Part 50 (1/2)
It was a strange threat for an unarmed prisoner to make.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
ON THE GASPEE.
Never before had English officer been spoken to in that manner by prisoner.
Prescott knew not what to make of it. Had he dared he would have shot Allen on the spot, but he well knew that to do so would be the cause of an investigation into his conduct, and Prescott was guilty of many things which, if sworn to before a court-martial, would have led to his dismissal from the army, if no other punishment was incurred.
So he allowed himself to be led away, but as he went he shook his fist at Allen and shouted:
”I will not hang them just now, but you, you infernal rebel, shall grace a halter at Tyburn.”
Even the soldiers shuddered as they heard the threat, for Tyburn was the place, in England, where the most brutal murderers and criminals were hung in chains and allowed to stay there until their flesh rotted from their bones.
To be hung at Tyburn carried with it disgrace throughout all generations.
Gen. Prescott was in a fury; why, it was difficult to say, for Allen had never injured him personally.
”I'll hang that fellow,” he reiterated to the colonel of his own regiment.
”My dear Prescott, you will do nothing of the kind; he is a prisoner of war.”
”War be hanged! he is a rebel, not a soldier.”
”And being a rebel, he must be tried by the home authorities.”
”Col. Gilmartin, answer me; if he were to be on board a war s.h.i.+p and fall overboard and be drowned, could I be blamed?”
”Of course not.”
”If by accident he should be given a dose of oxalic acid in mistake for Epsom salts, would that be charged against me?”
”What are you hinting at, general?”
”That fellow threatened me----”
”He was exasperated.”
”What right had he to be? A man who rebels should be ready for any treatment by his superiors. Hang me, if I dared, I would cut every rebel into pieces and send the parts to his friends with my compliments. They deserve such treatment. Hang me, what right have they to rebel?”
”They think they have a right.”
”They think! Who are they? A lot of rapscalions who could not be content with their own country, but must come out here, and when we allow them to do so, they rebel. Englishmen worthy of the name never rebel.”
”And yet, general, there were a good many worthy Englishmen who rebelled against James and supported William the Third.”
”That was different, Gilmartin, different; they were patriots, and not rebels.”