e harm in what her sister did.
But Tom and I, though we never spoke of it to each other, were made
sensitive, by our friendship for Philip, to the impropriety of the
situation--that the wife of an absent American officer should reign as
a beauty among his military enemies. I make no doubt but the
circumstance was commented upon, with satirical smiles at the expense
of both husband and wife, by the British officers themselves. Indeed I
once heard her name mentioned, not as Mrs. Winwood, but as "Captain
Winwood's wife," with an expression of voice that made me burn to
plant my fist in the leering face of the fellow who spoke--some
low-born dog, I'll warrant, who had paid high for his commission.

It was a custom of Tom's and mine to put ourselves, when off duty
together, in the way of more active service than properly fell to us,
by taking horse and riding to the eastern side of the Harlem River,
where was quartered the troop of Tom's relation, James De Lancey. In
more than one of the wild forays of these horsemen, did we take an
unauthorised part, and find it a very exhilarating business.

One cold December afternoon in 1778, we got private word from Captain
De Lancey that he was for a raid up the Albany road, that night, in
retaliation for a recent severe onslaught made upon our Hessian post
near Colonel Van Cortlandt's mansion, either ('twas thought) by Lee's
Virginia Light Horse or by the partisan troop under the French
nobleman known in the rebel service as Armand.

At nightfall we were on the gallop with De Lancey's men, striking the
sparks from the stony road under a cloudy sky. But these troops,
accustomed to darkness and familiar with the country, found the night
not too black for their purpose, which was, first, the seizing of some
cattle that two or three Whig farmers had contrived to retain
possession of, and, second, the surprising of a small advanced post
designed to protect rebel foragers. The first object was fairly well
accomplished, and a detail of men assigned to conduct the prizes back
to Kingsbridge forthwith, a difficult task for which those upon whom
it fell cursed their luck, or their commander's orders, under their
breath. One of the farmers, for stubbornly resisting, was left tied to
a tree before his swiftly dismantled house, and only Captain De
Lancey's fear of alarming the rebel outpost prevented the burning down
of the poor fellow's barn.

The taking of these cattle had necessitated our l