OF LAXCASTER COUN'TV. 9<1<) 



places ill the British army. Many and various were the conjectures as 

 to the means of their escape; the officers inquired and investigated in 

 vain; the country was explored to no purpose; the soldiers shook theii- 

 heads and told of fortune-tellers, peddlers, and such characters, who liad 

 been seen at intervals; and sundry of the more credulous could think 

 of nothing but supernatural agency; but whether man or spirit was the 

 conspirator, the mystery remained unbroken. 



" When this became known to "Washington, he sent Gen, Ilazen to 

 take this responsible charge. This energetic officer, after exhausting all 

 resources, resorted to stratagem. He was convinced that, as the nearest 

 post was more than a hundred miles distant, the prisoners must be aided 

 by Americans; but where the suspicion should foil, he could not even 

 conjecture— the reproach of toryism being almost unknown in that re- 

 gion. Having been trained to meet exigencies of this kind in a distin- 

 guished career, as colonel in the British arm}^, his plan was formed at 

 once, and communicated to an officer of his own, upon whose talent he 

 relied for its successful execution. This was Capt. Lee, whose courage 

 and ability fully justified the selection. 



'•The secret plan concerted between them was this: It was to be given 

 out that Lee wa*s absent on furlough or command. He, meantime, was 

 to assume the dress of a British prisoner, and having provided himself 

 with information and a story of his capture, was to be thrown into the 

 barracks, where he might gain the confidence of the soldiers, and join 

 them in a plan of escape. How well Capt. Lee sustained his part may 

 be inferred from the fact, that when he had disappeared and placed him- 

 self among the prisoners, his own officers and soldiers saw him every 

 day without the least suspicion. The person to whom I am indebted for 

 most of these particulars, was the Intendant of the prisoners, and familiar 

 with Lee ; but though compelled to see him often in the discharge of his 

 dut}', he never penetrated the disguise. Well it was for Lee that his 

 disguise was s© complete. Had his associates suspected his purpose to 

 betrav them, his history would have been embraced in the proverb, 

 'dead men tell no tales." 



"For many days he remained in this situation, making no discoveries 

 whatever. He thought he perceived at times signs of intelligence be- 

 tween the prisoners and an old woman who was allowed to bring fruit 

 for sale within the enclosure. She was known to be deaf and half- 

 witted, and was therefore no object of suspicion. It was known that her 

 son had been disgraced and punished in the American army, but she 

 had never betrayed any malice on that account, and no one dreamed 

 that she could have the power to do injury if she possessed the will. Lee 

 watched her closely, but saw nothing to confirm his suspicions. Her 

 dwellino- was about a mile distant, in a wild retreat, where she shared 



