Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/52

 40 from Vienna, a fringemaker from Hanover, a discharged secretary of the post-office from Gotha, a monk from Würzburg, an upper steward from Meinungen, a Prussian sergeant of hussars, a cashiered Hessian major from the fortress itself, and others of like stamp. You can imagine that there was entertainment enough, and a mere sketch of the lives of these gentry would make amusing and instructive reading.” A plot was gotten up among this rabble. Seume was offered the command of the conspirators, but, by the advice of an old sergeant, declined the dangerous honor. The mutineers were to rise in the night, surprise the guard and take their weapons, cut down such as opposed them, spike the cannon, lock up the officers at headquarters, and march fifteen hundred strong across the frontier, which was only a few miles away. The plot was betrayed; the ringleaders were arrested, Seume among them. He was soon released, however, for too many were implicated to allow the punishment of all concerned. “The trial went on,” he says; “two were condemned to the gallows, as I should certainly have been, had not the old Prussian sergeant-major saved me. The remainder had to run the gantlet a great many times, from thirty-six down to twelve. It was a terrible butchery. The candidates for the gallows were pardoned, after suffering the fear of death under that instrument, but had to run the gantlet thirty-six times, and were sent to Cassel to be kept in irons at the mercy of the prince. ‘For an indefinite time,’ and ‘at mercy’ were then equivalent expressions, and meant ‘forever, without release.’ At least, the mercy of the prince was an affair that no one