ing but his College diploma, as an introduction to
his assumed calling. Thus equipped, we parted
for the last time in life. He went on his mission,
and I returned back again to Norwalk, with orders
to stop there until he should return, or hear from
him, as he expected to return back again to cross
the sound, if he succeeded in his object."

So far as there is any other evidence, it tends to
confirm this part of Sergeant Hempstead's report,
and he is to-day considered one of the most valuable
authorities on Hale's last intercourse with brother
soldiers.

Of the details of his captain's arrest and execution,
which are told in the last part of the account,
and of which Hempstead had no personal knowledge,
he declares that he was "authentically informed"
and did "most religiously believe" them.
Some of the incidents he gives appear to have been
proved since to have no basis in fact; others
that vary from reports now accepted may yet,
with more light gained, be found to be true.

The second letter sent by Sergeant Hempstead
to the Republican deals with his experience in the
army in 1781, when he was one of the victims of
the brutalities inflicted upon the hapless prisoners
of war at Fort Griswold, Groton, Connecticut.
The injuries he received there were, as he tells

[[135]]

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