d men, captured that
forenoon. A fleet of transports now received on board another division
of two thousand troops, to be conveyed to the assistance of Lord
Cornwallis, at Portsmouth.

On the 12th of May, having fallen down to the Hook, we sailed with the
whole fleet for the southward. Nothing occurred on the passage except
the capture of an unfortunate brig, which found herself near us in a
calm, and upon which nearly all the boats of the squadron set at once.
It made me think of a number of birds of prey pouncing down on some poor
beast of burden which has dropped through fatigue on the road. The
commander-in-chief having given up the command of the convoy to Captain
Symonds, leaving also the Roebuck and Assurance, he parted company,
while we continued our course for our destination.

We anchored with the convoy off Sewel's Point on the 20th, and Captain
Symonds remained in command till the 30th, when the Richmond coming in,
he was relieved of that duty by Captain Hudson. Twice during that time
I was sent on shore with flags of truce to Hampton, where I was, as
before, most hospitably received by my friends the Langtons. My first
inquiries on returning to the coast of Virginia had been for Colonel
Carlyon. He was still a prisoner at Portsmouth; but, from what I could
learn, I had hopes that he would soon be exchanged. I was unable to see
him before I was sent off to Hampton. On reaching the house of my
friends, I eagerly asked after Madeline. I felt that it was unnecessary
with them to disguise my feelings, and that it would please them better
if I spoke openly to them on the subject.

"Where is she? Is she safe? Is she well?" I exclaimed, almost before
the first greetings were over.

To all my questions they gave me satisfactory answers, and I went back
much lighter of heart than I had been for a long time. They also loaded
me with all the luxuries and delicacies which their most fertile
province can produce, and welcomed indeed they were by my messmates, who
had been for some time living chiefly on salt pork, beef, and
peas-pudding--not pleasant food during a warm spring in that southern
clime. On my second visit I had the satisfaction of negotiating the
exchange of Colonel Carlyon and some other Americans with several of our
own officers, who had been captured in the numerous engagements our
forces had lately had in the Carolinas, as well as in some of what I
may, with justice, call our marauding