I was anxious to make a
pilgrimage to the grave of my unfortunate countryman; and, as the
wind was scarcely sufficient to bear us up against a strong ebb-tide,
I easily prevailed on the captain to anchor his charge, and allow the
small boat to go on shore.
Major Andre, you may recollect, was taken prisoner by the Americans
during the revolution as a British spy. The house or hut in which he was
kept in confinement had only very lately gone into ruins. It was then
a tavern, and its landlord, now extremely old, still resides close by,
and recites the melancholy tale with much affection and feeling. He
witnessed the gentlemanly manners and equanimity of this heroic soldier,
while in his house, under the most trying circumstances, and from its
threshold to the fatal spot. In his room the prisoner could hear the
sound of the axe employed in erecting the scaffold; and on one occasion,
in the presence of a friend, when these sounds, terrible to all but
himself, were more than usually distinct, he is said to have observed,
with great composure, "that every sound he heard from that axe was
indeed an important lesson, it taught him how to live and how to die.
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