y of American
men, ready to suffer as well as to die in the cause of country, they
were less patriotic, and their endurance was less splendid, than that
shown by the women of our land. The patriotism evinced itself in many
different ways; sometimes in mere sallies of wit, as with the famous
Miss Franks, the daughter of a Jewish merchant. Rebecca Franks was
celebrated for her wit and accomplishments. She was a loyalist at heart,
and afterward married Sir Henry Johnson, an English general; but her
keen jests at the expense of the British did not impress them with her
devotion to their cause. When, at a ball in New York, Sir Henry Clinton,
then holding on with rapidly relaxing grasp to English dominance in
America, called to the musicians to play _Britons, strike home!_ Miss
Franks remarked that what he should have said was "Britons, go home!"
Other ironies are credited to her; but none, probably, having such keen
point as the repartee of a South Carolina maiden, in whose presence
Colonel Tarleton spoke sneeringly of Colonel Washington and wished he
"could see this paragon!" "Had you looked behind you at the battle of
the Cowpens, Colonel Tarleton," replied the young lady, "you would have
had that pleasure!" Whereat the hard-fighting dragoon, who on that day
had run harder than he had fought, was much discomfited.

This was the spirit of the American patriot woman; but it often evinced
itself in ways more serviceable to the cause of freedom. When Washington
was encamped at White Marsh a surprise was planned against him; and it
would undoubtedly have proved exceedingly disastrous had not the plan
been overheard by Lydia Darrah, who lived in the house on Second Street,
Philadelphia, opposite the mansion occupied by General Howe, where the
plan was discussed, the family being supposed to be in bed. Lydia
returned to her room after her espionage and had the nerve to remain
quiet, as if asleep, when one of the officers knocked on her door to
inform her that the conclave was over. Then, with quick ingenuity, she
told her husband, a loyalist, that there was need of flour and that she
must go to Frankford to procure it; and, having on this pretext secured
egress from the British lines, she hastened to White Marsh. On her way
she met Colonel Craig, of the light horse, and to him confided her
secret; then, with lightened heart, she hastened back and managed to
return unsuspected. The surprise consequently failed; but the part
played