Rebellion 1776

On the night of March 4, 1776, cannon fire shakes the house of Judge Abraham Trink Bellingham. The narrator, a 13-year-old Patriot-sympathizing kitchen maid named Elsbeth, hides in the kitchen while her ailing master, a wealthy Loyalist, demands a clean bucket for his vomit. A cannon blast shatters a mirror in his bedchamber. Elsbeth brings him a chamber pot, and he berates her.

Judge Bellingham orders her to fetch a doctor for his gout. She reminds him that his physician was sent to a jail in Connecticut for spying. He rejects her suggested remedies and asks why she did not hide in the barracks with the other maids. She tells him it is because she is not married, and then she claims to be 16. He dismisses her and sends her into the bombarded streets to find a doctor.

Through the night, Elsbeth makes her way to a British military hospital. The overworked doctor on duty refuses to leave his soldiers but orders his apprentice, Nyott Doubt, to prepare medicines for the Judge.

In the supply room, Nyott reveals he once apprenticed under the deceased Patriot leader, Doctor Warren. Elsbeth offers him food and coin for his help. Nyott agrees to accompany her back to Judge Bellingham’s house.