No doubt then remained that he must have his saws concealed about his body, and having been ordered to take off his clothes, he complied with his usual readiness. On taking off his shirt, which had not been done at any time previous in our searches about his body, Dr. A. Paddock, who was present, and employed in the search, discovered a small muslin cord about his thigh, close to his body, and drawn so close that it could not be felt by the hand passing over it with the shirt between. This small cord was found to conceal on the inside of his thigh a fine steel saw plate, two inches broad and ten inches long, the teeth neatly cut on both the edges, no doubt of his own work. After this discovery we put on him light handcuffs, secured his chains with padlocks again, and set four men to watch him the whole night. The next day we secured the inner grate, filling the squares with brick, lime and sand, leaving a space at the upper corner of only four by five inches, in which was inserted a pane of glass in the centre of the wall. This small opening in a wall three feet thick, admitted little or no light, so that the room was rendered almost a dungeon, which prevented the prisoner from being seen at any time from the door without the light of a candle. From this time we never entered the prison without candles and two or three men.
On the 13th of November, I addressed a letter to Judge Chipman, to which I received the following answer:
“Saint John, November 14, 1814—Dear Sir,—I received your letter of yesterday relating to the new attempts of H. M. Smith to escape. I have forwarded the same to Fredericton, and presume that a court will be ordered for his trial as soon as may be practicable for the state of the travelling, and the necessity of procuring the witness from Nova Scotia; though I should suppose not before the ice makes. In the mean time the utmost vigilance and precaution must be made use of to secure him; you will be justified in any measures of severity that you may find it necessary to adopt for this purpose.
I am, dear Sir, faithfully yours,
Walter Bates, Esq. Ward Chipman.”
Wednesday, the 16th, we entered the prison and found that he had been employed in breaking the plaster off the partition wall with his chains, and broken one of the padlocks, and appeared to have been loose; seemed very vicious, and said “he would burn and destroy the building—would make it smoke before he left it” and that we would see it smoke. I then prepared a pair of steel fetters, case hardened, about 10 inches long, which we put on his legs, with a chain from the middle, 7 feet long, which we stapled to the floor; we also put an iron collar about his neck, with a chain about 8 feet long, stapled also to the floor in a direction opposite to the other; and also a chain from his fetters to the neck collar, with handcuffs bolted to the middle of his chain in such a manner as to prevent his hands from reaching his head and feet when standing, leaving it just possible for him to feed himself when sitting.
All these irons and chains he received without discovering the least concern or regard. When the blacksmith had finished riveting the whole, I said to him, “Now, Smith, I would advise you to be quiet after this, or if you are not you will next have an iron band put round your body and stapled fast down to the floor.” He very calmly replied, “Old man, if you are not satisfied, you may put it on now. I do not regard it, if you will let me have my hands loose you may put on as much iron as you please. I care not for your iron.” In this situation we left him, loaded with irons, the entire weight of which was forty-six pounds, and without anything to sit or lie upon but the naked floor.
Although he was thus situated and in an entire dungeon, he appeared not in the least humbled; but became more troublesome and noisy, and exceedingly vicious against the gaoler. Despair and madness seemed now to seize him, and raving and roaring would unite with the utterance of prayers and portions of the Scriptures. With a tremendous voice he would cry out, “Oh you cruel devils—you murderers—you man-slayers—you tormentors of man? How I burn to be revenged; help, help, help me; Lord help me to be revenged of those devils; help me that I might tear up this place, that I may turn it upside down, that there may not be one stick or stone of it left. My hair shall not be shorn, nor my nails cut, till I grow as strong as Sampson, then will I be revenged of all my enemies. Help, help, O Lord help me to destroy these tormentors, murderers of man, tormenting me in chains and darkness;” shouting, “darkness, darkness, O darkness—not light to read the Word of God,—not one word of comfort from any. All is,—you rogue, you thief, you villain,—you deserve to be hanged. No pity, not one word of consolation,—all darkness, all trouble;” singing, “trouble, trouble, trouble; O God help me, and have mercy upon me; I fear there is no mercy for me;—yes, there is mercy, it is in Jesus, whose arms stand open to receive; but how shall I dare to look at Him whom I have offended.”
Then he would call upon his parents and deprecate his wicked life; then rave again, “murderers, tormentors, consider you have souls to save, consider you have souls to lose as well as I, a poor prisoner; consider you have children that may be brought to trouble as well as I; consider I have parents as well as they. O! if my parents knew my situation, it would kill them. My wife, begone from my sight; why will you torment me! It is for you that I suffer all my sorrow—it is for you my heart bleeds. Not a friend comes to see me—nothing before me but pain and sorrow, chains and darkness, misery and death, O! wretched me, how long am I to suffer in this place of torment! Am I to linger a life of pain and sorrow in chains and misery? No, I will cut the thread of life and be relieved from this place of darkness and trouble,” singing “trouble, trouble, trouble,” a thousand times repeated. In this manner he continued raving till he became very hoarse and exhausted, would take no notice of anything that was said to him, and finally left off speaking entirely.
The weather having become very cold, he was allowed his berth again, with a comfortable bed of straw and blankets; but the blankets had to be taken away from him again, on account of his having attempted to hang himself with one of them made into a rope. He next attempted to starve himself, but this he gave over, after having fasted three or four days. He now dropped into a state of quietness, and lay in his bed the most of the time, day as well as night; but on the 16th of December we found on examining his prison, that he had broken the iron collar from his neck, and drawn the staple from the timber; but replaced it again so as to prevent detection.