“There is no occasion for threats,” he said, mastering his passion.  “You tell me that such a punishment is contrary to English law.  That is enough.  I abandon it at once.  The prisoners shall be hung and quartered.  I presume that you have no objection to offer to that.”

“That, general, is a matter in your own competence, and for your own conscience,” Hamilton said.  “The men have simply, as I understand, defended their property against marauders, and they are, as I conceive, worthy of no punishment whatever.  If you choose to sentence them to such a punishment, it is your sentence, not mine.  I thought it was your policy to heal the breach between the two parties.  It seems I was mistaken.  Personally, I protest against the execution of the sentence, beyond that I am not called upon to go.  An act of injustice or cruelty, performed by a general upon prisoners, would not justify a soldier in imperilling the success of the campaign by resisting the orders of his superior; therefore, my duty to the king renders me unable to act; but I solemnly protest, in my own name and that of the English officers under your command, against the sentence, which I consider unjust in the extreme.”

So saying, General Hamilton, with the English officers, left the general’s tent.  If they hoped that the protest would have the effect of preventing the barbarous sentence from being carried into execution, they were mistaken.  The fact that, to carry out his first intention would have been absolutely unlawful, had caused Ginckle to abandon it, but this made him only the more obstinate in carrying the second into execution.

The English officers stood talking, not far from his tent, in tones of indignation and disgust at the brutal sentence, and then walked towards their divisional camp.  As they went, they saw a number of men standing round a tree.  Some Hessian soldiers, with much brutal laughter, were reeving ropes over the arm of the tree, and, just as the officers came along, six struggling forms were drawn up high above the heads of the crowd.

The party paused for a moment, and were about to pass on, their faces showing how deep was their horror at the scene, when one of them exclaimed: 

“There is an Irish officer, in uniform, among the prisoners!  This cannot be suffered, Hamilton.  The Irish have several of ours prisoners in the town, and they would rightly retaliate by hanging them on the battlements.”

General Hamilton and the others pressed forward.

“Colonel Hanau,” the general said to a Hessian officer, “you surely cannot be going to hang this young officer?  The general can never have included him with the others?”

“The general’s orders were precise,” the Hessian said coldly.  “Twelve peasants and one officer were to be hung, and afterwards quartered.”

“It is monstrous!” General Hamilton exclaimed.  “I will go back to the general, and obtain his order for the arrest of the execution.”