d, prepared at all points to receive
us. We have been compelled to turn on our heels, and march
back home again, like a parcel of fools."

As may well be surmised, the patriotic Lydia kept her own
counsel, and not until the British had left Philadelphia was
the important secret of that signal failure made known.

THE SIEGE OF FORT SCHUYLER.

All was terror in the valley of the Mohawk, for its fertile
fields and happy homes were threatened with the horrors of
Indian warfare. All New York State, indeed, was in danger.
The hopes of American liberty were in danger. The deadliest
peril threatened the patriotic cause; for General Burgoyne,
with an army of more than seven thousand men, was encamped
at St. John's, at the foot of Lake Champlain, prepared to
sweep down that lake and Lake George, march to the valley of
the upper Hudson, driving the feeble colonial forces from
his path, and by joining with a force sent up the Hudson
from New York City, cut off New England from the remaining
colonies and hold this hot-bed of rebellion at his mercy. It
was a well-devised and threatening scheme. How disastrously
for the royalists it ended all readers of history know. With
this great enterprise, however, we are not here concerned,
but with a side issue of Burgoyne's march whose romantic
incidents fit it for our pages.

On the Mohawk River, at the head of boat-navigation, stood a
fort, built in 1758, and named Fort Stanwix; repaired in
1776, and named Fort Schuyler. The possession of this fort
was important to General Burgoyne's plan. Its defence was of
vital moment to the inhabitants of the Mohawk Valley.
Interest for the time being centred round this outpost of
the then almost unbroken wilderness.

On one side Lieutenant-Colonel St. Leger was despatched, at
the head of seven hundred rangers, to sail up the St.
Lawrence and Lake Ontario to Oswego, and from that point to
march southward, rousing and gathering the Indians as he
went, capture Fort Schuyler, sweep the valley of the Mohawk
with the aid of his savage allies, and join Burgoyne at
Albany when his triumphant march should have reached that
point.

On the other side no small degree of haste and consternation
prevailed. Colonel Gansevoort had been placed in command at
the fort with a garrison of seven hundred and fifty men. But
he found it in a state of perilous dilapidation. Originally
a strong square fortification, with bomb-proof bastions,
glacis, covered w