motive but the indulgence of petty spite.
An eye-witness of the event says: "After a long
spell of laughing and grinning, sweating, swearing,
and foaming, with malice diabolical, they cut down
a tree, because it bore the name of liberty." A
tory soldier was killed by its fall. A poet of the
day wrote:--

"A tory soldier, on its topmost limb--
The Genius of the Shade looked stern at him,
And marked him out that same hour to dine
Where unsnuffed lamps burn low at Pluto's shrine.
Then tripped his feet from off their cautious stand:
Pale turned the wretch--he spread each helpless hand,
But spread in vain--with headlong force he fell,
Nor stopped descending till he stopped in hell!"]

SEPTEM.

the 1. This morning very early just past one o clock the enemy began
to fire from their Brest Work and their floating batery which
ocationed an alarm their fireing Semed to be at our main guard and
piquet they fired a number of guns and threw several bombs and they
were permitted to kill too men the one belongd to Col Huntingtons[150]
Regement and the other belonged to col Davidsons Regement and one of
the riflemen was slitely wounded but see the Providence of god in it
when 6 or 7 hundred men were before the mouths of their canon there
was but too men killed We should not have thought it strange if they
had killed 20 considering the Situation that they were in too of the
regulars centrys deserted about a hour before the firing began this
was the smartest fireing that ever has been this campaign in the
afternoon they fired upon our fatigue party but did no Damage also
about Sunset there was several guns fired on board the Ships there was
several Ships came in to the harbour thus far the proceding of the 1
day.

[Footnote 150: Colonel Jedediah Huntington, of
Norwich, Connecticut. The British now seemed
determined to make a general assault upon the
besiegers, and a heavy cannonade was opened
simultaneously upon the Americans at Roxbury and in
the vicinity of Cambridge.]

the 2. I went down to the right hand of the burying place and we had