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camp. The duke, informed of his escape, ordered that the provost should be hanged up in his stead. The provost threw himself at his feet, and protested his innocence, but all in vain-the inexorable duke ordered him to immediate execution. The concealed grenadier, being informed of this circumstance, with an exalted generosity of sentiment, instantly repaired to the duke" My lord," said he, "I am the criminal: I am informed that an innocent man is to die in my stead. As he had no hand in my escape, order him to be brought back; and I die content." This greatness of soul. instantly disarmed the general, who pardoned them both.

SURPRISING ADVENTURES OF AMBROSE GWINNETT,

KNOWN BY THE NAME OF THE LAME BEGGAR,

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.

I was born of respectable parents in the city of Canterbury, where my father dealt in slops. He had but two children, a daughter and myself; and having given me a school education, at the age of sixteen he bound-me apprentice to Mr. George Roberts, an attorney in the same town, with whom I staid four years and three quarters, to his great content and my own

satisfaction.

My sister having come to woman's estate, had now been married something more than a twelvemonth to one Sawyer, a seafaring man, who having got considerable prizes, my father also giving him £200 with my sister, quitted his profession, and set up a public house within three miles of the place of his nativity, which was Deal, in the county of Kent. I had frequent invitations to pass a short time with them; and in the autumn of the year 1709, having obtained my master's consent for that purpose, I left the city of Canterbury on foot on a Wednesday morning, being the 17th day of September; but through some unavoidable delays on the road, the evening was considerably advanced before I reached Deal; and so tired was I, being unused to that way of travelling, that, had my life depended upon it, I could not have got as far as my sister's that night. At this time there were many of her Majesty, Queen Anne's ships lying in the harbour, the English being then at war with the French and Spaniards; besides which, I found this was the day for holding the yearly fair; so that the town was filled to that degree, that a bed was not to be gotten for love or money. I went seeking a lodging from house to house to no purpose, till, being quite spent, I returned to the public-house, where I had first made inquiry, desiring leave to sit by their kitchen fire to rest myself till morning.

The publican and his wife where I put up, happened, unfortunately for me, to be acquainted with my brother and sister, and finding, by the discourse, that I was a relation of theirs, and going to visit them, the landlady presently said she would endeavour to get me a bed, and going out of the kitchen, she quickly after called me into a parlour that led from it. Here I saw, sitting by the fire, a middle-aged man in a night-gown and cap, who was reckoning money at a table. 'Uncle,' said the woman, as soon as I entered, this is a brother of our friend Mrs. Sawyer; he cannot get a bed any where, and is tired after his journey. You are the only one that lies in this house alone, will you give him a part of your's? To this the man answered, that she knew that he had been out of order, that he was blooded that day, and consequently a bedfellow could not be very agreeable. However,' said he, rather than the young man shall sit up, he is welcome to sleep with me.' After this we

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sat some time together, when, having put his money in a canvass bag, into the pocket of his night-gown, he took the candle, and I followed him up to bed.

How long I slept I cannot exactly determine, but I conjectured it was about three o'clock in the morning when I awoke with a cholic, attended with violent gripes; I attributed this to some bacon and cabbage I had eaten that day for dinner, after which I drank a large draught of milk. I found my companion awake as well as myself. He asked me what was the matter. I informed him, and at the same time begged he would direct me to the privy. He told me, when I was down stairs, I must turn to the right, and go to the end of the garden, at the end of which it was just over the sea. 'But,' added he, you may possibly find some difficulty in opening the door, the string which pulls up the latch being broken, I will give you a pen-knife, with which you may open it through a chink in the boards. So saying, he put his hand into his waistcoat pocket, which lay over him on the bed, and gave me a middling sized pen-knife.

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I hurried on a few of my clothes, and went down stairs; but I must observe, that, unclasping the pen-knife, to open the door of the privy, according to his direction, a piece of money which stuck between the blade and the groove in the handle, fell into my hand. I did not examine what it was, nor indeed could I see, there being then but a very faint moon-light; so I put them together carelessly into my pocket. I suppose I staid in the garden about half an hour, for I was extremely ill, and by overheating myself with walking the preceding day, had brought on the piles, a disorder to which I had been subject from my childhood. These seem trifling circumstances, but afterwards turned out of infinite consequence to me. When I returned to the chamber, I was surprised to find my bed-fellow gone; I called several times; but receiving no answer, took it for granted he had withdrawn into some adjoining closet. I therefore went to bed, and again fell a-sleep. About six o'clock I rose, nobody yet being up in the house. The gentleman was not yet returned to bed, or, if he was, had again left it. I dressed myself with what haste I could, being impatient to see my sister; and the reckoning being paid over-night, I let myself out at the street door.

I will not trouble you with a relation of the kindness with which my sister and her husband received me. We breakfasted together; and I believe it might be about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, when, standing at the door, my brother-in-law being by my side, we saw three horsemen galloping towards us. As soon as they came up they stopped, and one of them alighting, suddenly seized me by the collar, crying,You are the queen's prisoner.' I desired to know my crime. He said I should know that as soon as I came to Deal, whither I must immediately go with them. One of them told my brother, that the night before I had committed a murder and robbery.-Resistance would have proved as vain as the tears and protestations of my innocence. In a word, a warrant was produced, and I was carried back to Deal, attended by the three men; my brother, with another friend, accompanying us, who knew not what to say, or how to comfort me.

Being arrived in town, I was immediately hurried to the house where I had slept the preceding night, the master of which was one of the three men that came to apprehend me; though in my first hurry I did not recollect him. We were met at the door by a crowd of people, every one crying, Which is he? Which is he?' As soon as I entered, I was accosted by the publi can's wife, in tears, O! cursed wretch, what hast thou done? Thou hast

murdered and robbed my poor dear uncle, and all through me, who put thee to lie with him! But where hast thou hid his money? and what hast thou done with his body? Thou shalt be hung upon a gallows as high as a Maypole.' My brother begged her to be pacified, and I was taken into a private room. They then began to question me as the woman had done, about where I put the money, and how I had disposed of the body. I asked them what money, and whose body they meant? They then said I had killed the person I had lain with the preceding night, for the sake of a large sum I had seen with him. I fell down upon my knees, calling God to witness, I knew nothing of what they accused me. Then somebody cried, Carry him up stairs; and I was brought into the chamber where I had slept. Here the man of the house went to the bed, and turning down the clothes, shewed the sheets, pillows, and bolster dyed in blood. He asked me, did I know any thing of that? I declared to him I did not. Says a person in the room, Young man, something very odd must have past here last night; for lying in the next chamber, I heard groanings, and somebody going up and down stairs more than once or twice." I told them the circumstance of my illness, and that I had been up and down myself, with all that passed between my bedfellow and me. Somebody proposed to search me; several began to turn my pockets inside out, and from my waistcoat tumbled the pen-knife and the piece of money I have already mentioned. Upon seeing these the woman immediately screamed out, O God! this is my uncle's pen-knife!' Then taking up the money, and calling the people about her, Here' said she, is what puts the villain's guilt beyond a doubt; I can swear to this William and Mary's guinea: my uncle has long had it by way of a pocket-piece, and engraved the first letters of his name upon it.' She then began to cry again, while I could do nothing but continue to call heaven to witness that I was as innocent as the child unborn. After this they carried me down to the privy and here fresh proofs appeared against me. The constable, who had never left me, perceived blood upon the edges of the seat, (which might probably have proceeded from my being troubled with the hemorrhage the night before.) Here,' said he, after having cut the throat, he has let the body down into the sea.' This every person immediately assented to. Then,' said the master of the house, it is in vain to look for the body any further, for there was a spring tide last night, which has carried it off.'

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The consequence of these proceedings was an immediate examination before a justice of peace; after which I suffered a long and rigorous imprisonment in the county town of Maidstone. For some time my father, my master, and my relations were inclined to think me innocent; and, in compliance with my earnest request, an advertisement was published in the London Gazette, representing my deplorable circumstances, and offering a reward to any person who would give tidings of Mr. Richard Collins, (the name of the man I was supposed to have murdered,) either alive or dead. No information, however of any kind came to hand. At the assizes, therefore, I was brought to trial; and circumstances appearing strong against me, I received sentence to be carried in a cart the Wednesday fortnight following, to the town of Deal, and there to be hanged before the innkeeper's door where I had committed the murder; after which I was to be hung in chains within a little way of my brother's house. Nothing could have supported me under this dreadful condemnation, but a consciousness of my not being guilty of the crime for which I was to suffer. My friends row began to consider my declarations of innocence as persisting in falsehood to the perdition of my

soul: many of them discontinued their enquiries after me; and those few who still came to visit me, only came to urge me to confession; but I was resolved I would never die with a lie of that kind in my mouth.

The Monday before the fatal day, when an end was to be put to my miseries, was now arrived. I was called down into the court of the prison; but I own I was not a little shocked, when I found it was to be taken measure of for the irons in which I was to be hung after execution. A fellow prisoner appeared before me in the same woeful plight, (he had robbed the mail,) and the smith was measuring him when I came down; while the gaoler, with as much calmuess as if he had been ordering a pair of stays for his daughter, was giving direction in what manner the irons should be made, so as to support the man, who was remarkably heavy and corpulent. Between this and the day of my execution, I spent my time alone in prayer and meditation. At length Wednesday morning came, and about six o'clock I was put into the cart; but sure such a day of wind, rain, and thunder never blew out of the heavens it pursued us all the way; and when we arrived at Deal, it became so violent, that the sheriff and his officers, who had not a dry thread upon them, could scarce sit their horses. For my own part, my mind (God help me) was with long agitation become so unfeeling, that I was in manner insensible to every object about me: I therefore heard the sheriff whisper to the executioner to make what dispatch he could, without the least emotion, and suffered him to tuck me up like a log, unconscious of what he was doing.

I can give no account of what I felt while I was hanging, only that I remembered, after being turned off, something for a little time appeared about me like a blaze of fire; nor do I know how long I hung: no doubt the violence of the weather favoured me greatly in that circumstance. What I am now going to tell you, I learned from my brother, which was, that, after having hung about half an hour, the sheriff's officers all went off, and I was cut down by the executioner; but when he came to put his irons upon me, it was found a mistake had been made, and that the irons of the other man, which were much too large for me, had been sent instead of mine. This they remedied as well as they could, by stuffing rags between my body and the hoops that surrounded it; after which I was taken, according to my sentence, to the place appointed, and hung upon a gibbet which was ready prepared.

The cloth over my face being but slightly tied, and suffering no pressure from the iron, which stood a great way from it, was, I suppose, soon detached by the wind, which was still very violent, and probably its blowing on my bare face expedited my recovery: certain it is, that in this tremendous situation I came to myself. It was, no doubt, a very great blessing, that I did not immediately return so perfectly to my senses as to have a feeling of things about me; yet I had a sort of recollection of what had happened, and, in some measure was sensible where I was.

The gibbet was placed at the corner of a small common-field, where my sister's cows usually ran; and it pleased God, that about this time a lad, who took care of them, came to drive them home for evening milking. The creatures, which were feeding just under me, brought him near the gibbet; when, stopping to look at the melancholy spectacle, he perceived that the cloth was off my face; and, in the very moment he looked up, saw me open my eyes and move my under jaw. He immediately ran home to inform the people at his master's. At first they made some difficulty in believing his story; at length, however, my brother came out, and by the time he got to

the field, I was so much alive, that my groans were very audible. It was now dusk. The first thing they ran for was a ladder. One of my brother's men mounted, and, putting his hand to my stomach, felt my heart beating very strongly. But it was found impossible to detach me from the gibbet, without cutting it down. A saw, therefore, was got for the purpose; and, without giving you a detail of trifling circumstances, in less than half an hour, having freed me from my irons, they got me blooded, and put me into a warın bed in my brother's house.

It is an amazing thing, that, though upwards of eight persons were entrusted with this transaction, and I remained three days in the place after it happened, not a creature betrayed the secret. Early next morning it was known that the gibbet was cut down; and it immediately occurred to every body, that it was done by my relations, in order to put a slight veil over their shanie by burying the body; but when my brother was summoned to the mayor's house in order to be questioned, and he denied knowing any thing of the matter, little more stir was made about it; partly because he was greatly respected by all the neighbouring gentlemen, and in some measure, perhaps, because it was known that I continued to persist strongly in my being innocent of the fact for which I suffered.

Thus, then, was I most miraculously delivered from an ignominious death, if I may call my coming to life a delivery, after all I have endured: but how was I to dispose of my life, now I had regained it? To stay in England was impossible, without exposing myself again to the terrors of the law. In this dilemma, a fortunate circumstance occurred. There had lain, for some time, at my brother's house, one or two of the principal officers of a privateer that was preparing for a cruize, just then ready to sail. The captain kindly offered to take me abroad with him. You may guess, little difficulty was made on our side to accept of such a proposal; and proper necessaries being quickly provided for me, my sister recommended me to the protection of God and the worthy commander, who most humanely received me as a sort of underassistant to the steward.-We had been six months out upon our cruize, having had but very indifferent success, when, being upon the coast of Florida, then in the hands of the Spaniards, we unfortunately fell in with a squadron of their men of war; and being consequently taken without striking a blow, we were all carried prisoners into the harbour of Havannah. I was really now almost weary of my life, and should have been very glad to have ended it in the loathsome dungeon, where, with forty others of my unfortunate countrymen, the enemy had stowed me; but, after three years' close confinement, we were let out, in order to be put on board transports, to be conveyed to Pennsylvania, and from thence to England. This, as you may believe, was a disagreeable sentence to me, taking it for granted, that a return home would be a return to the gallows. Being now, therefore, a tolerable master of the Spanish language, I solicited very strongly to be left behind; which favour I obtained by means of the master of the prison, with whom, during my confinement, I had contracted a sort of intimacy; and he not only took me into his house, as soon as my countrymen were gone, but, in a short time, procured me a salary from the governor for being his deputy.

Indeed, at this particular time the office was by no means agreeable. The coast had been long infested with pirates, the most desperate gang of villains that can be imagined; and there was scarcely a month past but some of their vessels fell into the governor's hands, and the crew were as constantly put under my care. Once I very narrowly escaped being knocked on the head by

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