to be at Flushing, Long Island; of course I was too young to
be a combatant, so I wandered about among my friends as circumstances
directed; sometimes among the whigs and sometimes among the tories,
having by the aid of friends in both armies a passport to the one or the
other side. At this particular time, I observed a funeral procession of
rather an extraordinary character. In its appearance it was partly civil
and partly military. A carriage dressed in sable plumes was followed
by a number of military men with the usual badges of mourning. They
belonged to the 22nd, 38th, and 80th regiments; the latter Grenadiers.
It proceeded in silence along the street, having started from a public
house kept by a man of the name of Vanderbilt. I could not perceive
any persons attending as principal mourners, although great grief was
discoverable in the countenances of those present. Upon further inquiry
I found that it was the funeral of the honourable Mrs. Napier, and that
the corpse was now to be carried to the vault of lieutenant governor
Colden at Springfield, whence, at a convenient opportunity, it was to
be removed to England. She was only twenty three years of age when she
died. Young and beautiful, she was the idol of her family, which she
had not hesitated to forsake, that she might follow the fortunes of her
husband. He commanded a company of Grenadiers in the 80th regiment, and
was the son of lord Napier, a Scottish nobleman.

If I mistake not, he had seen service with the army of Canada, and after
its surrender to general Gates, was enabled by an early exchange, to
retire with his wife to Long Island, for the benefit of her health. They
had two daughters, one of the age of three years, and the other of two,
who were the dear solace of their retirement. If it be true that

"All thoughts, all passions, all delights,
Whatever stirs this mortal frame,
All are but ministers of love,
And feed his _sacred_ flame."

the reunion of these young people must have been blissful.

An expedition to the southward was soon the unwelcome cause of their
separation. They parted; and it was during his absence that this hapless
woman became alarmingly ill. From this illness she never recovered.
She was from the first sensible of her danger, and she felt a strong
presentiment that she would see her husband no more: and for those to
whom her heart instinctively clung with the affection of a daughter, she
could only address h