It was a common thing for me to be taken out of close confinement, into a spacious green in the castle, or rather parade, where numbers of gentlemen and ladies were ready to see and hear me. I often entertained such audiences with harangues on the impracticability of Great Britain's conquering the colonies of America. At one of these times I asked a gentleman for a bowl of punch, and he ordered his servant to bring it, which he did, and offered it to me, but I refused to take it from the hand of his servant; he then gave it to me with his own hand, refusing to drink with me in consequence of my being a state criminal. However, I took the punch and drank it all down at one draught, and handed the gentleman the bowl; this made the spectators as well as myself merry. I expatiated on American freedom. This gained the resentment of a young beardless gentleman of the company, who gave himself very great airs, and replied that he knew the Americans very well, and was certain they could not bear the smell of powder. I replied that I accepted it as a challenge, and was ready to convince him on the spot that an American could bear the smell of powder; at which he answered that he should not put himself on a par with me. I then demanded him to treat the character of the Americans with due respect. He answered that I was an Irishman; but I assured him that I was a full-blooded Yankee, and in fine bantered him so much, that he left me in possession of the ground, and the laugh went against him. Two clergymen came to see me, and inasmuch as they behaved with civility, I returned them the same. We discoursed on several parts of moral philosophy and Christianity; and they seemed to be surprised that I should be acquainted with such topics, or that I should understand a syllogism or regular mode of argumentation. I am apprehensive my Canadian dress contributed not a little to the surprise and excitement of curiosity: to see a gentleman in England regularly dressed and well behaved would be no sight at all; but such a rebel as they were pleased to call me, it is probable, was never before seen in England. The prisoners were landed at Falmouth a few days before Christmas, and ordered on board of the _Solebay_ frigate, Captain Symonds, on the eighth day of January, 1776, when our hand irons were taken off. This remove was in consequence, as I have been since informed, of a writ of habeas corpus, which had been procured by some gentlemen in England, in order to obtain me my liberty. The _Solebay_, with sundry other men-of-war and about forty transports, rendezvoused at the cove of Cork, in Ireland, to take in provisions and water.