"'We have been fortunate,' replied Barton coolly.
"Prescott and Barrington were then placed in a coach which Captain Elliott had waiting there for them, and taken to Providence, arriving there about sunrise."
"I wonder," remarked Lulu, "if Prescott received the harsh treatment from our men that he deserved."
"No," replied her father, "I am proud to be able to say that American officers rarely, if ever, treated their prisoners with anything like the harshness and cruelty usually dealt out by the British to theirs. Prescott was kindly treated by General Spencer and his officers, and shortly after his capture was sent to Washington's headquarters at Middlebrook, on the Raritan.
"But it seems that at a tavern on the way he received something better suited to his deserts. At Lebanon a Captain Alden kept a tavern, and there Prescott and his escort stopped to dine. While they were at the table Mrs. Alden brought on a dish of succotash."
"What's that, Papa?" queried little Elsie, who had climbed to her favourite seat upon her father's knee.
"Corn and beans boiled together," he replied; "a dish that is quite a favourite with most people in that part of the country; but was, I presume, quite new to Prescott, and he exclaimed indignantly, 'What! do you treat me with the food of hogs?' Then taking the dish from the table he strewed its contents over the floor.
"Some one presently carried the news of his doings to Captain Alden, and he walked into the dining-room armed with a horse-whip and gave Prescott a severe flogging."
"I think it served him right," remarked Lulu, "for his insolence, and for wasting good food that somebody else would have been glad to eat."
"Prescott must surely have been very badly brought up," said Rosie, "and was anything but a gentleman. I pity the poor Newport people if he was ever restored to his command there. Was he, brother Levis? I really have quite forgotten."
"Unfortunately for them, he was," replied the Captain. "He was exchanged for General Charles Lee the next April, and returned to his former command.
"While he was still there the Newport people sent a committee--Timothy Folger, William Rotch and Dr. Tupper--to him to arrange some matters concerning the town. They found some difficulty in gaining an interview; and when at length Folder and the doctor succeeded in so doing, Prescott stormed so violently at the former that he was compelled to withdraw.