2. Taken on board a privateer or merchantman: Captain, passenger of rank, second captain, chief of prizes, two lieutenants for every hundred men, pilot, surgeon, and chaplain. No parole was to be granted to officers of any privateer under eighty tons burthen, or having less than fourteen carriage guns, which were not to be less than four-pounders. In 1804 parole was granted as follows: 1. All commissioned officers of the Army down to sous-lieutenant. 2. All commissioned officers of the Navy down to gardes-marine (midshipmen). 3. Three officers of privateers of a hundred men, but not under fourteen guns. 4. Captains and next officers of merchant ships above fifty tons. The parole form in 1797 was as follows: ‘By the Commissioners for conducting H.M’s. Transport Service, and for the care and custody of Prisoners of War. ‘These are to certify to all H.M’s. officers, civil and military, and to whom else it may concern, that the bearer ... as described on the back hereof is a detained (French, American, Spanish or Dutch) prisoner of war at ... and that he has liberty to walk on the great turnpike road within the distance of one mile from the extremities of the town, but that he must not go into any field or cross road, nor be absent from his lodging after 5 o’clock in the afternoon during the six winter months, viz. from October 1st to March 31st, nor after 8 o’clock during the summer months. Wherefore you and everyone of you [_sic_] are hereby desired and required to suffer him, the said ... to pass and repass accordingly without any hindrance or molestation whatever, he keeping within the said limits and behaving according to law.’ The form of parole to be signed by the prisoner was this: ‘Whereas the Commissioners for conducting H.M’s. Transport service and for the care and custody of French officers and sailors detained in England have been pleased to grant ... leave to reside in ... upon condition that he gives his parole of honour not to withdraw one mile from the boundaries prescribed there without leave for that purpose from the said Commissioners, that he will behave himself decently and with due regard to the laws of the kingdom, and also that he will not directly or indirectly hold any correspondence with France during his continuance in England, but by such letter or letters as shall be shown to the Agent of the said Commissioners under whose care he is or may be in order to their being read and approved by the Superiors, he does hereby declare that having given his parole he will keep it inviolably.’ In all parole towns and villages the following notice was posted up in prominent positions: ‘Notice is hereby given,