St. Aubin thus describes his fellow prisoners. Sailors, he says, were brusque but obliging; soldiers were more honest, softer and less prompt to help; maîtres d’armes were proud and despotic. The scum of the community were the Raffalés, who lived in the top story of the tower. Among the two hundred of these there were only two or three suits of clothes, which were worn in turn by those who had to go out foraging for food. These men terrorized the rest, and their captain was even held in some sort of fear, if not respect, by the authorities. The prison amusements were various. The prisoners who had no occupations played draughts, cards, dominoes, and billiards. On Sundays the beer-man came, and much drunkenness prevailed, especially upon fête days, such as St. Martin’s, Christmas, and August 15, the Emperor’s birthday: the principal drinks being compounds of beer and spirits known as ‘strom’ and ‘shum’. On St. Cecilia’s Day the musicians always gave an entertainment, but the chief form of amusement was the theatre. This was arranged in the basement of the large tower—that is, the keep, where three hundred people could be accommodated. Part of the boxes were set apart for English visitors, who appreciated the French performances so much that they even said that they were better than what they were accustomed to in Portsmouth, and flocked to them, much to the disgust of the native managers, who represented to the authorities that those untaxed aliens were taking the bread out of their mouths. The Government considered the matter, and upon the plea that the admission of the English public to the French theatre was leading to too great intimacy between the peoples, and thus would further the escapes of prisoners, took advantage of the actual escape of a prisoner in English dress to ordain that although the theatre might continue as heretofore, no English were to be admitted. The result of this was that the receipts dropped from £12 to £5 a night. St. Aubin remarks, _en passant_, that Commander William Patterson and Major Gentz, who were chiefly responsible for the retention of the theatre, were the only Englishmen he ever met who were worthy of respect! Of the pieces played, St. Aubin mentions _L’Heureuse Étourderie_ by himself; the tragedies _Zaïre_, _Mahomet_, _Les Templiers_; the comedies _Les Deux Gendres_, _Les Folies amoureuses_, _Le Barbier de Séville_, _Le Tyran domestique_, _Défiance et Malice_; many dramas, and even vaudevilles and operas such as _Les Deux Journées_, _Pierre le Grand_, _Françoise de Foix_, of which the music was composed by prisoners and played by an orchestra of twelve.