he crew of that ship,
but in the city of New York. The order proves also that, once
apprehended, he made not the slightest attempt at concealment, nor any
effort to escape his doom. The information gained by Hale's brother
Enoch in New York supports this belief as to his capture.

All that we actually know is, that he was captured while attempting to
make his way back to his friends, and that this must have been the
sharpest moment in his experience. Before it, he had hopes of escape;
after his capture he knew that his doom was certain, and his splendid
soul adapted itself quietly and bravely to the inevitable.

That fatal night--the night of the 21st of September--was in many
respects the most terrible that New York has ever passed through. A fire
had broken out near the docks at two in the morning, and was spreading
with fearful rapidity toward the upper part of the city, the blaze
carried northward by a strong breeze. It looked at one time as if
nothing could stop the conflagration, and that the whole city would be
destroyed.

For a time the enemy believed that the Americans had deliberately set
fire to their own city in order to expel the hated British. Later this
was found to be untrue, as the fire proved to have started in a low
drinking house where several coarse fellows were carousing. The fire
swept on, destroying more than five hundred houses, one fifth of all the
buildings then in the city, and was stopped only near Barclay Street by
a sudden sharp change in the wind, which blew the fire southward toward
the already burning district.

Report says that the provost marshal was given authority by Howe to
dispose summarily, without the delay of a trial, of any Americans found
rushing about the burning buildings, assuming, of course, that they were
intent on the destruction of more buildings, rather than on the natural
desire of saving what they could of their own property; and that as a
result of this authority, more than one hapless householder was thrown
into his own burning home.

Up to this point, the early or late evening of the 21st, there is more
or less of unsolvable mystery in regard to Nathan Hale's movements; but
from the memoirs of Captain William Hull, Nathan Hale's college friend
and companion in arms, we have what appears to be unimpeachable evidence
as to Hale's arrest and being brought to General Howe's headquarters. We
quote from Captain Hull the information he received from an English
off