by G. A. Henty
Chapter 8: To Scotland.
Two days later the regiment was paraded, but no order had beenreceived for their start, and their destination was stilluncertain. The officers stood in a group, awaiting the arrival ofthe colonel, who entered, accompanied by Colonel Wauchop andseveral other Irish officers. As there had been no notice of anofficial inspection, there was a general feeling of surprise atthe appearance of the visitors. The colonel rode up to the groupof officers.
"Gentlemen," he said, "I must ask you all to accompany me to thecommon room. I have news of importance to give you."
He and those with him dismounted, and, followed by the wonderingofficers of the regiment, went into the large room where theygathered in the evening.
"The news that I am about to give you is of an important and happynature. His Most Gracious Majesty has decided to send anexpedition to Scotland, where the whole country is ready to risein favour of our lawful king."
A cheer broke from his hearers.
"Many Scottish and Irish gentlemen," the colonel went on, "havebeen selected to accompany it. Among them is my friend, ColonelWauchop, and the officers with him. The expedition will consist ofsix thousand French troops. I regret to say that no Irishregiments will accompany it."
A groan of disappointment followed this announcement.
"We must hope," the colonel said, "that Irish troops are notemployed, only because it is intended that another expedition willsail to Ireland, in which case we may be sure that some of us willhave an opportunity of fighting, again, on our own side of thewater. Moreover, between France and Scotland there has long been aclose connection and friendship, and the employment of Frenchtroops would, therefore, better suit the Scots than would be thecase with Irishmen. Another reason perhaps is, the King of Francedoes not like to spare his best troops, when he has sore need ofthem in Flanders and Spain.
"However, a number of Irish officers will accompany theexpedition, for the purpose of drilling and commanding the newlevies, for which work they will be far better suited, by theirknowledge of English, than French officers would be. Therefore,the various Irish regiments are all to furnish a certain number oflieutenants. Generals Hamilton, Sheldon, Dorrington, and LordsGalmoy and Fitzgerald, and our friend Colonel Wauchop will be incommand of the newly-raised force, having with them many Scotchofficers now in the service of France.
"The secret of the expedition has been well kept, but I have knownit for a fortnight, and have prepared a list of the fifteenofficers who are to go. I may say that, in order to avoidpartiality, I have, with one exception, selected them by lot.Those who are to go will doubtless consider themselves fortunate.Those who are to stay are still more lucky, if, as I hope, theregiment will form part of a similar expedition sent to Ireland."
He then read out the list of the officers chosen. O'Sullivan andO'Neil were both among them, and the name of Desmond Kennedy wasthe last read out.
"You will, gentlemen, start in an hour's time, taking the northernroad through Montvidier and Arras. In each of these towns you willbe joined by officers from other regiments. Colonel Wauchop willaccompany you. I do not name the port from which you are to sail,and no word must be said, by you, as to the route you are totravel; but you can no doubt judge for yourselves, by the roadthat you are taking, what port is your destination. The Frenchtroops will be already there, and the fleet is all in readiness.
"You all have horses. You can each take your soldier servant withyou, but those who do so must either hire or purchase a horse forhim. All further details you will learn from Colonel Wauchop, andthe paymaster will have orders to issue two months' pay to each ofyou, in advance. The distance will be about a hundred and fiftymiles, and you will perform it in five days."
Colonel Wauchop then addressed a few words to the officers, all ofwhom were under the rank of captain.
"Gentlemen," he said, "you have an honourable task before you. Foryears we have been waiting for the day when our swords might aidto place our king upon the throne. At last it has come. I need notsay that the struggle will be a severe one, and that your couragewill be taxed to the utmost, but you have proved that in a scoreof desperate fights.
"The task before you will need tact to no ordinary degree. TheScotch are as peppery a race as the Irish are, and it will benecessary in no way to hurt their feelings, or to excite amongthem the smallest degree of discontent at being drilled and led bymen who are not of their own race.
"And now, as we have much to do before starting, I will leave youto make your arrangements. The rendezvous for us all is in yourbarrack yard, and at nine o'clock we shall be here."
The colonel now left the room, and the officers eagerly andexcitedly talked over the startling news that they had just heard.The greater part of those who had been selected for the servicewere delighted to go, while the others were equally pleased, atthe thought that they might shortly be fighting for King James onthe soil of Ireland.
"Sure, your honour, I wish it had been in the ould country insteadof Scotland," Mike said, when he heard the news.
"I cannot say that I agree with you, Mike. In Ireland, we shouldfind tens of thousands of brave hearts ready to join us, but theyare unarmed, undrilled, and undisciplined, and would be ofcomparatively slight assistance to us against the English troops.Defeat would bring down fresh persecutions, fresh confiscations,and greater misery upon the land."
"Sure we would beat them, your honour."
"We might, Mike; but you must remember that we failed to do so,even when the people were armed. No doubt we shall take a certainamount of muskets and ammunition with us, but the power of Englandis more assuredly fixed in Ireland now than it was then--theinfluence of the old Irish families is broken, and even if wearmed all who joined us, it would be but an armed rabble and notan army.
"In Scotland it is altogether different. The Scottish clans wouldjoin us under their chiefs, to whom they give absolute obedience,and they would turn out armed and ready for action. Thus, then, Ithink that, allowing that Ireland is as loyal as Scotland, thechoice has been a wise one."
"Sure, you know best, your honour; but I will warrant that as soonas Scotland rises, Ireland will be in a blaze from one end to theother."
"That may well be, Mike; but there will then be a chance ofsuccess, since the English forces will be fully occupied by ourdescent in the north, which will threaten London, while Irelandcan be left to itself until the main question is settled."
"It is mighty lucky, your honour, that I should have stuck to thehorse we got when we rescued Miss Pointdexter."
"I am very glad, too, Mike, for otherwise I should have had to buyone, and it is likely enough that I may want all the money I have,before this campaign that we are starting upon is over."
O'Neil and O'Sullivan, at this moment, burst into the room.
"It is glorious that we three should all be going, Kennedy!" thelatter exclaimed. "It is just your luck, for you are the onlyensign named, while the regiment will be left with only fourlieutenants. Of course, I should be still better pleased if wewere going to Ireland. Still, for anything we know that expeditionmay not come off, and, so that we are fighting for the king, it'sall one whether it is in Scotland or at home."
Having seen that all was ready for departure, Desmond went to thecolonel's quarters to say goodbye. Several of the officers whowere going were already there, and the colonel motioned to him tostay until they had left. When they had done so, he said:
"Perhaps you guessed, Kennedy, that you were the one exception Imentioned to the rule I adopted, of fixing by lot upon those whowere to go."
"No, indeed, sir," Desmond said, in surprise; "I thought it anextraordinary piece of good fortune that I should be the onlyensign to go, when there were so many others all senior to me.Indeed, I thought for a moment of saying that I would resign, infavour of one who was older and more experienced than myself; butthen it struck me that if I did, some of the junior lieutenantsmight feel themselves obliged to do the same, in favour of theirseniors."
"I should not, in any case, have permitted a change to be made. Ihad decided that, in order to avoid jealousy, chance should decidethe matter. Indeed, you are the only ensign going with theexpedition. I informed Colonel Wauchop and General Hamilton of thereason for which I specially included you.
"So long as it was supposed that the regiment was on the point ofmarching to Spain, I considered that, if you took my advice anddid not leave the barracks after nightfall, no harm would befallyou. But the case is altered, now that it may remain here for sometime, for no doubt it will take part in any expedition sent toIreland. I have heard, within the past forty-eight hours, that thefriends of de Tulle have made very strong representations to theking. They have urged that your proceedings, involving what theycall the murder of their kinsman, were of the nature of civil war;and that, if his conduct had been reprehensible, it was for theBaron de Pointdexter to lay the matter before His Majesty and askfor redress.
"I hear, however, the king received their remonstrances coldly,told them that de Tulle had brought his fate upon himself, that itwas the duty of every gentleman to endeavour to rescue a lady, sofeloniously carried off, and that he approved of the readiness andenergy with which you had taken steps to do so.
"On finding, then, that they have failed in their hope of havingyou sent to one of the royal prisons, from which you wouldprobably never have come out alive, I have no doubt whatever thatthese people will endeavour to take the matter into their ownhands, and that, with the means at their disposal, they will findno difficulty in procuring persons who would undertake toassassinate you. As I have said, if you had at once started forthe army, we might have looked after your safety until you crossedthe frontier, but here in Paris you would not be safe for an hour,and could scarce venture between the barracks and your lodging,unless under a strong guard. Under such circumstances, I considerthat I was justified in placing you on the list of the officerswho would accompany the expedition.
"I explained to General Hamilton and Colonel Wauchop, who bothhappened to be with me, my reasons for wishing to include so youngan officer in the ranks of those selected for the service. Theofficers heartily agreed with me, having, of course, heard thestory, or, at any rate, the main facts of your rescues ofMademoiselle de Pointdexter."
"I am indeed greatly obliged to you, Colonel. I know that it is adangerous thing to incur the enmity of one of those powerfulfamilies, and, though I should certainly have taken everyprecaution in my power, I felt that I should be in constant dangeruntil we fairly embarked upon a campaign."
At nine o'clock the party started. It numbered some fiftyofficers, Scotch and Irish. The baggage had started half an hourbefore. It was to join the carts, with the baggage of the otherofficers, outside the northern gates; and was under an escort ofdragoons, whose officer had powers given him to requisition freshhorses at each town through which he passed, and so to push on tothe port with but two halts.
Once off, there was no longer any necessity for keeping theirdestination a secret, and the officers were informed that, as theyhad already guessed, Dunkirk was the harbour from which they wereto sail.
The journey was a pleasant one. All were in the highest spirits. Ashort distance behind them marched a body of infantry, composedentirely of noncommissioned officers, of whom O'Brien's regimentfurnished thirty. All were picked men, and, marching each day asfar as the party of officers rode, arrived at Dunkirk on the fifthday after starting, and were at once embarked on the ships of war.
Colonel Wauchop and the officers of O'Brien's regiment were toldoff to the Salisbury, which was a ship that had been taken fromthe English, and was now loaded with military stores, arms, andmunitions for the use of those who were expected to join them onlanding. After seeing that the officers were all properlyaccommodated, the colonel went ashore, and when he returned it wasat once seen, by the expression of his face, that something waswrong.
"I have very bad news," he said. "King James, who arrived here twodays ago, has been taken suddenly ill, and until he is partiallyrecovered we cannot sail, for it is absolutely necessary that heshould be with us. This may mean the delay of a week or ten days,and may defeat all our arrangements. The English Government havespies here, as well as elsewhere; and their fleet has, for thelast week, been hovering off the coast. They may not have knownthe purpose of the assembly of troops here, for this has been keptstrictly secret; and few even of the French officers of theexpedition knew, until they arrived here, for what reason theregiments had been ordered to Dunkirk. But the arrival of KingJames, of course, showed what was the intention, and, as soon asthe news reaches London, you may be sure that the English fleetwill be sent to intercept us."
It was, indeed, ten days before James was sufficiently recoveredto be embarked--a delay which probably cost him his kingdom, forthere can be no doubt that, on landing, he would have been joinedat once by all the great clans, and by no small proportion of theable-bodied men of the country.
The consequences were so evident, to all engaged in theexpedition, that despondency took the place of the enthusiasm withwhich they had embarked. The fact that the expedition, after beingso carefully and secretly prepared, should at its outset meet withso serious a misfortune, was considered an omen of evil. At last,however, James embarked, under a salute by the guns of the shipsof war; and as the sails were hoisted and the anchors weighed, thespirits of all again rose.
They had sailed but a few miles when it became evident that theSalisbury was the slowest ship in the fleet, for, although she hadevery stitch of canvas set, she lagged behind the rest, and theother vessels were obliged to lower some of their sails, in orderto allow her to keep up with them.
"I begin to think, Kennedy," O'Neil said, "that the good fortunethat has hitherto attended you has spent itself. O'Sullivan and Iboth regarded it as a good omen that you should be the one ensignselected to go with us, but this miserable delay at Dunkirk, andthe fact that we are on board the slowest tub in the fleet, seemsto show that Dame Fortune is no longer going to exercise herselfin your favour."
"It looks like it, indeed," Desmond agreed. "Still, I can't holdmyself responsible for either the king's illness, or for our beingallotted to this heavy-sailing craft; and, perhaps, even iffortune should not favour me any longer, she will do something forsome of the others.
"She has always been favourable to Colonel Wauchop. He has beenthrough innumerable engagements. Though many times wounded, he hasnever been seriously so, though scores of other officers havefallen in enterprises in which he has taken part. In his case,fortune has not been fickle, and, as he is the chief officer onboard, we must hope that she has not deserted him on thisoccasion. I think there is a certain amount of luck in the factthat we carry a large amount of guns and ammunition. If that hadnot been the case, it is likely that, rather than delay, thesquadron would sail on at full speed, and have left us to followas best we might."
A constant watch was maintained at the masthead of the ship, butno signs were seen of the English fleet, until, on the 23rd ofMarch, six days after sailing, they reached the mouth of the Firthof Forth, and were congratulating themselves that they had broughtthe voyage to a successful termination.
At daybreak next morning, however, just as they were about toenter the estuary, they beheld the masts of a great fleet comingout to meet them. This was the squadron of Sir George Byng, whichhad for some days been on the coast, having been despatched assoon as the news reached London of the gathering of ships andtroops at Dunkirk, and of the arrival of the Pretender there. TheFrench admiral at once signalled to all the ships to put about,and he lay off until the English fleet were near enough to discernits composition, which was far superior in force to his own.Seeing the impossibility of landing the troops and stores, and theslight chances of success in giving battle, he hoisted the signalfor all to make their way back to Dunkirk, keeping as much aspossible together, in order to defend themselves if overtaken, orif intercepted by another hostile fleet.
In vain, James begged that a few boa
ts might be given him, withwhich to land with his chief followers. The French admiral repliedthat his instructions would not justify him in doing so, and thathe had been ordered to specially protect the person of the youngking, whose safety was of the highest concern to his sovereign.
It was with the deepest feeling of disappointment, and depression,that the Scotch and Irish officers heard that it was determined tosail for Dunkirk again. Had the troops on board the ships been oftheir own nationality, they would have ordered them to disobey theadmiral's commands, and to insist upon the fleet, if it succeededin evading the pursuit of the enemy, making another effort toeffect a landing. As, however, all the soldiers were French, withthe exception of the two or three hundred noncommissioned Irishofficers, they were powerless, and were half mad with rage andgrief.
"This looks bad for us," O'Sullivan said gravely to his twofriends. "I think that the French ships will outsail the English,but there is little chance that this unwieldy craft will do so; inwhich case, my friends, it is likely that we shall all see theinside of an English prison, and that probably not a few of uswill be executed. The colonel should be safe, for he came overwith the Brigade after Limerick, and therefore by that treaty wasallowed to enter the service of France; but it is different withthe rest of us. We have all joined since those days, and aretherefore not covered by the treaty, and so are liable to be triedas traitors."
O'Neil shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, we knew that when we joined," he said. "However, I hardlythink they are likely to proceed to such an extremity. Very manyof our Brigade have been taken prisoners, at Blenheim and otherplaces, and they have always had the same treatment as otherprisoners of war."
"That may be," O'Sullivan replied; "but this is a differentmatter. It is not a question of war on foreign soil. We were goingto attack the throne of Anne, to promote civil war, and tooverthrow the Government. The attempt once made can be made again,and you may be sure that the news of our sailing has created atremendous scare throughout the country. However, we are in forit, and there is no use grumbling against fate. Already, you see,the rest of the fleet are leaving us--faster, I think, than theEnglish fleet are gaining on us--and I trust they will get safelyaway into Dunkirk.
"The fact that we so nearly succeeded will, perhaps, act as aninducement to Louis to renew the expedition; and the loss of acolonel, fifteen lieutenants, and thirty noncommissioned officerswill not seriously affect anyone except ourselves."
"However," Desmond put in, "I think that, after all, things maynot be as bad as you think. In the first place, our executionwould have an extremely bad effect in Scotland and Ireland, andwould add to the general hostility to the present Government. Inthe next place, Louis has many English prisoners in his hands, andmight threaten reprisals. Lastly, there is always a chance ofescape."
"Your first two arguments are good, Kennedy," O'Neil said, "but Icannot say as much for the last. The chances of escape from anEnglish prison must be small indeed."
"Nevertheless there must always be chances," Desmond said. "If youwill take my advice you will at once go below, and conceal yourmoney."
"Where are we going to conceal it?" O'Sullivan said. "You may besure that we shall be searched."
"Well, you took my advice, in changing the silver in which youwere paid into gold, though you lost pretty heavily by thetransaction. We did it to prevent lugging about a heavy bag ofsilver. Now, it has its advantages. You could not hope to concealsilver, but we may, at least, hide a few pieces of gold. Mike is ahandy fellow, and I have no doubt will be able to help us. At anyrate, let us go below and see what can be done."
Mike was summoned to the cabin.
"Now, Mike," Desmond said, "I suppose, in a campaign, a good manyof you carry what money you may have about you, and I dare saysome of you hide it so that, if you are taken prisoners, you mayhave means of adding to your prison fare."
"We do, your honour; and, by the same token, I have a score ofcrowns in between the soles of my boots. It does not alwayssucceed, for if your boots happen to be good, the chances are thatsomeone takes a fancy to them. Still, on the whole, that is thebest place there is, for they are sure to feel all the lining ofyour clothes."
"Well, we want to hide some gold, Mike. In another hour we shallhave the English within shot of us, and, of course, fighting isout of the question. Do you think that you will have time to hidea dozen gold pieces in each of our boots?"
Mike looked doubtful.
"To do the thing properly, your honour, one should take off thelower sole, take some leather out of the upper one, put some moneyin, and then sew it up again; but it would take more than an hourto do one pair."
He thought for a moment.
"The quickest way would be to get out the inside lining of thesole, then to cut out enough leather for the money to lie in, thento put in the lining again. It would not be soft walking on atwenty-mile march, but I think, if I get the lining in tight, witha few little nails to keep it from dropping out, if anyone takesthe trouble to turn the boots upside down, I might manage it."
"Well, let us commence at once, then, Mike. We have all got ridingboots, and can put them on before we are taken prisoners. Do youtake the linings out, as you say, and then we will help to cut outsome of the leather of the upper sole."
They were quickly at work. Mike cut out enough of the thin liningto admit of a hole being made, large enough to hold ten louis ineach boot, and he and the two officers then set to work, to cutout a sufficient depth of leather for the coins to lie side byside. Half an hour sufficed for this.
The coins were put in. Mike had, in the meantime, obtained ahandful of pitch and melted it at the galley fire. This he ran inover the gold, and then replaced the pieces of lining with hotpitch.
"There, your honours," he said, when he had finished. "I call thata neat job, and it would be hard, indeed, if the spalpeens findthat there is anything amiss. And, with these heavy boots, theextra weight won't betray that there is anything hidden.
"Don't put them on till the last moment. Give them time to cool,for if any of it oozes out, you will stick your stockings so tightto it that you won't get your foot out without laving thembehind."
Leaving their high boots in the cabin, the three young men went ondeck. The leading vessel of the British fleet was not more than amile astern, while the French fleet was three miles ahead, havinggained more than a mile since the chase began. Mike had been givenfour louis, which he said he could hide in his mouth.
Five minutes later, there was a puff of smoke from their pursuer'sbow. The ball struck the water close to them.
"Shall I hold on, Colonel?" the captain of the ship asked ColonelWauchop.
"There is no use in your doing so. That ship will be alongside inan hour, and it might only cause a useless loss of life were we tokeep on. If she were alone I should say, let her come alongside,and with your crew and our officers and men we might, if we hadluck, take her by boarding; but, with the whole fleet close behindus, it would be madness to think of such a thing, as we have buttwelve guns, and those of small weight."
Accordingly, the topsails were run down, and the courses brailedup, and the ship lay motionless till the English frigate came up.Signals had been exchanged between the English vessels, and asthey came along six of them dropped boats, each with some twentymen in it. While these rowed towards the prize, the fleet pressedon, under all canvas, in pursuit of the French squadron.
The English officer in command of the boats received the swords ofthe French officers, and the noncommissioned officers were allsent below into the hold. All sail was at once got on to thevessel again, and she followed in the wake of the fleet. TheEnglish lieutenant then took the names of the prisoners.
"You are all Irish," he said, seriously. "I am sorry, gentlemen,that this should be so, for I fear that it will go harder with youthan if you were French, when, of course, you would be merelyprisoners of war."
"We should be prisoners of war, now," Colonel Wauchop said. "Weare in the
service of the King of France, and were but obeying hisorders, along with our French comrades."
"I hope they may see it in that light, in London," the officersaid courteously; "but I doubt whether, at the present moment,they will take a calm view of the subject. However, I hope theywill do so, especially as no shot has been fired by you, and theycannot charge you with resisting capture. At any rate, gentlemen,I will do my best to make you comfortable while you are under mycharge. I must ask a few of you to shift your quarters, so as tomake room for me and the three officers with me; beyond that youwill continue, as before, to use the ship as passengers."
When darkness set in, the pursuit was discontinued. The Frenchfleet was fully ten miles ahead, and it was evident that there wasno chance, whatever, of overtaking it; while there was a risk ofits doubling back during the night, and again making its waynorth. The greater part of the sails of the men-of-war weretherefore furled, while the frigates and corvettes made off, oneither hand, to establish themselves as sentries during the night,and to give warning should the French fleet be seen returning. Anhour and a half after the pursuit had ceased, the Salisbury joinedthe fleet, and the officer in command went on board the admiral'sship, to report the number of prisoners taken and the nature ofher cargo.
The officers had, at his invitation, dined with him and hisofficers in the cabin. All political topics had been avoided, andno one who had looked in would have supposed that the majority ofthose present were the prisoners of the others. The Irishtemperament quickly shakes off a feeling of depression, and themeal was as lively as it had been during the voyage north.
The lieutenant, however, omitted no precaution. A dozen men keptguard over the prisoners below, and as many more, with loadedmuskets, were always stationed on deck. The Irish officers sawthat, among many of the sailors, there was a strong feeling ofsympathy with them. The fleet had been largely recruited byimpressment; and by the handing over, to the naval authorities, ofnumbers of men imprisoned for comparatively slight offences; and,as was natural, these had but small feeling of kindness towardsthe government who had so seized them; while many shared in thefeeling of loyalty towards the house of Stuart, which was still soprevalent among the population.
At daybreak, the cruisers all returned. None had seen any signs ofthe French squadron, and Sir George Byng, leaving the majority ofthe fleet to maintain watch, sailed with his prize for Harwich.Here the prisoners were handed over to the military authorities;while the admiral started for London, in a post chaise, to carrythe news of the failure of the French to effect a landing, and oftheir return to Dunkirk,--news that was received with exuberantdelight by the supporters of Government, and the commercialportion of the population, who had been threatened by ruin. Therun upon the banks had been unprecedented, and although the Houseof Commons had relaxed the regulations of the Bank of England, thepanic was so great that it could not have kept its doors openanother twelve hours.
The treatment of the prisoners was now very different from what ithad been on board ship. Not only were they confined to prison,but, to their indignation, irons were placed on their legs, as ifthey had been common malefactors. The only mitigation allowed tothem was that their servants were permitted to attend upon them.Their clothes had been rigorously searched, and their boots takenoff, but no suspicions had been entertained that coin had beenhidden in those of Desmond and his friends.
Two days later an order was received from Government, and theofficers were marched up to town, ironed as they were, under astrong guard, and were imprisoned at Newgate. Callaghan and theother servants remained in prison at Harwich.
"Things are looking bad, Kennedy," O'Neil said dolefully, for thethree officers had, at their own request, been allotted a celltogether.
"They don't look very bright, but we must make allowance for theawful fright that, as we hear, has been caused by the expedition.Possibly, when they have got over the shock, things may bebetter."
"I will never forgive them for putting irons on us," O'Sullivansaid passionately. "If they had shot us at once, it was, Isuppose, what we had a right to expect; but to be treated likemurderers, or ruffians of the worst kind, is too bad."
"Well, we were rid of the irons as soon as we got here. No doubtthese were only put on to prevent the possibility of any of usescaping. I am sure, by their looks, that some of our escort wouldwillingly have aided us, only that it was impossible to do so;and, knowing how large a number of persons would sympathize withus, I cannot blame them so very much for taking steps to preventour escape."
"I never saw such a fellow as you for finding excuses for people,"O'Sullivan said, almost angrily. "You look at things as calmly asif they concerned other people, and not ourselves."
Kennedy smiled.
"If an opinion is to be worth anything, O'Sullivan, it must be animpartial one; and it is best to look at the matter calmly, and toform our plans, whatever they may be, as if they were intended tobe carried out by other people."
O'Sullivan laughed.
"My dear fellow, if you had not gone through those adventures, Ishould have said that you had mistaken your vocation, and were cutout for a philosopher rather than a soldier. However, althoughyour luck did not suffice to save the Salisbury from capture, wemust still hope that it has not altogether deserted you; andanyhow, I am convinced that, if it be possible for anyone toeffect an escape from this dismal place, you are the man."
Newgate, in those days, stood across the street, and constitutedone of the entrances to the city. Its predecessor had been burnt,in the great fire of 1666, and the new one was at this time lessthan forty years old, and, though close and badly ventilated, hadnot yet arrived at the stage of dirt and foulness which afterwardsbrought about the death of numbers of prisoners confined there,and in 1750 occasioned an outbreak of jail fever, which not onlyswept away a large proportion of the prisoners, but infected thecourt of the Old Bailey close to it, causing the death of the lordmayor, several aldermen, a judge, many of the counsel and jurymen,and of the public present at the trials.
The outward appearance of the building was handsome, but the cellswere, for the most part, small and ill ventilated.
"This place is disgraceful," O'Neil said. "There is barely roomfor our three pallets. The air is close and unwholesome, now, butin the heat of summer it must be awful. If their food is as vileas their lodging, the lookout is bad, indeed."
"I fancy the cells in the French jails are no better," O'Sullivansaid. "No doubt, in the state prisons, high-born prisoners aremade fairly comfortable; but the ordinary prisoners andmalefactors, I have been told, suffer horribly. Thank goodness Ihave never entered one; but even the barrack cells can scarcely becalled inviting."
"You are learning philosophy from Kennedy," O'Neil said, with alaugh.
"I don't know that I shall feel philosophic, if we are served withnothing but bread and water. However, the turnkey told us that,until we have been tried and condemned, we are at liberty to getour food from outside--certainly a mockery, in most cases,considering that we all were relieved of any money found upon us,when we arrived in Harwich. It is a comfort that we are, as hesaid, to take our meals together, and the money we have in ourboots will alleviate our lot for some time. Probably, it will lasta good deal longer than we are likely to be here."
When they joined their companions, in the room in which they wereto dine, all were astonished at seeing an excellent dinner on thetable, with eight bottles of wine.
"Is this the way they treat prisoners here?" Colonel Wauchop askedone of the jailers, of whom six remained present.
The man smiled.
"No, indeed. It has been sent in from a tavern outside, and with amessage that a like meal will be provided, as long as you arehere. One of us was sent across, to enquire as to the person whohad given the order. The landlord said that he was a stranger tohim, but that he had paid him a fortnight in advance, and wouldcall in and renew the order, at the end of that time."
"Well, gentlemen," the colonel said, "before we begin
to eat, wewill drink the health of our unknown benefactor. Not only is thegift a generous and expensive one, but it cannot be without dangerto the donor, for none but a strong adherent of King James wouldhave thought of thus relieving our necessities."
It was plain that the authorities suspected that some messagemight have been sent in to the prisoners, concealed in the viands.The bread had been cut up into small squares, the crust had beenlifted from two pasties, the meat had evidently been carefullysearched; and the turnkeys placed themselves round the table sothat they could narrowly watch every one of the prisoners, as theyate, and notice any movement that would seem to indicate that theyhad come across some pellet of paper or other substance.
Every day, the servants at the tavern brought in similar fare, andthis continued as long as the prisoners were in the jail; and itwas a matter of deep regret, to all, that they were never able todiscover the name of the person to whom they were so muchindebted.