The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1876-08-24

now WIS Dut not sound escaped hIIn,
| for he knew that silence was his only
| preservation.
''Well, rascal. you see what you are
coming to for Goserting from his majes-
| tvs service. halter, l suppose, is more
agreeable than good treatment and q sol
| dIer's pay"
Tins spoke Cunningham to the pris-
oner.
81 entered into the refugee corps for
my own reasons. They have proved
| satisfactory, the prisoner said, looking
| ut Cunningham with n bold counte-
nance.
eyes, Internally satisftcLory, you rob
| ell A spy, / s'pose DeLancy's re-
| fugees would be pretty set if they were
all like yon, you rogue. No, no I had
my eye on you when you listed, Il month
ago l told Colonel Delaney what [ be-
| lievel you was Not royal refugee,
| but a rebel scoundrel. 1 was right,
rogue, oh 2"
''Yes, yon were right as to my enlist
ing. As to being n rebel scoundrel,
why, there is an oifset-you are q royal
kravo and bloodtIirsty villain All the
information / wanted to send to the
great Washington. he has got before
this-so hang away! Bnt [ should like
five minutes communion with my God
first, if you have ihe manliness to grant
it. !"
Astonished as Cunningham was by the
boldness of the mans speech, he knew
full well that he himself was detested by
the English soldiely for his tyranny,
! and that n refusal of such request, to &
man on the point Of execution, would
only make him still more oaious among
them. With an i'll grace, he at length
said:
Pray, rascal, pray don't wonder
that knave like you fears death A
man who betrays his king betrays his
God, and ii is fail time that you try to
make your peace with Him. Three min
Gtes--three minutes ? That's all the
time you have from me. Go on your
knees at once, then. Sambo, have the
halter ready. Three minutes only"
The negro had placed the lantern on
the ground, directly under the gallows.
Its faint light cleaned upward, showing
a dim outline of the gallows frame, and
partially lighting the faces and forms of
the soldiers grouped, with their musi1ets
to an order, in a semicircle around the
scene of execution.
The prisoner bent down, resting his
knee upon The earth thrown up around
escape and as he looked upward to-
ward the heavens, although all was black
with night, yet his eye pierced through
the gloom, and he saw in the future re-
demption for the past! The quivering of
his lip showed his sincerity lie was pre-
pared to die. Of Sudden he bent his
head. Ah his prayer was hcard-res-
cue was at hand. His ife-oh glorious
thorght-was not to set in blood through
the hands of men
s'Harry! !" SAID voice, in whisper,
proceeding from the grave where tho
prisoner saw a dead body tossed but
few moments before, ''make no alarm.
'Iis /, your comrade, Dick Martin, of
Washington's Life Guard, come to save
you. Make some excuse to turn your
! back toward the hole where / have hid
den myself, and L will cut the rope by
which your hands are tied. When this
is done and you hear me groan, kick over
the lantern, and make for the east cor
ner of the graveyard i Will follow.
Things are ready for our escape. Re-
member, make no alarm -
The prisoner felt as if he had won en-
pires upon empires. His life was then
safe
''Come, rogue, your three minutes are
up. Sambo, the rope there"
The prisoner, without rising fron- his
knees, turned round SO that he faced the
| lantern, his back towards the grave The
| negro advanced with the halter, to place
| it around his neck. The scene was Strik-
| ing. In the foreground stood the sol
| diars, gazing with no very pleasant emu
tons, by the dim light, upon the poor
! prisoner. Cunningham was in the centre
! his brutal and hard features lighting up
with Il devilish expression. Just as Sam
| DO got within arms length of the pris-
oner, the latter felt the thongs cut which
bound his arms. He was free
But why starts the colored man, his
| eyes protrudlng from their sockets, as if
death was before him? The halter drops
from his hands is paralyzed with fear.
| Slowly from the grave rises the dead
body of the soldier he had himself roll
ed into it.
Cunningham beheld the sight, and so
did the soldiers. The vision was awful
apparently contrary to human reason
that with one accord all fed, excepting
Sambo and the prisoners. The former
rolled on the ground in terror.
In the meantime, the prisoner and his
comradc, who had SO opportunely res
cued him from an ignominious death,
| for Lispenard's woods, which then skirt
| ed the North river near about where
| Canal street ends.
There they found a boat, in which
Dick Martin had crossed alone from the
Jersey shore, six hours before, to save
his eomrade. Reaching the Jersey side,
just below Bulls Ferry, in an hour, they
struck into the woods, and reached the
camp of Washington, hear West Point,
about night the next day. The morning
after. in general orders, two new lieute-
nants were commissioned in Washing
toms Life Guard, and the reader can
imagine who they were.
a brief examination, perhaps, is nee
essary. 1t always surprised the British
commander how Washington knew SO
well the movements made within his
lines. Washington, in many cases, made
slesertion duty. He knew who among
his private soliliers to ask this from, and
never, ina single instance, was his conf
dence betrayed. Death on the gallows
/ followed the poor private often, but he
never compromised his commander.
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