They found the supposed doctor conversing with a merchant, at the door of his shop, from whom he was asking directions and the time of the next coach going to London, for there Conyngham knew of friends who would help him, and the big city was the safest hiding-place, as shall be hereinafter proved. It was useless to offer resistance, and without a word he surrendered and was marched back to the prison gate.

That night, shorn of his good clothes and in double irons, he was placed once more in the “Black Hole.” He dreamed that some one had restored to him the lost commission, and that instead of being confined as a pirate and a man supposed to be guilty of high treason, he had been treated as an officer should be and accorded the privileges of his position; but he awoke cold and stiff, with the knowledge that his captors would now be harder upon him than ever, and, as he wrote in his own diary, it was “a dismal prospect” again.

CHAPTER XVII
FREEDOM

That Dr. Franklin had been much concerned in regard to the treatment accorded to Captain Conyngham by the British authorities is proved by the letters and correspondence that passed between him and Conyngham’s friends. Let us look at these letters for a moment and we shall see that these friends were not idle. Here are the authentic copies of a portion of the correspondence.

Jonathan Nesbit, the nephew of Mr. James Nesbit, of Philadelphia, was yet in Europe, living for the time at L’Orient, and in September he wrote to Dr. Franklin as follows:

“L’Orient, Sept. 22, 1779.

“Sir: By the brig Retaliation, Captain Kolloch, which left Philadelphia the 10th August, I have received letters informing me that Captain G. Conyngham, late commander of the cutter Revenge, had the misfortune to be taken last spring by the Galatea and sent into New York, from whence he had been sent to England with a design to have him tried for piracy. They pretend to say that he took the Harwich packet without having any commission, which your Excellency must know to be false—as I believe you were in Paris at the time that his commission and orders were delivered him. The commission under which he acted as captain of the Revenge is dated, I apprehend, after the taking of the Harwich packet. It is on this circumstance, no doubt, that the charge of piracy is founded. His first commission was taken from him in Dunkirk after he was put in jail and sent up to Paris, and I think was lodged in the hands of M. Comte de Vergennes. I have to request that your Excellency will do everything in your power to prevent the poor fellow from suffering. Considering the smallness of his vessel and the difficulty he labored under when he first left France, he has done a great deal for the service of his country. He has done so much harm to the enemy that he can expect no mercy at their hands, and if they can find any pretense whatever, they will certainly destroy him. Captain Kolloch informs me that he was sent home in irons. I should certainly have heard from him was he not already confined. I once more take the liberty to recommend the unhappy man’s case to your Excellency’s particular attention.

“I have the honor to be, with great respect,

“Jonathan Nesbit.”

Before this, however, Dr. Franklin had been informed of the condition of affairs, and he had written to secret friends of America in London and tried to get them to interfere in some way for the gallant captain, or at least to endeavor to mitigate the circumstances of his imprisonment. He replies to Mr. Nesbit in the following letter:

“To Mr. Nesbit.

“Passy, Sept. 20 1779.

“Sir: Captain Conyngham has not been neglected. As soon as I heard of his arrival in England, I wrote to a friend to furnish him with what money he might want, and to assure him that he had never acted without a commission. I have been made to understand in answer that there is no intention to prosecute him, and that he was accordingly removed from Pendennis Castle and put among the common prisoners at Plymouth, to take his turn for exchange. The Congress, hearing of the threats to sacrifice him, put three officers in close confinement to abide his fate, and acquainted Sir George Collier with their determination, who probably wrote to the British ministers. I thank you for informing me what became of his first commission.

“I suppose I can easily recover it, to produce on occasion. Probably the date of that taken with him, being posterior to his capture of the packet, made the enemy think they had an advantage against him. But when the English Government have encouraged our sailors, entrusted with our vessels, to betray that trust, run away with the vessels, and bring them into English ports, giving such lawful prizes, it was foolish imprudence in the English commodore to talk of hanging one of our captains for taking a prize without commission.

“I have the honor to be, with great esteem, sir,

“B. Franklin.”