titude.

"I am unarmed, you coward, but strike me and I will show you that my
fists can smash your dastardly head."

An officer pulled the English general away, and Allen had no
opportunity to avenge himself at that time.

"By Jove! I'll hang every one of you," shouted Gen. Prescott.
"Colonel, see that thirteen of these d--d rebels are hanged within an
hour; take the first thirteen--quick--there shall be no delay."

"If you dare to do it, I swear that you shall die within an hour
after," shouted Allen, defiantly.

It was a strange threat for an unarmed prisoner to make.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

ON THE GASPEE.

Never before had English officer been spoken to in that manner by
prisoner.

Prescott knew not what to make of it. Had he dared he would have shot
Allen on the spot, but he well knew that to do so would be the cause of
an investigation into his conduct, and Prescott was guilty of many
things which, if sworn to before a court-martial, would have led to his
dismissal from the army, if no other punishment was incurred.

So he allowed himself to be led away, but as he went he shook his fist
at Allen and shouted:

"I will not hang them just now, but you, you infernal rebel, shall
grace a halter at Tyburn."

Even the soldiers shuddered as they heard the threat, for Tyburn was
the place, in England, where the most brutal murderers and criminals
were hung in chains and allowed to stay there until their flesh rotted
from their bones.

To be hung at Tyburn carried with it disgrace throughout all
generations.

Gen. Prescott was in a fury; why, it was difficult to say, for Allen
had never injured him personally.

"I'll hang that fellow," he reiterated to the colonel of his own
regiment.

"My dear Prescott, you will do nothing of the kind; he is a prisoner of
war."

"War be hanged! he is a rebel, not a soldier."

"And being a rebel, he must be tried by the home authorities."

"Col. Gilmartin, answer me; if he were to be on board a war ship and
fall overboard and be drowned, could I be blamed?"

"Of course not."

"If by accident he should be given a dose of oxalic acid in mistake for
Epsom salts, would that be charged against me?"

"What are you hinting at, general?"

"That fellow threatened me----"

"He was exasperated."

"What right had he to be? A man who rebels should be ready for any
treatment by his superiors. Hang me, if I dared, I would cut every
rebel into pieces and send the part