lest they were to be left to starve; but
at length the heavy bolts of the iron door were shot back, and a leg of
mutton was thrust inside. Nobody had a knife, every weapon had been
taken from them, and if they had, they were all too hungry to wait to
use it. They sprang on the food like wolves and gnawed it like dogs.

For a week they all remained in their dungeon, and then Howard, at any
rate, was allowed to leave it, and was sent first to Morlaix and then to
Carpaix, where he was kindly treated by the gaoler, in whose house he
lived. Howard gave his word that he would not try to escape, and for
two months he remained there--a prisoner on parole, as it is
called--writing letters to prisoners he had left behind him, who had not
been so fortunate as himself. From what he had gone through he could
easily guess what they were suffering, and determined that when once he
got back to England he would do everything in his power to obtain their
freedom.

[Illustration: They sprang on the food like wolves.]

In two months Howard was informed by his friend the gaoler that the
governor had decided that he should be sent to England, in order that he
might arrange to be exchanged for a French naval officer, after swearing
that in case this could not be managed, he would return as a prisoner to
Brest. It was a great trial of any man's good faith, but it was not
misplaced, and happily the exchange was easily made. No sooner were his
own affairs settled than Howard set about freeing his countrymen, and
very shortly some English ships were sent to Brest with a cargo of
French prisoners and came back with an equal number of English ones, all
of whom owed their liberty to Howard's exertions.

His captivity in France first gave him an idea of the state of prisons
and the sufferings of prisoners, but eighteen years were to pass before
the improvement of their condition became the business of his life.

* * * * *

Mr. Howard was appointed high sheriff for the county of Bedford in 1773,
and as such had the prisons under his charge. The high sheriffs who had
gone before him were of course equally bound to see that everything
inside the gaol was clean and well-ordered, but nobody really expected
them to trouble their heads about the matter, and certainly they never
did. However, Mr. Howard's notion of his duty was very different. He at
once visited the county prison in Bedford, and the misery that he found