D'Ri and I: A Tale of Daring Deeds in the Second War with the British.: Being the Memoirs of Colonel Ramon Bell, U.S.A.Bacheller, Irving
History
D'Ri and I: A Tale of Daring Deeds in the Second War with the British.: Being the Memoirs of Colonel Ramon Bell, U.S.A.
Bacheller, Irving
United States -- History -- War of 1812 -- Fiction
"She's an honest woman for all I know," said he, handing over the
weapons. "Ain't a-goin' t' see no ledy mishused--nut ef I can help
it."
We gave ourselves up hand and foot to the enemy; there was no way
out of it. I have read in the story-books how men of great nerve
and skill have slaughtered five to one, escaping with no great loss
of blood. Well, of a brave man I like to believe good things. My
own eyes have seen what has made me slow to doubt a story of
prowess that has even the merit of possibility. But when there are
only two of you, and one without arms, and you are in a corner, and
there are ten pistols pointing at you a few feet away, and as many
sabres ready to be drawn, I say no power less remarkable than that
of God or a novelist can bring you out of your difficulty. You
have your choice of two evils--surrender or be cut to pieces. We
had neither of us any longing to be slashed with steel and bored
with bullets, and to no end but a good epitaph.
They searched the cellar and found our clothes, and wrapped them in
a bundle. Then they tied our hands behind us and took us along the
road on which I had lately ridden. A crowd came jeering to the
highway as we passed the little village. It was my great fear that
somebody would recognize either one or both of us.
Four of our men were sitting in a guardhouse at the British camp.
After noon mess a teamster drove up with a big wagon. Guards came
and shackled us in pairs, D'ri being wrist to wrist with me. They
put a chain and ball on D'ri's leg also. I wondered why, for no
other was treated with like respect. Then they bundled us all
into the wagon, now surrounded by impatient cavalry. They put a
blindfold over the eyes of each prisoner, and went away at a lively
pace. We rode a long time, as it seemed to me, and by and by I
knew we had come to a city, for I could hear the passing of many
wagons and the murmur of a crowd. Some were shouting, "Shoot the
d--d Yankees!" and now and then a missile struck among us. There
is nothing so heartless and unthinking as a crowd, the world over.
I could tell presently, by the creak of the evener and the stroke
of the hoofs, that we were climbing a long hill. We stopped
shortly; then they began helping us out. They led us forward a few
paces, the chain rattling on a stone pavement. When we heard the
bang of an iron door behind us, they unlocked the heavy fetter.
This done, they led us along a gravel walk and over a sounding
stretch of boards,--a bridge, I have always thought,--through
another heavy door and down a winding flight of stone steps. They
led us on through dark passages, over stone paving, and halted us,
after a long walk, letting our eyes free. We were in black
darkness. There were two guards before and two behind us bearing
candles. They unshackled us, and opened a lattice door of heavy
iron, bidding us enter. I knew then that we were going into a
dungeon, deep under the walls of a British fort somewhere on the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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