Part 100 (2/2)
The embrasure opened on the big ditch which surrounds the fort--sixty feet wide and ten feet deep in salt water. Beyond the ditch, on the glacis, was a double line of sentinels and in the casemate rooms on either side of his prison were quartered that part of the guard which was not on post.
To render rest or comfort impossible a lighted lamp was placed within three feet of the prisoner's eyes and kept burning brightly all night.
His jailer knew he had but one eye whose sight remained and that he was a chronic sufferer from neuralgia.
His escape from Fortress Monroe was a physical impossibility without one of the extraordinary precautions taken. The purpose of these arrangements could have only been to inflict pain, humiliation and possibly to take his life. He had never been robust since the breakdown of his health on the Western plains. Worn by privation and exposure, approaching sixty years of age, he was in no condition physically to resist disease.
The damp walls, the coa.r.s.e food, the loss of sleep caused by the tramp of sentinels inside his room, outside and on the roof over his head and the steady blaze of a lamp in his eyes at night within forty-eight hours had completed his prostration.
But his jailers were not content.
On May twenty-third, Captain t.i.tlow entered his cell with two blacksmiths bearing a pair of heavy leg irons coupled together by a ponderous chain.
”I am sorry to inform you, sir,” the polite young officer began, ”that I have been ordered to put you in irons.”
”Has General Miles given that order?”
”He has.”
”I wish to see him at once, please.”
”General Miles has just left the fort, sir.”
”You can postpone the execution of your order until I see him?”
”I have been warned against delay.”
”No soldier ever gave such an order,” was the stern reply; ”no soldier should receive or execute it--”
”His orders are from Was.h.i.+ngton--mine are from him.”
”But he can telegraph--there must be some mistake--no such outrage is on record in the history of nations--”
”My orders are peremptory.”
”You shall not inflict on me and on my people through me this insult worse than death. I will not submit to it!”
”I sincerely trust, sir,” the Captain urged kindly, ”that you will not compel me to use force.”
”I am a gentleman and a soldier, Captain t.i.tlow,” was the stern answer.
”I know how to die--” he paused and pointed to the sentinel who stood ready. ”Let your men shoot me at once--I will not submit to this outrage!”
The prisoner backed away with his hand on a chair and stood waiting.
The Captain turned to his blacksmiths:
”Do your duty--put them on him!”
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