What recks this Samson of their paltry “goal”? Somehow, without show of physical force (the least sign of which would surely have been entered on the court record), he makes the sheriff quail. The lightning in his eyes, perchance, the deep tones of a voice that never breathes an oath, even to swear by in a court; uttering ominous words to some such effect as that he “will seal his quarrel with his blood.” Should he attempt escape from the sheriff his death could be accomplished, then and there.
The sheriff returns to the court-room (meeting-house) and reports to the court that John Rogers is conducting himself in a “furious” manner, “threatening that the jail shall not hold him and that he will seal his quarrel with his blood”; the sheriff “fears he will break out of jail and do mischief to some of her Majesty’s subjects.” What subject but himself, through punishment which can be inflicted upon him for breaking away from an officer, which is a capital crime on the law book.
The quickly forthcoming order of the court (Judge Saltonstall) that John Rogers shall be placed in irons at need, “for preventing mischief,” is but the beginning of the plot now in contemplation.
By further order of the judge and governor (one and the same) John Rogers is to be conducted from the ordinary prison to the “inner” prison.[[114]] The latter is not yet finished, and is half a mile from the house of the jailer. It has as yet no underpinning, but stands above the ground on blocks. The green planks of which the floor was made are much shrunken, leaving large cracks for the entrance of the wind, and there is “an open window towards the northwest.” There is no fireplace, nor any means for making a fire; moreover, by the orders, no fire is to be allowed this prisoner.[[114]] It is October and unusually cold and stormy for this time of year.
How does John Rogers, Jr., manage to communicate with his father in this place? He must scale the high fence surrounding the prison yard, to make his way to the “open window” of the prison, whose grates will not admit the passage of any fuel, even if a place could be found within in which to make a fire. This son comes, under cover of the darkness, to give such aid and comfort as he may, and especially in the cold nights, which indicates that he contrives to furnish some slight means of warmth.
Until November 16 of this unusually inclement season, John Rogers, at the age of sixty-three, is a solitary prisoner in this inner prison, with such apology for a fire as his son can provide, by coming two miles after dark to the prison window.
Governor Saltonstall, sitting beside his beaming hearth, already furnished with its huge back-log, gives no pitiful thought to the man whom he has denied an honest trial, and now forbids so much as a fire to keep him from death’s door.
On the bitter cold night of November 16, John, Jr., coming the long two miles over the rough Mohegan road, and making his way, by scaling the prison fence, to the grated, open window, finds his father incapable of the usual intelligent response. Over the fence again he hurries, and out into the streets of the sleeping town, calling loudly at the sheriff’s house: “You have murdered my father in prison to-night!!!” “The Authority has murdered my father!!!” (County Court Record.) Not only are the sheriff, his instigators and their sympathizers aroused by this loud and ringing cry of alarm in the dead of night, but also some of the many who are friendly to the prisoner. These latter spring with alacrity from their beds, at the news that John Rogers is dead, or dying, on this wild night, in the distant and fireless inner prison, through which the bitter winds are whistling.
Mr. Adams, the minister, a man of a kind heart, despite ecclesiastical fidelity, cannot turn a deaf ear to this report concerning the imprisoned dissenter. He and his wife show their humanity by sending a bottle of wine and a bottle of cordial to the sufferer. At the popular demand, the captive, almost senseless with cold and the malady resulting therefrom, is conveyed to the warm house of the sheriff,[[115]] where he at length revives.
John Rogers, Jr., is brought before the County Court in New London a fortnight later, on charge of making a disturbance in the night, and fined £3. He is granted a review at the court to be held in June, and required to give bonds for “good behavior,” until his trial before the said court shall occur. Refusing to acknowledge, by giving the required bond, that he has done anything wrong, he is consigned to jail until session of the June court.