CAMBRIDGE, December 7th, 1775.

GENTLEMEN:

The prisoners which will be delivered to you with this, having
been tried by a court martial, were sentenced to Simsbury in
Connecticut. You will therefore have them secured so that they
cannot possibly make their escape. I am, etc.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

But the Tories were just as anxious as any other prisoners to
escape if they could. Three times the wooden guardhouse over the
entrance was set on fire and burned down. Once, when there were a
great many Tories in Newgate, they made a concerted plan and
carried it out successfully. The wife of one of them had
permission, to visit him, and came to the prison one night about
ten o'clock. Only two guards were on duty then at the mouth of
the shaft. When the trapdoor was lifted for her, the prisoners
were all ready and waiting on the ladder. They rushed out,
overpowered the two men, took away their muskets, and got
possession of the guardroom. The rest of the watch, who had been
asleep, hurried in, and there was a desperate fight; one man was
killed and several were wounded. At last the prisoners succeeded
in putting all the guards down into the mine and closing the
trapdoor upon them. Then they escaped themselves, and few of them
were ever retaken.

A story is told of a Tory prisoner who, about the year 1780, made
his escape in a remarkable and unexpected way. There was an old