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58 BYGONE SUSSEX.
hatched against him by Rudge's daughter, who is doubtless instigated by Weston. He is accused of stealing marked money, which is found in his box, having been put there by the conspirators. Here is the Town Hall where the charge was made, where the perjured witnesses swore falsely, where the boy's innocence was triumphantly established. And as he came out of the courthouse " postboys were galloping all over the land to announce that we were at war with France." The schoolboys had another problem now added to their discussions of the American War and Burgoyne's surrender. "We had a half holiday for Long Island," said Tom Parrott, " I suppose we shall be flogged all round for Saratoga." After the trial, Dr. Barnard, the good clergyman, takes the boy a walk by the old Ypres Tower, built as a fort, but for generations used as a prison. Then they go into the Church of Rye, where the boy gratefully and reverently joins in thanksgiving to the heavenly power that had delivered him from peril. At Rye, Denis and the other boys were constantly down at the water, and "learned to manage a boat pretty easy." Here he half-a-dozen times took part in smuggling adventures, quite unconscious of the |
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