The Story of Dartmoor Prison

to the St. Domingo expedition under General Rochambeau. The prisoners called it " Le petit Caution nement " (Little Parole). In it were representatives of every profession?lawyers, doctors, merchants, shopkeepers, actors, musicians, artists, soldiers and sailors, and even a negro general who had served under Rochambeau but could not obtain his parole because of the colour of his skin. Being outside the iron grille which encircled the common prison they had a yard of their own, and as many of them were drawing upon their bankers through London agents, and could buy provisions in the market, they formed a pleasant little society and lived in some comfort. Servants, sweepers and cooks were drawn from the other prisons and paid threepence a day to wait upon them and relieve them of menial tasks; furniture, such astables and chairs, were served out to them from the prison stores. They were made to elect from their number a president and a " Commissaire de Salle " for each of the six halls, who acted as governor, magistrate, and police. The Commissaires were responsible to the President and the President to Captain Cotgrave for the good order of the prison. Even in this building life was not uneventful. One day at dinner a man pulled out of the soup bucket of his mess a dead rat which he held up by the tail, whereupon heads and tails and feet were dredged up from every bucket in such numbers that they would have furnished limbs for fully a hundred animals. We may judge wh...