The prisoners were highly gratified by their attention, and exceedingly delighted to see them, and the lodge was so beset by sedan-chairs and coaches, and so thronged by ladies in fine dresses and loo-masks that it looked more like the entrance to a masquerade than the approach to a gloomy dungeon.
Notwithstanding his reverses, and though he was severely censured by his own party, General Forster maintained his cheerfulness.
On Dorothy’s arrival in town he was constantly visited by her, and it is probable she suggested a plan of escape to him.
It is certain she brought him a large sum of money. How it was employed can only be conjectured, though we do not think we shall be far wrong in asserting that a considerable portion of it found its way into the pockets of Mr. Pitts.
By whatever means he procured them, and, as we have intimated, suspicion attached to the governor, Forster obtained false keys, and they were successfully employed by him immediately after a bill of high treason had been found against him.
The comedy, it must be owned, was well played. On the night of his evasion, Forster invited Sir Francis Anderton, who was likewise a prisoner in Newgate, to sup with him, and they sat together carousing to a late hour.
They were still enjoying themselves when the governor came in to remind them that it was not far from midnight. Forster begged him to sit down, as he wished him to taste some very fine old brandy, and stepped into the adjoining chamber to fetch the bottle.
Apparently he could not find what he sought, for he did not immediately return, and the governor, feigning to become alarmed, went to look after him.
The prisoner was gone, and had evidently made his exit by the door communicating with the passage, which ought to have been locked outside.
Indeed it was locked, as was the door of the other room, for when the governor hurried thither, and tried to get out, he found himself a prisoner.
The consternation into which Mr. Pitts was thrown by this discovery, if not real, was extremely well simulated, and imposed upon Sir Francis Anderton, who, however, laughed very heartily.
The governor knocked against the door, and shouted loudly for assistance, but some minutes elapsed before the turnkey came, and then it was found that a double-lock had been placed outside.
Search was made for the fugitive, but no traces whatever could be found of him.
Every door through which he had to pass had been unlocked and re-fastened, and if their statements were to be credited, not one of the turnkeys had seen him pass out of the prison.
How he got through the lodge-how he passed the usually vigilant porter at the gate-has never been satisfactorily explained!
But it is certain he proceeded to Blackfriars, where he found Dorothy waiting for him.
She had hired a boat for Gravesend, whence her brother embarked before dawn for France. Dorothy, however, did not accompany him in his flight.
A reward of one thousand pounds was immediately offered for Forster’s apprehension, but he was safe on the other side of the Channel.
Mr. Pitts was tried for his life at the Old Bailey for conniving at Forster’s escape, but was acquitted.
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VI
Brigadier Mackintosh’s Escape
OWING to his prodigious strength and daring Brigadier Mackintosh was more feared than any other of the rebels confined in Newgate, and it was deemed necessary to place him in irons.
Highly indignant at such treatment, he complained of it in the strongest terms to the governor, but was told it was done by the express order of Lord Townshend.
“His lordship wishes to inflict a disgrace upon me,” he said; “but he simply dishonours himself by treating a Highland commander like a common felon. Tell his lordship his contemptible fetters will not prevent my escape.”
After Forster’s escape, which had caused an extraordinary sensation throughout London, the vigilance of the jailers was doubled, and Brigadier Mackintosh delayed the execution of the daring project he had conceived till the latest moment.
Not till the night before his trial was fixed to take place at Westminster Hall did he make the attempt.
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