September twenty-first was the day on which he reached New York--the day
of the great fire which laid one-third of the little city in ashes. From
the time of his departure from General Washington's camp to that of his
return to New York was about fourteen days. He was taken to General
Howe's headquarters at the Beekman mansion, on the East River, near the
corner of the present Fifty-first Street and First Avenue. It is a
strange coincidence that this house to which he was brought to be tried
as a spy was the very one from which Major Andre departed when he went
to West Point. Tradition says that Captain Hale was examined in a
greenhouse which then stood in the garden of the Beekman mansion.
Short was his trial, for he avowed at once his true character. The
British general signed an order to his provost-marshal directing him to
receive into his custody the prisoner convicted as a spy, and to see him
hanged by the neck "to-morrow morning at daybreak."
Terrible things are reported of the manner in which this noble prisoner,
this admirable gentleman and hero, was treated by his jailer and
executioner. There are savages in every large army, and it is possible
that this provost-marshal was one of them.
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