Prison Experiences
I was soon surrounded by a group of about a dozen panting, angry men.
They made no attempts to conceal their rage. I was seized by several
of them at once, violently shaken, and was asked so many questions all
at once that, for a time, I was afforded a pretext for not answering
any of them.
Finally quiet was restored. When the last man of the party had come
up, they formed a ring about me on the road. Every moment the shadows
of night were deepening, but I could clearly see that the fire of
revenge burned hot in every face. Nor did I wonder at this. Duncan's
escape had been so unexpected. They were as lions cheated of their
prey. Almost at the moment when their savage passion for sport of the
cruellest kind conceivable was to be gratified, their intended victim
had suddenly slipped through their fingers. The thought of what I had
been able to do filled me with a kind of fearlessness that prevented me
from shrinking, as the circle of angry men narrowed about me, I felt I
was at their mercy; I might be in great danger; I had been the means of
thwarting them; but a thrill of pride went through me at the thought
that I had been able to save the life of my dead father's dearest
friend.
The leader of the party was a tall, rough, awkward-looking man of
perhaps forty-five. I heard one of the men call him 'Colonel.' He
stepped into the ring and brought a huge pistol to the level of my
forehead.
'What's yer name?' he roared.
'Roger Davis,' I said.
'Where 're ye from?
'Cambridge.'
'Who sent ye out here?'
'I came out this morning, of my own accord, to hear the truth about
what took place at Lexington the day before yesterday. I was not sent
by any one.'
'The truth boy, or----' He showed the mouth of the pistol so near to
my face that I could have blown my breath into the muzzle--'the truth,
boy, or I'll blow----'
'I am not accustomed to speaking lies,' I broke in suddenly, with some
spirit and much warmth. 'I belong to no party, and I would have you
understand that you may yet have to answer for obstructing the King's
highway. I bid you stand out of my path, that I may proceed on my
journey.'
A great chorus of scornful laughter greeted my words. But I was spared
further questions at any rate. The circle opened on one side--the side
next to Lexington--and I was ordered to march. As I stepped out of the
group, I heard the click of several pistols being made ready for action.
We had not gone far, when I learned from the conversation which I could
not but hear, that the men behind me held sharply differing views as to
what should be done.
'We were instructed by the committee to hang him,' I heard one say;
'and this we did not do. We let him escape. I for one am opposed to
going back to Lexington. The committee have had their eye on Hale for
some months; and they considered that Providence had put him into their
hands this morning. They will be, I assure you, in no pleasant mood,
when they hear he is again at large, having obtained much valuable
information. And to think that there wasn't a single pistol ready when
he started.'
'Perhaps the committee will turn on us--have us arrested,' put in
another. 'An' hanged for neglectin' to fulfil orders,' said a third,
whom I had not before heard speaking. The strife and difference grew,
until many high, hot words were being spoken.
'Twasn't my fault that he escaped,' said one. 'Twas,' roared another.
'You was nearest to him.'
Then the lie was passed; and a moment later nothing but the violent
intervention of 'the Colonel' could have prevented both blows and shots.
Finally a halt was decided upon. It was agreed that I was to be kept a
prisoner: that two of the party were to convey me to the village and
hand me over to the proper authorities, while 'the Colonel' boldly
declared that he, in order to simplify matters, would inform the
committee that the spy Hale had been hanged according to instructions.
As I afterwards plodded on through the darkness with the tramp, tramp,
of my two guards sounding in my ears behind me, I wondered that twelve
men who had been reared in the King's Province of Massachusetts could
have consented to such a lying proposal without protest.
After a journey that seemed doubly long owing to my hunger and
weariness, we came to the village, and I was immediately handed over to
an official. Though it was very dark, he put a heavy bandage over my
eyes; then, with the men who had brought me following, I was led by a
very rough path through a field, and across a brook. But I said
nothing. It was not a time for words.
Finally we came to a stand. I could hear the sound as of heavy timbers
being removed and thrown down. Then there was the noise of the sliding
back of a door. In a few moments I was led into what seemed to be the
mouth of a cave. The air was damp, and I detected at once a close,
unpleasant odour.
It was not long before my eyes were unbandaged and I was permitted to
look about. The place seemed to have been dug out of solid rock; water
dripped from one side of the roof; there was no floor but the natural
rock. In one corner, supported on four stones, lay an old door. I
looked a moment at this, and then turned to the faces of three men who
stood about me. They were each eyeing me keenly. One of the faces I
felt sure I had seen--but where? The single lantern carried by the
jailer threw only a faint and imperfect light on the faces and on
everything about me; still I suddenly became certain that one of the
two men who stood before me was the man who had sprung into the room of
our house in pursuit of Duncan Hale. He looked at me very critically.
Then on a signal from him the jailer lifted the lantern and held it
close, so that a better light fell upon my face. The next moment all
the men suddenly withdrew. I heard the heavy timbers being thrown
against the closed door; a few words that sounded like oaths fell on my
ears, and then there was the tramp, tramp, of the men's feet as they
receded from the place. This sound gradually shaded into silence, and
I was left alone, the first prisoner of the great war.
For a time,--for a great, long time,--I stood immovable, where the men
had left me, in the centre of my dungeon, for a dungeon it really
seemed. What was to become of me? Had they put me here to starve? I
was hungry up to the point of faintness, for since early morning I had
been riding or walking almost continuously, and had eaten food but
once. The feeling of exhaustion growing upon me, I moved toward the
place where I remembered having seen the door resting on the four
stones. I found this and sat down.
All was dark about me. There was no sound but the occasional drip,
drip of the water from the rock above. The damp, cold air of the place
chilled me to the bone. It was certainly a strange place into which I
had been forced. Had it been a prison, I would have been content. But
the name 'prison' was much too dignified for my place of confinement.
I had visited a prison once with my father; I was familiar with the
quarters in which animals were housed; but I had never seen anything
like this. From my surroundings my mind finally wandered to other
things. I thought of Duncan Hale. Had he really escaped? If so, my
case might not yet be utterly hopeless, for I knew that Duncan, having
free access to Lord Percy, would at once make known my capture. But
had Duncan reached the British lines? Might he not have been
recaptured?
Then there were my mother and my helpless sisters. Would they know of
my being carried off? It was difficult to think they would, unless
Duncan had galloped directly home to tell them; and this I was quite
sure he would not risk doing. My mother was probably anxiously waiting
for my coming every moment. As matters looked at present, she must
wait long.
From this my mind passed to thinking upon consequences that might
follow from my having been recognised by the man who had brought me to
this place. If he knew me; if it were revealed that Duncan and my
father had both been doing much, for many months past, towards securing
information regarding the smuggling expeditions of many of the
so-called 'patriot' merchants; if it were learned that my brother was
in the King's service;--indeed, I felt that if any or all of these
facts became known, the chances of my being set at liberty would be
small.
During my experience on the road I had heard, in connection with the
case of Duncan Hale, much said of 'the committee.' I wondered what
this was. Were there not courts of justice in the land? By what
authority had any committee the right to pronounce sentence of death on
any man? Was the country not still the King's, and was it not still
under the King's laws? But in spite of the hotness of my indignation,
the dripping of the water by my side, and the frightful dampness and
cold of the place, with no covering over me, and with no pillow but my
arm, I finally slept upon the hard door.
When I awoke, I was surprised to find that, owing to a rain having set
in, the entire floor of the place was flooded almost to the edge of my
board bed, and that almost every part of the roof of my strange prison
dripped cold, muddy water. Light enough crept in about the door to
reveal to me the fact that I was in neither a dungeon nor cave, but in
an old mine. In spite of the cold and dampness of the place, I felt
refreshed by my sleep. I sat up, and almost at the same time I heard a
sound as of the removal of the heavy timbers about the door. This was
soon opened, and through it was pushed a large, dirty-looking wooden
bowl, and the door closed the next moment. I heard the timbers being
replaced, and then, as on the preceding night, the sound of the
footsteps died away in the distance.
Hunger mastered my feelings of resentment, and I drew the bowl toward
me. Floating in a kind of slate-coloured liquid, which may have been
intended for soup, I found two large balls or dumplings of offensive
beef rolled in dark and mouldy flour; but with the appetite of a bear,
I ate and drank almost the entire contents of the bowl.
The day passed; then another and another. I had read many stories of
captures and imprisonments, but in none of them could I find a parallel
for my own unhappy situation. With unvarying regularity at morning and
evening the same foul-smelling, unwashed bowl, filled with food that
varied only in degrees of offensiveness, was handed in to me. The life
and the food and the home of many beasts would have been a relief and a
joy to me. And what was my crime? I was a mere boy. I had never
spoken word nor lifted hand on either side. True, I had saved the life
of a man from the hands of a mob; and was I to drag out my life in a
dark, dripping, unhealthy cave for that?
It was well on in the third week of my bitter experience, just as I had
found it almost impossible to hope for deliverance, that, one
afternoon, I heard the sound of loud voices approaching. As the door
was being opened, I heard the voice of a man protesting loudly. He was
saying--
'I tell you again, I am on no side. I am an honest farmer, and wish to
go back to my farm from which you dragged me. I am neither Whig nor
Tory; I will not fight on the side of either King or people. I must
work my farm, and support my wife and children.'
As he spoke the last words, he was rudely pushed into the mine, where
his feet splashed some of the muddy water upon my face. A moment
later, and without a word from those outside, the door was closed, and
the timbers were replaced against it.