on the last of these missions , though , a journey into the great dismal swamp of virginia , william had had the misfortune to become lost , be wounded , and suffer a fever that would certainly have killed him had ian murray not found and rescued him-in the course of the rescue informing william that he had almost certainly been gulled and sent not into the bosom of british allies but into a nest of rebels , who would hang him should they discover who he was .