Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker: Sometime Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel on the Staff of his Excellency General WashingtonMitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir)
History
Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker: Sometime Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel on the Staff of his Excellency General Washington
Mitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir)
Quakers -- Fiction; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Fiction
When he grew melancholy and sleepless, and walked about all night, it
was a real addition to our many evils. He declared that he must soon
die, and I heard him one night earnestly beseeching God, in language of
great force and eloquence, to forgive him. In the morning he was dead,
having strangled himself resolutely with a strip of blanket and a broken
rung of a stool, with which he had twisted the cord. It must have taken
such obstinate courage as no one could have believed him to possess. He
had no capacity to attach men, and I do not think we grieved for him
as much as for the loss of what was truly a library, and not to be
replaced.
On the 3d of February I awakened with a fresh and happy thought in my
mind. My good friend the late lamented Dr. Franklin, used to say that
in sleep the mind creates thoughts for the day to hatch. I am rather
of opinion that sleep so feeds and rests the brain that when first we
awaken our power to think is at its best. At all events, on that day I
suddenly saw a way to let the sweet outside world know I was alive.
At first I used to think of a chaplain as a resource, but I never saw
one. The surgeon came no more when I grew better. Being now able to move
about a little, I had noticed in the yard at times, but only of late,
a fat Romanist priest, who was allowed to bring soup or other food to
certain prisoners. I soon learned that, because Cunningham was of the
Church of Rome, those who were of his own faith were favoured. Indeed,
now and then a part of my lessening guineas obtained from these men
a share of the supplies which the priest, and, I may add, certain
gray-clad sisters, also brought; but this was rare.
That day in the yard I drew near to the priest, but saw Cunningham
looking on, and so I waited with the patience of a prisoned man. It
was quite two weeks before my chance came. The yard being small, was
literally full of half-clad, whole-starved men, who shivered and huddled
together where the sunlight fell. Many reeled with weakness; most were
thin past belief, their drawn skin the colour of a decayed lemon. From
this sad crowd came a strange odour, like to cheese, and yet not like
that. Even to remember it is most horrible. Passing near to a stout old
Sister of Charity, I said quietly:
“I have friends who would help me. For God’s love, see Miss Wynne in
Arch street, across from the Meeting.”
“I will do your errand,” she said.
“Others have said so, sister, and have lied to me.”
“I will do it,” she said. “And if she is away?”
I thought of my father. He seemed my natural resource, but my cousin
would be there. A final hope there was. I was foolish enough to say, “If
she is not in town, then Miss Darthea Peniston, near by. If you fail me,
I shall curse you while I live.”
“I will not fail you. Why should you poor prisoners be so ill used?
Trust me.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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