Page:Harper's New Monthly Magazine - v109.djvu/598

 it will tend for your relief. I would likewise advise you to appoint a committee by which you can convey your wants to me through the Board of Transport.

This provision brought much needed comfort.

At this time the government released all prisoners of any foreign nation with which it was in alliance, no matter in what ships they were taken. Many prisoners who could speak a foreign tongue profited by it and were released, and for once many a Yankee became a Spaniard or Portuguese. Many prisoners with their newly acquired wealth set up as either potato or egg merchants, and after the second payment they said, "Now we have free trade and sailors' rights." They established a school for boys; for the prisoners were of all ages, from thirteen years to sixty. Sixpence a month was charged for tuition, and reading, writing, and arithmetic were taught.

On April 1 another letter came from Beasley, saying an additional 1½d. a day was to be allowed for coffee and sugar, the same to be issued twice a week. News came of Napoleon's downfall and the entrance of the allies into Paris. As the French prisoners were now about to