Picturesque Quebec : a sequel to Quebec past and presentLe Moine, J. M. (James MacPherson), Sir
History
Picturesque Quebec : a sequel to Quebec past and present
Le Moine, J. M. (James MacPherson), Sir
Québec (Québec) -- Description and travel; Québec (Québec) -- Suburbs
not, however, unnatural that they should endeavor to escape. They
were taken out of their prison-house daily for an airing, in
charge of a guard, and, as it would appear, were not altogether
denied the opportunity of conversing with persons who were
friendly to them. Theller, in an account of the Rebellion in
Canada, edited, it is said, by General Roberts, of Detroit,
himself minutely details the nature and manner of his intercourse
with a Mr. P. S. Grace, while under the charge of the military in
Cape Diamond; how he succeeded in bribing soldiers' wives, and in
cultivating the friendship of officers, non-commissioned officers
and men of the Guards, much of which is exaggerated, and some of
which is untrue. Some of the sergeants, for small presents,
Theller asserts, did whatever he required in the way of bringing
books and newspapers from town and articles of food and drink from
the canteen, which is undoubtedly true, but no man in the
regiment, either directly or indirectly, connived at the escape.
It was the result of clever management on the part of Theller,
Dodge and his companions, and of unsuspecting stupidity on the
part of the sentry who guarded the door of the prison, and,
indeed, of all who seemed to have had intercourse with the
prisoners. The escape was thus effected:--On a dark, rainy night,
late in October, 1838, an iron bar having been previously cut
through with a file given them from without, the sawing having
been effected during performances on the shrill fife of one of the
fifers of the garrison, which a prisoner had borrowed for the
purpose of passing away the time and keeping up the spirits of his
companions in misfortune, some of whom were despondent, Theller's
conversation seduced a sentry into conversation, next to smoke a
pipe, then to drink a tumbler of London porter, drugged with
rathermore than 'three times sixty drops' of laudanum. The sentry
struggled hard to prevent the drowsiness that was stealing over
him; he spoke thick, and muttered that he had never before drank
anything so good or so strong. He walked about in the rain to keep
himself awake, and staggered a little. * * * It resulted in the
escape of Dodge, Thayer, Theller and Partridge, who, after several
hair-breadth escapes and hazardous incidents, found themselves
outside of their old quarters." "The escaping party," adds Roger,
"moved cautiously forward, at respectable distances from each
other, along the canteen, and then got out into the middle of the
great square to elude the sentry at the magazine. While there a
sergeant came rushing from the guard-room towards the officers'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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