"And these are rebels? Well, well! England has nothing to fear if this is a sample of those fighting against her. So you are Ethan Allen? You are the man who broke into Ticonderoga? Well, well, well! You achieved fame, but whether it will avail you much when you stand on the gallows is for you to say." The English officer had jerked out these sentences more to himself than to the prisoners. He turned to the villainous old salt by his side. "What do you think of your cargo?" "I'd rather have pigs." "You show sense, but as you cannot have pigs you must take these. You are under bonds to land them in England--how I don't care--only they must have strength enough to stand upright on the gallows, for Jack Ketch must not have too great a task." The seaman chuckled. "I've carried lots of cattle afore, and I never lose any, save a few I toss overboard to save trouble. I'll land these or give an account of 'em." Every word was uttered with a view of enraging the prisoners. Allen learned afterward that the provocation was intended and deliberate, its object being to get him to commit some overt act so that he could be hanged or shot for insubordination. The seaman was the captain of a sailing merchantman bound for England, who had been engaged to transport the Americans to that country. After a list had been made of the prisoners they were marched off the _Gaspee_ onto a barge, which was towed out to a merchantman lying in the bay. Four rowboats were engaged to tow the barge, and just as they started the hawser broke and the barge was adrift. After several minor accidents the prisoners were landed on the deck of the merchantman, and soon found they had exchanged bad for worse. A portion of the vessel had been boarded off by white oak planks, making a space about twenty-two feet long by twenty feet wide. Into this space thirty-four American prisoners were pushed, handcuffed in pairs. Allen refused to enter. The captain asked who he was that he should dare to disobey orders. "I surrendered to the British under a pledge that I should be treated as a prisoner of war, and I demand that we shall all be treated as human beings, not as cattle." The captain laughed brutishly. "Ha! ha! ha! That is good! Do you think I would treat cattle that way? They would all be dead before they reached England. No, no, my dear rebel! you are treated as rebels, not cattle." Two seamen took hold of Allen and threw him into the little inclosure, closing the door as soon as he was within. An hour later Allen was called out. A lieutenant had asked to see him. "So you are Ethan Allen?" the English lieutenant asked. "That is my name." "Then, apart from the pleasure I have in seeing you here, I have but one greater joy, and that is that I am able to treat you like this." The officer spat in Allen's face.