Roger Davis, Loyalist

Exper

nceal their rage. I was seized by several of them at once, violently shaken, and was asked so man

. 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

haps forty-five. I heard one of the men call him 'Colonel.' He steppe

er name?'

Davis,'

're y

brid

nt ye o

r the truth about what took place at Lexington the

tol so near to my face that I could have blown my br

'I belong to no party, and I would have you understand that you may yet have to answer for ob

y rate. The circle opened on one side-the side next to Lexington-and I was ordered to march. A

ion which I could not but hear, that the men behind me

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 n

ed for neglectin' to fulfil orders,' said a third, whom I had not before heard spea

ed,' said one. 'Twas,' roared a

thing but the violent intervention of 'the Col

dly 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,

d 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 fo

wn. Then there was the noise of the sliding back of a door. In a few moments I was led into what s

aces 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

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 b

t 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 t

they would, unless Duncan had galloped directly home to tell them; and this I was quite sure he would not risk doing.

d 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' mercha

hat 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 o

t 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 timbe

liquid, which may have been intended for soup, I found two large balls or dumplings of offensive beef rolled in

e 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

sible to hope for deliverance, that, one afternoon, I heard the sound of loud voices approach

farm from which you dragged me. I am neither Whig nor Tory; I will not fight on the s

lashed some of the muddy water upon my face. A moment later, and without a word f