On the other hand, one Tarade, a prisoner, writes describing Ford as a ‘petit tyran d’Afrique’, and complains of him, evidently because he had refused Tarade a passport for France. Tarade alludes to the petition above quoted, and says that the subscribers to it belong to a class of prisoners who are better away. Another much-signed petition comes from dislikers of Ford who beg to be sent to Launceston, so we may presume from the action of the authorities in ordering Ford’s removal, that he was not a disinterested dispenser and withholder of favours. In Scotland the agents seem generally to have been on very excellent terms with the prisoners in their charge, and some friendships were formed between captors and captives which did not cease with the release of the latter. Mr. Macbeth Forbes relates the following anecdote by way of illustration: ‘The late Mr. Romanes of Harryburn (whose father had been Agent at Lauder) says about M. Espinasse, for long a distinguished French teacher in Edinburgh, who was for some time a parole prisoner at Lauder: “When I was enrolled as a pupil with M. Espinasse some fifty years ago, he said: ‘Ah! your fader had _me_!’ supplying the rest of the sentence by planting the flat part of his right thumb into the palm of his left hand—‘Now I have _you_!’ repeating the operation. And when my father called to see M. Espinasse, he was quite put out by M. Espinasse seizing and hugging and embracing him, shouting excitedly: ‘Ah, mon Agent! mon Agent!’“’ Smith at Kelso, Nixon at Hawick, Romanes at Lauder, and Bell at Jedburgh, were all held in the highest esteem by the prisoners under them, and received many testimonials of it. The following were the Parole Towns between 1803 and 1813: Abergavenny. Alresford. Andover. Ashbourne. Ashburton. Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Biggar. Bishop’s Castle. Bishop’s Waltham. Brecon. Bridgnorth. Chesterfield. Chippenham. Crediton. Cupar. Dumfries. Hambledon. Hawick. Jedburgh. Kelso. Lanark. Lauder. Launceston. Leek. Lichfield. Llanfyllin. Lochmaben. Lockerbie. Melrose. Montgomery. Moreton-Hampstead. Newtown. Northampton. North Tawton. Odiham. Okehampton. Oswestry. Peebles. Peterborough. Reading. Sanquhar. Selkirk. South Molton. Tavistock. Thame. Tiverton. Wantage. Welshpool. Whitchurch. Wincanton. CHAPTER XXII PAROLE LIFE