and Crown Point, as a measure of safety for New York, the besieging of
Fort Duquesne, and the menacing of Quebec by a body of troops which
were to advance by the Kennebec River.

The official career of General Shirley was drawing to a close. He was
recalled to England, and was to be superseded by General Abercrombie.
The general command in America, however, was to be held by the Earl of
Loudoun, who was invested with powers almost equal to those of a
viceroy, being placed above all the colonial governors. Beside his
general command he was to be governor of Virginia and colonel of a
royal American regiment of four battalions, to be raised in the
colonies, but furnished with officers who, like himself, had seen
foreign service. The campaign would open on his arrival, which it was
expected would be early in the spring; and brilliant results were
anticipated.

Washington remained ten days in Boston, receiving the most hospitable
attentions from the polite and intelligent society of the place, after
which he returned to New York. Tradition gives very different motives
from those of business for his sojourns in the latter city. He found
there an early friend and school-mate, Beverly Robinson, son of John
Robinson, speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses. He was living
happily and prosperously with a young and wealthy bride, having
married one of the nieces and heiresses of Mr. Adolphus Philipse, a
rich landholder. At the house of Mr. Beverly Robinson, Washington met
Miss Mary Philipse, sister of Mrs. Robinson, a young lady whose
personal attractions are said to have rivalled her reputed wealth. A
life of constant activity and care, passed for the most part in the
wilderness and on the frontier, far from female society, had left
Washington little mood or leisure for the indulgence of the tender
sentiment; but made him more sensible, in the present brief interval
of gay and social life, to the attractions of an elegant woman,
brought up in the polite circle of New York. That he was an open
admirer of Miss Philipse is an historical fact; that he sought her
hand, but was refused, is traditional. The most probable version of
the story is, that he was called away by his public duties before he
had made sufficient approaches in his siege of the lady's heart to
warrant a summons to surrender. In the latter part of March we find
him at Williamsburg attending the opening of the Legislature of
Virginia, eager to promote measures f