NATHAN HALE 115 



Captain Hale was gone about two weeks, and in that time made 

 the rounds of the entire British camps including New York, of 

 which the enemy had taken possession on September 15th. The 

 schoolmaster completed drawings of their defences and jotted down 

 in Latin the information he had gathered. After completing his 

 dangerous task, Captain Hale retraced his steps to Huntington, 

 where a boat was to meet him and convey him to the Connecticut 

 shore. 



According to some writers, Hale was betrayed by a cousin 

 who recognized him sitting in Widow Chichester's tavern waiting 

 for his boat ; but no proof exists for the authenticity of this ce- 

 port. It is more likely, however, that in the dark he mistook the 

 boat from the British flagship Halifax, which had been sent to 

 shore for water, for his own, and did not discover his mistake 

 until he found himself a prisoner in the hands of the enemy. He 

 was taken aboard the ship, stripped and searched. The plans and 

 Latin memoranda were found hidden between the soles of his 

 shoes. On this evidence, he was adjudged a spy, and immediately 

 hurried to New York, where he landed on Saturday, September 

 21st, the day of the great fire which destroyed four hundred 

 buildings. The prisoner was taken to General Howe's headquar- 

 ters in the Beekman mansion, Fifty-first Street and First Avenue. 



It is said that General Howe had retired to the greenhouse 

 in the rear of the mansion, when the young patriot was brought 

 before him. Hale denied nothing. He admitted he was a captain 

 in Washington's army, and that he had been sent on a secret mis- 

 sion, and only regretted that he had not been successful. 



After a brief parley he was sentenced to be executed at day- 

 break the next morning. He was taken in charge by the notorious 

 Cunningham, Provost Marshal of the Royal army, who boasted 

 of having been responsible for the death of several hundred Fed- 

 eral prisoners, who were confined in the old sugar-house prison. 



Captain Hale was thrust into one of the numerous cells be- 

 neath the prison, and here his death warrant was read to him by 

 Cunningham. As the keeper was departing, the young patriot 

 requested that his arms which had been securely bound might 

 be released, and that he might have some writing materials and a 

 light. Cunningham brutally denied him these favors, as he did 

 also his request for a Bible. Later, however, a young officer of 



