After Burns was released, she was quickly rearrested for continuing protests, picketing, and marching at the White House. Upon her third arrest in 1917, the judge aimed to make an example of Burns, and she was given the maximum sentence. Once again a prisoner at Occoquan Workhouse, Lucy Burns endured what is remembered as the "Night of Terror." The women were treated brutally and were refused medical attention. To unite the women, Burns tried to call roll and refused to stop despite numerous threats by the guards. When they realized Lucy Burns's spirit was not going to be easily broken, they handcuffed her hands above her head to her cell door and left her that way for the entire night. Burns was so loved and respected by her fellow suffragists that the women in the cell across from her held their hands above their head and stood in the same position. Despite her courage and extraordinary leadership skills, the burden of working so diligently did bother Burns at times; she once told Alice Paul, "I am so nervous I cannot eat or sleep. I am such a coward I ought to be a village seamstress, instead of a Woman's Party organizer."