Atterbury answered in a high tone and acted with a high hand. He announced that he himself would preach, and he prohibited the curate from even reading prayers. The prelate’s sermon so exalted his wrath, that, at the conclusion, he was not satisfied with this suspension of Mr. Gibbons from duty, but Atterbury turned the poor clergyman out of his cure! The bishop, however, was made to feel that he had gone too far. The record of suspension was erased; the dismissal of Mr. Gibbons from his cure was followed by his restoration, and it is agreeable to read that, on the great Thanksgiving Day, he preached in his old church ‘an Excellent, Loyal, and Honest Sermon.’
In London itself, loving hearts and planning heads, outside Newgate, were doing all that sympathy and cunning could effect, for the relief of those who were inside. Women lingered about the walls, and men lounged near, ready to obey any call for the deliverance of the remaining captives. As this seemed more and more hopeless, an attempt was made on the virtue of a sentinel. A lady offered him 30l. in hand, and a bill (a very questionable bill) for 500l. more, the former for present aid in setting the prisoners free; the latter to be cashed when they were beyond recapture. The sentinel’s integrity could not be overcome. He went and swore to the whole story, before the Lord Mayor. That official put the governor and subordinates on the watch. The guard was increased. An unceasing vigilance was enjoined; and the Jacobite prisoners were looked upon as men doomed to the scaffold, or to some fate as bad, if not worse. Mackintosh, nevertheless, appeared to be perfectly at his ease; and the equanimity of the old brigadier gave hope and courage to such other ‘rebels’ as needed them.
SHIFTING OF PRISONERS.
In the first days of May, the public had promise of fresh excitement. On the 3rd a Committee of Council examined Mr. Harvey, of Combe. Finding him recovered from the stab he had inflicted on himself, they sent him from the custody of a messenger to Newgate. This the public heard. On the following day, they saw Basil Hamilton, a son of Lord Nairn, and the Honourable Mr. Howard publicly carried, at mid-day, from the Tower to the same prison. The day’s spectacle was followed by another just before twilight. Crowds witnessed the brief march of ten pinioned prisoners, from the Fleet to Newgate also. The expectation of their trials following close upon this change in no wise affected the spirits of the Jacobite captives.
BREAKING OUT OF NEWGATE.
Their arrival within the walls of the latter, ill-kept gaol, was welcomed in the usual way. Anyone detained there could eat or drink whatever he could pay for. Gold not being wanting, dainties graced the board, wine flowed, punch was sent round, and the banquet was not confined to a single day. At that period, Newgate chaplains drank with the prisoners and gallantly saw their female visitors to the outer gate. The practical example of such reverend gentlemen was cheerfully followed by guardians whose vigilance relaxed under the strength of good liquor. The prisoners were now allowed indulgences beyond what was usual. They might cool themselves after their drink, by walking and talking, singing and planning, in the court-yard, till within an hour of midnight. Evil came of it. On the night of the 4th, the feast being over, nearly five dozen of the prisoners were walking about the press-yard. Suddenly, the whole body of them made an ‘ugly rush’ at the keeper with the keys. He was knocked down, the doors were opened, and the prisoners swept forth to freedom. All, however, did not succeed in gaining liberty. As the attempt was being made, soldiers and turnkeys were alarmed. The fugitives were then driven in different directions. Brigadier Mackintosh, his son, and seven others overcame all opposition. They reached the street, and they were so well befriended, or were so lucky, as to disappear at once, and to evade all pursuit. They fled in various directions. Most of them knew where safety lay, others trusted to chance. About fifteen more got also through the gates into the street, but seven of them were overtaken and brought back. Thirty others took a wrong turning, into the keeper’s house, which was immediately entered by the soldiers who drove the whole of them into a parlour, where the Jacobites attempted a desperate defence. The soldiers simply fired into the flurried group. The smell of the powder was stronger than all other argument. They yielded, were carried within the gaol, and with the other recaptured fugitives, were not only heavily ironed, and thrust into loathsome holes, but were treated with exceptional brutality. This treatment was resorted to by the guardians to compensate for their own carelessness, and to manifest their good will for the Government.
PURSUIT.
There was a very prevalent idea that only the richest men had escaped. Seven of the fifteen who got into the street, but who were not so lucky as to disappear from pursuit as quickly as Mackintosh and his son, took a wrong turning into Warwick Court, which had no thoroughfare. As they were returning, all bewildered, yet eager and furious, they were met by an armed force, were driven into a corner, and there bound tightly and escorted back to dark dungeons, heavy fetters, and a certainty of the halter.
Mackintosh took his own method of enlargement so coolly as to lead to the conviction that if he was helped from without, he was unobstructed from within. Four of his companions in flight turned down Newgate Street and were soon lost in Cheapside. The brigadier and two others turned in an opposite direction. They ‘went softly and boldly,’ so contemporary prints record, ‘through the Gates of Newgate, where the Watch and Guards were set, and passed without any examination.’ It is added that this occurred because the ‘Constables were not come to the Watch.’ The Dogberrys were the questioners. The military guard took into their keeping such suspicious persons as Dogberry and Verges consigned to their ward.
HUE AND CRY.