Harsh treatment was now tried upon him, he was half starved, and as he was now penniless could not remedy matters by purchase. In three weeks he was sent on board the _Crown Prince_ hulk at Chatham, and later to the _Glory_. Correspondence between him and Dr. Derouge at Launceston was discovered, and Derouge was sent to a Plymouth hulk. Dale, the Launceston ironmonger, who had been one of the little friendly circle in that town, had fallen into evil ways, and was now starving in Plymouth. Jones, the Admiralty lawyer, received a communication from him saying that for a consideration he would denounce all Vanhille’s friends. He was brought up to London, and he told all their names, with the result that they were summoned. But nothing could be got out of them. Mrs. Wilkins at the inn, who for some reason disliked Vanhille, would have given information, but she had none to give. Dale was sent back to Plymouth, saying that if he could see Dr. Derouge, who would not suspect him, he would get the wanted information. So the two men met in a special cabin, and rum was brought. Derouge, unsuspecting, tells all the story of the escape from Dartmoor, and brings in the name of Mary Ellis, who had provided Vanhille with his disguise. Then he begins to suspect Dale’s object, and will not utter another word. Dale is sent to Launceston to get more information, but fails; resolves to find out Mary Ellis at Tavistock, but five weeks elapse, and no more is heard of him, except that he arrived there half dead with wet and fatigue. The Peace of 1814 brought release to Vanhille, and on April 19 he reached Calais. M. Pariset concludes his story with the following remark: ‘Vanhille avait senti battre le cœur anglais qui est, comme chacun sait, bienveillant et fidèle, après qu’il s’est donné.’ I should here say that M. Pariset’s story does not go further than the capture of Vanhille in Jamaica. The sequel I have taken from the correspondence at the Record Office. I have been told that the name of Vanhille is by no means forgotten in Launceston. CHAPTER XXI THE PRISON SYSTEM PRISONERS ON PAROLE When we come to the consideration of the parole system, we reach what is for many reasons the most interesting chapter in a dark history. Life on the hulks and in the prisons was largely a sealed book to the outside public, and, brutal in many respects as was the age covered by our story, there can be little question that if the British public had been made more aware of what went on behind the wooden walls of the prison ships and the stone walls of the prisons, its opinion would have demanded reforms and remedies which would have spared our country from a deep, ineffaceable, and, it must be added, a just reproach.