for the part he had taken in the Rebellion 

 of '45, who remained in the country and practised the trade 



* Memorials of Sanquhar Kirhyard, by Tom Wilson, 1912, 

 p. 25. Mr Wilson writes: — -"The story of his death in a duel is 

 well authenticated. My grandmother, who was born in 1796, has 

 often told me the story. He died in a house only two doors from 

 my grandmother. Probably the story of death by small-pox was 

 put out as a blind." 



