greatest difficulty that she at last prevailed upon him to put it into
practice; that all she knew of him was, that he had left the room with her
sister Elizabeth, but which way or where he was gone she knew nothing;
then, with great and dignified firmness, she added, even if she had known
any thing of his route, Colonel Desbrow must be aware, that as she had the
courage and goodness to plan and effect his escape, no threats, not even
the torture, should induce her to do any thing that might place him in
their power again. Elizabeth was instantly taken into custody and examined
also, but she knew nothing more than her sister. They were both consigned
to the dungeon that he had quitted, and the scaffold, although it remained
fixed for some days, it mourned for the loss of its victim, and the gaping
multitude daily stared in vain for the consummation of the bloody
sacrifice. Col. Desbrow sent off dispatches to the Government, raised a
Hue and Cry to search every house they came to, and dispatched messengers
to all the out-ports, so that neither pains, expense, nor trouble were
spared to retake the fugitive. In the mean time the sentence of Grove and
Penruddock was put in execution. They were both beheaded on the same
morning, one at Exeter, and the other at some other jail. It is a very
remarkable coincidence of circumstances, that at the time myself, the
lineal heir and descendant of Colonel Hunt, am confined in this jail by
the state policy of the day, Colonel Desbrow, the lineal descendant of the
very Colonel Desbrow, who then had the command of this district as a
soldier and servant of Cromwell, is at this very time an officer in the
service of the present reigning family, and, I believe, an attendant about
the person of the Sovereign. Colonel Hunt remained concealed in the
cottage of his protector, but when night came they were too agitated to
retire to rest; they therefore barricadoed the door of their little
fortress as well as they could, and, having put out the lights, took their
station at the bed-room window, each with a loaded firelock, and all the
arms and ammunition they could muster for re-loading, preparatory to the