was but a small fraction of our number
that came home alive at last. I never met Philip while we were both in
the South, nor saw him till the war was over.

Shiploads of our New York loyalists left, after Cornwallis's defeat at
Yorktown showed what the end was to be; some of them going to England
but many of them sailing to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, there to
begin afresh the toiling with the wilderness, and to build up new
English colonies in North America. Others contrived to make their way
by land to Canada, which thereby owes its English population mainly to
those who fled from the independent states rather than give up their
loyalty to the mother country. The government set up by the victorious
rebels had taken away the lands and homes of the loyalists, by acts of
attainder, and any who remained in the country did so at the risk of
life or liberty. What a time of sad leave-taking it was!--families
going forth poor to a strange land, who had lived rich in that of
their birth--what losses, what wrenches, what heart-rendings! And how
little compensation England could give them, notwithstanding all their
claims and petitions! Well, they would deserve little credit for their
loyalty if they had followed it without willingness to lose for it.

But my mother and I had possessed nothing to lose in America but our
house and ground, our money being in the English funds. Fortunately,
and thanks to our insignificance, we had been overlooked in the first
act of attainder, and, taking warning by that, my mother had
gratefully accepted Mr. Faringfield's offer to buy our home, for which
we had thereafter paid him rent. Thus we had nothing to confiscate,
when the war was over. As for Mr. Faringfield, he was on the
triumphant side of Independence, which he had supported with secret
contributions from the first; of course he was not to be held
accountable for the treason of his eldest son, and the open service of
poor Tom on the king's side.

My mother feared dreadful things when the victorious rebels should
take possession--imprisonment, trial for treason, and similar horrors;
and she was for sailing to England with the British army. But I flatly
refused to go, pretending I was no such coward, and that I would leave
when I was quite ready. I was selfish in this, of course; but I could
not bring myself to go so far from Fanny. Our union was still as
uncertain a possibility as ever. Only one thing was sure: she would
not leave