They were now, closely confined.

A gallows was erected on one of the bastion; and a message was conveyed to Rosen, requesting him to send a confessor instantly to prepare his friends for death.

The prisoners in great dismay wrote to the savage Livonian, but received no answer.

They then addressed themselves to their countryman, Richard Hamilton.

They were willing, they said, to shed their blood for their King; but they thought it hard to die the ignominious death of thieves in consequence of the barbarity of their own companions in arms.
Hamilton, though a man of lax principles, was not cruel.