w York.

On July 28, at nine o'clock in the morning, the whole brigade was
ordered out on grand parade to witness the execution of the three men.
The condemned deserters were required to stand, with their backs to the
river, on the rise of land at the west side of the lake's outlet. The
troops were drawn up facing them. A firing squad made ready.

All stood motionless, expectant, silent. It was a day that blazed with
sunshine, intensely hot.[46] The air was breathless. Shore and sky were
reflected, as in a mirror, from the unruffled surface of the lake.

Meantime information had come to General Clinton that Dunnavan had
previously deserted from the British army to join the Americans, and
afterward had persuaded the two younger men to desert with him from the
American forces. Clinton, manifestly glad of an excuse for leniency,
pardoned Pierce and Snyder on the spot. Concerning Dunnavan he was
obdurate. "He is good for neither king nor country," exclaimed the
General; "Let him be shot."

A crash of musketry, with a puff of smoke, and Dunnavan dropped. The
troops marched back to camp. The deserter's body was buried in an
unmarked grave.[47]

The other incident relates to some negro troops who were included in the
brigade. That they might readily be distinguished the negroes wore wool
hats with the brim and lower half of the crown colored black--the
remainder being left drab, or the native color. A company or two of
these black soldiers were included in a part of the brigade that was one
day being drilled by Col. Rignier, the popular French officer, a large,
well-made, jovial fellow, who was acting as Adjutant General. One of the
negro soldiers, from inattention, failed to execute a command in proper
time.

"Halloo!" cried the colonel, "you black son of a--wid a wite face!--why
you no mind you beezness?"

This hasty exclamation in broken English so pleased the troops that a
general burst of laughter followed. Seeing the men mirthful at his
expense, the colonel good-humoredly gave the command to order arms.

"Now," said he, "laugh your pelly full all!"

The French colonel himself joined in the shout that followed, while
hill and dale echoed the boisterous merriment.[48]

Clinton's expedition is chiefly memorable in Cooperstown for the exploit
by which the heavily laden bateaux, when the brigade departed for the
south, were carried down the Susquehanna. The river was too shallow and
narrow, in the first reaches of