I could not prevent a certain feeling of pity for these poor fellows, who were thus kept in close confinement for no other reason than that their king was at war with the United States, and it is possible that both us lads did somewhat toward making the imprisonment less irksome at times.
[CHAPTER IV.]
GHOSTS.
By waiting upon the prisoners, Simon Ropes and I gained certain information of greater or less value, although there was in the task nothing to give us pleasure.
When it had been announced that we were at war once more with the British king, I believed that all Englishmen were our sworn enemies, as I held it my duty to be theirs; but before we two lads had been four and twenty hours in our new station aboard the America, I came to understand that at least a certain portion of the Britishers were, in a degree, friendly toward us.
As, for instance, these sailors whom we held prisoners complained quite as bitterly as had we, because the king’s ships impressed their men, and it really seemed as if the mariners of both countries had equal cause for complaint, although, as a matter of course, it was not as bad in the case of the Britisher to be impressed, in order that he might help defend his country, as it was for the American to be taken against his will into the service of a monarch whom he had no reason to love or respect.
These Britishers, weary of the long imprisonment, were more than willing to hold converse with us lads, and as we loitered in the dark hold, after having brought their food, we heard many and many a story of cruelty practised by the officers of the English navy against their own people, until it seemed as if the king’s subjects had quite as much reason to rise against his Majesty as had we in ’76.
However, it is not for me to set down such information as is doubtless known to many of our people already; but I must confine myself to the principal events which occurred while Simon Ropes and I served on board the armed ship America, and now has come the time when the most thrilling of our experiences is to be related.
It was on the second night after we had parted company with the Benjamin, and there was no more than air enough stirring to give the ship steerageway, while a certain mist hung over the water, partially obscuring the faint light of the stars.