PROVOST Marshal of an Army, is an officer appointed to seize and secure deserters, and all other criminals. He is to hinder soldiers from pillaging, to indict offenders, and see the sentence passed on them executed. He also regulates the weights and measures, and the price of provisions, &c. in the army. For the discharge of his office, he has a lieutenant, a clerk, and a troop of marshal-men on horseback, as also an executioner.
There is also a provost-marshall in the navy, who has charge over prisoners, &c.
The French also had a provost-general of the marines, whose duty it was to prosecute the marines when guilty of any crime, and to make report thereof to the council of war; besides a marine provost in every vessel, who was a kind of gaoler, and took the prisoners into his care, and kept the vessel clean.