ness.

the British in that quarter; and loud shouts were heard from the rabble which covered the shore; but when he arrived at the fort and was conducted into the officers' guard room, he was treated with politeGeneral Campbell, the commandant of the British garrison, sent his compliments to him and a surgeon to dress his wounds, assuring him that his situation should be made comfortable. The next morning, General Campbell invited him to breakfast, and at table paid him many compliments on the defence he had made, observing however, that he had exposed himself in a degree not perfectly justifiable. General Wadsworth replied, that from the manner of the attack he had no reason to suspect any design of taking him alive, and that he intended therefore to sell his life as dearly as possible. "But, Sir," says General Campbell, "I understand that the captain of the privateer treated you very ill, I shall see that matter set right." He then informed the prisoner, that a room in the officers' barracks within the fort, was prepared for him, and that he should send his orderly sergeant daily to attend him to breakfast and dinner at his table. Having retired to his solitary apartment, and while his spirits were extremely depressed by a recollection of the past, and by his present situation, he received from General Campbell several books of amusement, and soon after a visit from him, kindly endeavoring to cheer the spirits of his prisoner by conversation. Not long after, the officers of the party called, and among others the redoubtable captain of the privateer, who called to ask pardon for what had fallen from him when in a passion, adding, that it was not in his nature to treat a gentleman prisoner ill, that the unexpected disappointment of his cruise had thrown him off his guard, and he hoped that this would be deemed a sufficient apology. This General Wadsworth accepted. At the hour of dining he was invited to the table of the commandant, where he met with all the principal

officers of the garrison, and from whom he received particular attention and politeness. General Wadsworth soon made application to the commandant for a flag of truce, by which means he could transmit a letter to the governor of Massachusetts, and another to Mrs. Wadsworth, this was granted, on the condition that the letter to the governor should be inspected. The flag was entrusted to Lieutenant Stockton, and on his return, the general was relieved from all anxiety respecting his wife and family. General Campbell, and the officers of the garrison, continued their civilities for some time, and endeavored by books and personal visits to render his situation as pleasant as circumstances would admit of. At the end of five weeks, his wound being nearly healed, he requested of General Campbell, the customary privilege of a parole, and received in reply, that his case had been reported to the commanding officer at New York, and that no alteration could be made till orders were received from that quarter. In about two months, Mrs. Wadsworth, and Miss Fenno arrived, and General Campbell, and some of the officers, contributed to render their visit agreeable to all concerned. About the same time, orders were received from the commanding general at New York, which were concealed from General Wadsworth, but he finally learnt that he was not to be paroled nor exchanged, but was to be sent to England as a rebel of too much consequence to be at liberty. Not long afterwards Major Benjamin Burton, a brave and worthy man, who had served under General Wadsworth the preceding summer, was taken and brought into the fort, and lodged in the same room with General Wadsworth. He had been informed, that both himself and the general were to be sent, immediately after the return of a privateer now out on a cruise, either to New York or Halifax, and thence to England. The prisoners immediately resolved to make a desperate attempt to effect their escape. They

were confined in a grated room in the officers' barracks within the fort. The walls of this fortress, exclusively of the depth of the ditch surrounding it, were twenty feet high, with fraising on the top, and chevaux de frise at the bottom. Two sentinels were always in the entry, and their door, the upper part of which was of glass, might be opened by these watchmen whenever they thought proper, and was actually opened at seasons of peculiar darkness and silence. At the exterior doors of the entries, sentinels were also stationed, as were others in the body of the fort, and at the quarters of General Campbell. At the guard house, a strong guard was daily mounted. Several sentinels were stationed on the walls of the fort, and a complete line occupied them by night. Without the ditch, glacis and abattis, another complete set of soldiers patroled through the night, also. The gate of the fort was shut at sun set, and a piquet guard was placed on or near the isthmus leading from the fort to the main land.

The room in which they were confined was railed with boards. One of these they determined to cut off so as to make a hole large enough to pass through, and then to creep along till they should come to the next or middle entry; and then lower themselves down into this entry by a blanket. If they should not be discovered, the passage to the walls of the fort was easy. In the evening, after the sentinels had seen the prisoners retire to bed, General Wadsworth got up and standing in a chair attempted to cut with his knife the intended opening, but soon found it impracticable. The next day by giving a soldier a dollar they procured a gimblet. With this instrument they proceeded cautiously and as silently as possible to perforate the board, and in order to conceal every appearance from their servants and from the officers their visiters, they carefully covered the gimblet holes with chewed bread. At the end of three weeks their labors were so far completed that

it only remained to cut with a knife the parts which were left to hold the piece in its place. When their preparations were finished, they learned that the privateer in which they were to embark was daily expected. In the evening of the 18th of June, a very severe storm of rain, with great darkness and almost incessant lightning came on. This the prisoners considered as the propitious moment. Having extinguished their lights, they began to cut the corners of the board, and in less than an hour the intended opening was completed. The noise which the operation occasioned was drowned by the rain falling on the roof. Major Burton first ascended to the ceiling, and pressed himself through the opening. General Wadsworth next, having put the corner of his blanket through the hole and made it fast by a strong wooden skewer, attempted to make his way through, standing on a chair below, but it was with extreme difficulty that he at length effected it, and reached the middle entry. From this he passed through the door which he found open, and made his way to the wall of the fort, and had to encounter the greatest difficulty before he could ascend to the top. He had now to creep along the top of the fort between the sentry boxes at the very moment when the relief was shifting sentinels, but the falling of heavy rain kept the sentinels within their boxes, and favored his escape. Having now fastened his blanket round a picket at the top, he let himself down through the chevaux de frise to the ground, and in a manner astonishing to himself made his way into the open field. Here he was obliged to grope his way among rocks, stumps and brush in the darkness of night, till he reached the cove, happily the tide had ebbed and enabled him to cross the water about a mile in breadth and not more than three feet deep. About two o'clock in the morning General Wadsworth found himself a mile and a half from the fort, and he proceeded through a thick wood and brush to

the Penobscot river, and after passing some distance along the shore, being seven miles from the fort, to his unspeakable joy he saw his friend Burton advancing towards him. Major Burton had been obliged to encounter in his course equal difficulties with his companion, and such were the incredible perils, dangers and obstructions, which they surmounted, that their escape may be considered almost miraculous. It was now necessary they should cross the Penobscot river, and very fortunately they discovered a canoe with oars on the shore suited to their purpose. While on the river they discovered a barge with a party of British from the fort in pursuit of them, but by taking an oblique course, and plying their oars to the utmost, they happily eluded the eyes of their pursuers and arrived safe on the western shore. After having wandered in the wilderness for several days and nights, exposed to extreme fatigue and cold, and with no other food than a little dry bread and meat, which they brought in their pockets from the fort, they reached the settlements on the river St. George, and no further difficulties attended their return to their respective families.

Note V.

There is a particular transaction in the history of our Revolutionary war, which was known only to General Washington and a single confidential officer, the gallant Major Lee, commander of a corps of cavalry. As the story is particularly interesting, and as it has never been disclosed to the public, by any historian, except by Major Lee in his valuable memoirs, I cannot resist the temptation of enriching this work with the narration, in the words of the respectable author.

"Lately, John Champe, sergeant major of the legion of cavalry, who had been for several months con