Abbott had not been aware of it. “Surely that is no longer done?”
“It has been done well within living memory, and the punishment is still very much in the statute books.”
“But I assume he could be pardoned as part of a final settlement.”
“I wouldn’t count on it. Once he is convicted and sentenced, only the King can pardon him.”
“The government has no power over that?”
“It does. In reality it more or less controls pardons. But Lord North would pay a high political price for trying to arrange one unless he got something in exchange. And he is not a strong man when it comes to the King’s wishes.”
“I see.”
“I hope you do see, and see the peril your great man is in—and he is a great man.” Without waiting for a response, he opened the door, turned again to look directly at him and said, “Just so you know, if the prisoner is quartered, it is up to the King to dispose of the parts.”
Abbott said nothing.
“He will likely give one to the French King, save one each for Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams and perhaps give you one, too.”
Then, with a quick half-smile, he was gone.
32
The next day, early in the afternoon, as Abbott was preparing to go directly to the Tower and demand of the jailer to see Washington, a messenger arrived for him with a note from Mrs. Stevenson. It said that a friend of both Dr. Franklin and Mr. Burke was certainly a friend of hers and that he was most welcome to lodge with her family for as long as he found it convenient. It begged him to send his man with his things as soon as possible. Supper would be awaiting him that evening.
He made the arrangements with Mr. Jarvis, who told him that Mr. Sellars would take his trunks to Mrs. Stevenson that afternoon.
“I assume,” Jarvis said, “that Your Excellency will want your manservant to continue to attend to you once you are there. I doubt the government will have any objection.”
Did Burke’s warning extend to a manservant employed by the government? It would, of course, be useful to have Sellars in his service. On the other hand, he could no doubt obtain someone elsewhere who was not beholden to the administration. Or just do the things that needed to be done himself.
“I think not, Mr. Jarvis. My needs are simple, and I’m sure Mrs. Stevenson can make what other arrangements I might need. Please be sure that Mr. Sellars is given a proper gratuity, my thanks for his service and an indication that, should he be in need of a reference, I will be pleased to supply it, even though his services to me have been of short duration.”
Jarvis did not look happy. “Very well, Excellency.” He bowed his head slightly and departed.
By 4:00 p.m. a carriage, compliments of the government, was waiting outside to deliver him to Mrs. Stevenson’s house, which turned out to be conveniently located at 7 Craven Street, not far from Charing Cross. It annoyed him that he had to arrive at her home in a vehicle bearing the Royal Arms on its side, but he seemed to have little choice at the moment.
Mrs. Stevenson was there to greet him and showed him up a stairway to a well-appointed room with a pleasant view of the street. Over dinner she asked for the latest news of Dr. Franklin.
He was disappointed that Polly was not at dinner, but Mrs. Stevenson explained that she was away for a few days visiting the parents of her late husband.
Towards the end of dinner, a servant appeared and announced that a letter from the First Minister’s office had been delivered for His Excellency. He handed Abbott an envelope embossed with the Royal Arms, in red. He opened it, and since Mrs. Stevenson had bent her head forward, clearly interested in the contents, he read aloud:
“My Dear Sir,
It is my pleasure to inform you that you may meet with George Washington at the Tower at your convenience. Kindly present this letter to the Governor to obtain the right of entry.
I trust you will advise him of his need to select an attorney since the Solicitor General was here during the day to advise His Excellency Lord North that the treason investigation has begun and is progressing rapidly.
I have the honour to be, &c.,
Jacob Hartleb”
“What do you make of that?” Mrs. Stevenson asked.
“I am pleased, obviously. For the most part. But I find it distressing that he did not use my title in addressing me. Even though I’ve had that title only a brief while, I take his having failed to use it a form of insult to my country.”
“What else?”
“That he referred to His Excellency, General Washington, only as ‘George Washington,’ which is also a way of avoiding acknowledgement that he outranks all but the most senior generals in the British Army.”
She laughed. “You can hardly expect anything else, Mr. Abbott. As you must surely be aware, but there have been raging debates, both in the government and in Parliament, as to whether your Continental Congress, your generals, your governmental officials or anyone else in rebellion should be acknowledged as having legitimate authority or should simply be treated as something other.”
“The something other being?”
“Rebels needing to be hanged as soon as the government can get its hands on them.”
“I see. Well, it is quite odd, because when the Carlisle Commission came to Philadelphia two years ago to try to negotiate an end to the Revolution, the commission members dealt for months with men who were delegates to our Congress.”
She shrugged. “Politics is a strange and off-putting business. That is why I tend to avoid it, at least in what I say in public. When will you go to see General Washington?”
“I am inclined to go tonight, before they change their minds.”
“I will lend you our driver and carriage. It is not fancy, but it will take you there.”
“Why, thank you, Mrs. Stevenson. It is much appreciated.”
With dinner over, he excused himself and went upstairs to change into his best clothes. He rejected wearing a peg and instead strapped on the cleverly built leather-and-wood leg and foot. When a silk stocking was pulled over it, it was hard to tell that he was wearing an artificial leg at all. And then he went down to say goodbye to Mrs. Stevenson—who wished him good luck—and boarded the carriage, which was waiting for him out in front.
He had rehearsed many times in his mind how to approach General Washington when he finally met him. He had seen the man at a distance a number of times, both before the war in Philadelphia and in the army after Abbott enlisted. But he had never met him in person. Should he be entirely formal? Should he be open about his instructions or keep them to himself? He had thought about it incessantly on the ship, as well as in the guest house as he tossed and turned while trying to fall asleep. Now he was thinking about it again as the carriage bounced along towards the Tower. As he approached the Tower gate, he was still undecided.
And there was one more issue that had been added to his list since he arrived in England. Clearly, some in the government were not interested at all in a negotiation. They just wanted Washington to hang. How candid did he need to be about that? He was, of course, doing exactly what he routinely did as a lawyer on first meeting a new client. He was trying to decide how much to tell the man and how much to hold back. If you were too optimistic, the client would likely sense you just wanted to handle his matter, no matter what; too pessimistic and he would go elsewhere. But Washington was not his client. He was instead the man on whom an entire nation being born had pinned its hopes. In a way now, those hopes were on him. He shivered at the thought.
33
Abbott had half-expected to find difficulty in gaining access to the Tower and to Washington. But he did not. The guard in the small booth just outside the main entrance seemed to be expecting him, and when he showed the man the letter from Hartleb he was ushered immediately through the portcullis gate, and taken by another man along
a stone walkway with a crenellated wall to his left, and finally to a stone-floored small room with the door standing open.
“There he is,” the man said. He pointed into the room and left. A tall man had been standing at the barred window, looking out. He turned quickly around at the sound of the guard’s voice.
So far as Abbott could tell at a glance, Washington was none the worse for wear—still very tall and very large in every proportion—strong neck, broad shoulders and huge hands. He was, however, dressed in an American uniform that had one epaulette missing and was otherwise almost in tatters.
“Excellency, please allow me to introduce myself. I am Ethan Abbott, and I am most honoured to meet you.” He nodded his head slightly and started to continue, “I am...”
“I know who you are, Colonel. A hero of Saratoga. I wasn’t there, but General Gates told me later of your bravery, and how your actions under fire saved so many others but cost you a part of your leg. It is I who am honoured to meet you. I thank you for your service to the army and to our country and for the glory you have bestowed upon them both.”
Washington’s words took him aback. He had not expected the General to know anything at all about him. “Thank you, Excellency. I simply did my duty like any other soldier.”
Washington glanced at Abbott’s lower leg. “I see you disguise your injury rather than flaunt it.”
“I flaunt it when I need to.”
Washington smiled. “In any case, as pleased as I am to meet you, Colonel, no one told me you were coming, and I do not know why you are here. Can you enlighten me?”
“Yes, of course. I have been appointed by the Continental Congress as an Ambassador Plenipotentiary to negotiate your release. But first, I must ask if you are in good health and well treated.”
“I am well, thank you. When I arrived I was examined by a physician from the Royal College of Medicine, who pronounced me fit. The food is good and I have not been ill-treated in any way.”
“I am pleased to hear that. I am prepared to share my instructions with you and take your lead on how we should go about our negotiation.”
Washington nodded and pointed at the room’s side walls, which appeared to be made, not of stone, as Abbott had expected, but of wood.
“We should of course discuss your instructions,” Washington said. “But we should do it elsewhere. Because they recently brought in two new prisoners, neither looking very much like a felon, and placed them in cells to the left and right of this one. And I note their doors are not locked at night.”
“Spies, in other words.”
“Yes. And if you peer down from my window you’ll see a man down below pressed up against the wall, no doubt hoping to hear some words of mine transported to him on the breeze.”
Abbott walked to the window and looked down. There was indeed a gentleman below leaning against the wall, trying to make his presence look casual.
“This is ungentlemanly,” Abbott said.
“I think the British left that concept behind long ago, at least as concerns our Revolution. And there is one more thing. The man who captured me—Colonel Black—is also lodged here in the Tower, although in a different part.”
“You’ve seen him?”
“Not only have I seen him, but he has come by to visit with me. Twice.”
“And you treated with him?”
“Yes, of course. We had cordial enough relations from the moment he seized me at my headquarters until we disembarked from the ship at Portsmouth. He seems not even to begrudge me my attempts to escape, agreeing with me that it is a soldier’s duty to try.”
“Did he say why he comes to see you now?”
Washington grinned. “I think he has been appointed by someone to make certain I don’t try to escape again.”
Abbott walked over to the door and examined the lock, a very large metal bolt, turned by key, and designed to fit into a hasp on the doorjamb. “They lock you in at night?”
“Always before midnight. Sometimes sooner.”
“Are you permitted to leave the room during the day?”
“Oh, yes. There are a few areas which I’m forbidden to visit. Otherwise I seem to have freedom during daylight to go where I wish. They refer to me as a guest.”
“A guest who is locked in at night and cannot leave.”
“Precisely. Which is why I am always followed by at least two soldiers.” He gestured into the adjoining hallway, and Abbott noticed for the first time two soldiers with bayonets loitering at a distance.
“There are only two?”
“Sometimes there are more. I have tried to befriend them. I have been friendly and talked with them when they wanted to talk.”
“You’d best be careful they are not also spies.”
“I am. Let us stroll together upon the parade, where I think we will be less likely to be overheard.”
“Of course, Excellency.”
They moved to the parade, a long broad stone walkway, which was overlooked on the one side by the White Tower and on the other by a storehouse of some sort. “I must warn you,” Washington said. “Yesterday, they permitted individuals into the storehouse and they stood in the windows and threw fruit and eggs at me as I walked along here.”
“You joke.”
“No. When I first arrived at the Tower there were crowds waiting outside, and they were friendly, cheering me actually as I entered. But now someone within the government has decided to show me the other side of British hospitality.”
“Perhaps, Excellency, they will not be there now, it being night.”
“We shall see.”
“Before we discuss my instructions, Excellency, please permit me to ask another question of you first. If you have been well taken care of since your arrival, why have they not provided you with suitable clothes?”
“It is my choice. I wish to wear my uniform, and all that they have offered me are civilian clothes.”
“We must find a solution to that.”
“There is an easy one, I think. For many years, my supplier of fine English goods, including fine cloth, was here in London. His name is Richard Washington.”
“Is he a relation?”
“No. But assuming he is still amongst the living and still in business, he might yet have my measurements.” He laughed. “Although the finished clothes he shipped rarely fit well, so in the end he just sent the cloth. He can come here with a good tailor. If he is willing.”
“I believe I have enough funds to pay for at least two uniforms, so I will see to it first thing tomorrow.”
“You won’t likely need to use your funds, which I assume are limited. Upon the outbreak of the Revolution, I was unable to take delivery on several things I had on order from Mr. Washington at the time. He wrote me and said the amount I had paid him in advance would remain on account as a credit.”
“And if the authorities will not permit you to receive those clothes from him?”
“Then I will eventually need to appear in my undergarments. The embarrassment will be theirs, not mine. And if I do manage to get a new uniform, I have promised the soldiers each a button from this old one.” He laughed. “I am apparently famous, even here.”
There was a shout from the second story of the warehouse. “There he is!” A piece of fruit smashed against the stones near them, then a second and third, their pulp splashing on the ground. It seemed to Abbott, however, that those who were throwing did not intend to hit them, which they could certainly have done had they wished to do so. The shouting grew louder, a chorus of voices yelling, “Traitor! Hang him! Hang him high!” There followed a volley of eggs.
Washington seemed unmoved by the tumult. “Over there,” he said, “is a niche at the base of the storehouse where their projectiles can’t reach.” He pointed.
They moved into the niche, and Abbott said, “Thi
s is unpardonable. You must be correct that the government is behind it. I will let Mr. Hartleb, who is Lord North’s assistant, know and protest in the strongest terms.”
All of a sudden, the shouting stopped and the fruit stopped flying. “Perhaps now we can discuss my instructions,” Abbott said.
“What are they?”
“I am to insist on full independence no matter what, but agree to stay within the Empire for purposes of tariff-free trade only for a period of ten years. Twenty years if I can do no better. We are to receive all British lands as far west as the Mississippi, but they are to keep the Caribbean islands, Florida and Canada and we are to promise not to invade them.”
“And in exchange?”
“You are to go free and be permitted to return to America.”
“Is that it?”
“No. You are to be permitted to negotiate different terms so long as full independence is one of them.”
“Colonel Abbott, I can see how those terms might make sense to the faraway Congress. But they make no sense to me. I do not wish to be the gold chip on the gaming table in any kind of bargaining.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that the British must gain no advantage by having captured me. If they want to keep me until the war is over, they can do that. After all, I am a prisoner of war. If they want to exchange me for a general we might capture, they can do that. But nothing else.”
Abbott steeled himself for what he needed to say, took a deep breath and said it. “But, Excellency, they plan a third choice. To try you for high treason and hang you.” He decided to leave out the part about quartering. “Or at least that is what the King desires.”
“Let them. I will go honourably to the gallows, and in the fullness of time, the gods of history will frown down upon them, and especially upon the tyrant who calls himself their king.”
“There are those who think—and I am one of them—that you are needed in America to bring the war to a favourable end.”
The Trial and Execution of the Traitor George Washington Page 17
