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The tories talked about it in Allen's presence.
They denounced men whose names Allen had not heard before, but who werebecoming prominent. But they also talked of Sam Adams and JohnHancock, of Patrick Henry and George Washington, and then they toldeach other that it was seriously proposed to create a new nation out ofthe colonies and declare the independence of the colonies.
All this was glorious news to the prisoner, and he listened in silence,afraid that his joy, if known, would prevent further conversation inhis presence.
One hot, stifling day in July there was considerable commotion in theprison, and Allen knew that something more than the ordinary had causedthe excitement.
How anxiously he waited to hear the news!
How tedious the hours passed before the change of guards gave thedesired few minutes for conversation.
At last the hour came!
"The Declaration of Independence has been signed!"
"You do not mean it? The rebels would never dare!"
"But they have dared. They say that a new nation has been born. Ha,ha, ha! He, he, he! Ha, ha, ha!"
"Will all the prisoners have to be shot now?"
"No, they will be hanged, same as before. England has not recognizedthe new nation; but England has hired a lot of Hessians----"
"What are they?"
"Don't you know? They come from some place in Europe; their king sellsor leases them out to fight."
"And they must fight whether they like it or not?"
"Oh, they like fighting; they are trained to fight. It is the onlything they can do, and they do it well. You see, they do it all thebetter because they can't talk English, so they kill all who do----"
"Then they may kill us."
"No, I do not mean that, but they kill all they are told to kill."
A warden entered the long corridor and called out the name of EthanAllen.
Allen stepped from his cell and submitted to his arms and legs beingheavily ironed.
He was then marched through the city to the Battery, where he wasplaced on board a war ship, with other prisoners, and taken to Halifax.
For nearly two years he suffered the most horrible tortures in prisonsand prison ships. He seemed to have been forgotten.
For weeks at a time he was absolutely silent, no one being allowed tospeak to him, and silence was strictly enforced among the prisoners.
Once Allen got a little paper and a pencil, and a friendly jailerpromised to have the letter sent to its destination.
Allen addressed it to his brother at Bennington, in the GreenMountains, and it duly reached its destination, but the brother wasaway with the patriot army, the letter was kept, however, and read overand over again by the old friends of the hero of Ticonderoga.
In that letter he says:
"I have seen American patriot prisoners begging for food and beinglaughed at for their request. They have bitten pieces of wood to getlittle chips to eat and so satisfy their hunger. I was imprisoned fora time in a church, watched over by Hessians who would not let us leaveto satisfy the wants of nature, and mid excrements the poor wretches,who only loved their country, died in horrible tortures."
It was a wonder that the letter ever reached Bennington, but the jailerwho passed it out was a warm-hearted man, a son of the soil fromIreland.
It was in the early spring of 1778 that Allen heard his name called ashe sat in the hold of a war ship lying off New York.
He dragged his legs wearily up the steps to the deck.
