“Ay,” said the indignant gentleman, “so we shall. But I expect little. Lord Howe may be a very excellent officer, but he has yet to prove it upon this side of the world. It seems that he is much of Colden’s kidney. He’d rather parley than act. To show these fellows who’s master needs a strong hand—not a long tongue.”

“But, my dear sir——” began Mr. Dana, but the other waved his words away with a sweep of the heavy staff.

[22]“There is that rascally renegade whom Washington sent here,” he exclaimed. “I refer to Charles Lee. Though a greater villain never lived, still he had a grasp of matters that our own leaders might pattern by. Did he parley and hesitate when he arrived? He did not, I warrant you! He set to work in spite of all opposition. The king’s men threatened him; the soldiery made shift to show their teeth and the shipping in the bay cleared their decks. But without stopping to ask their leave, he seized upon the persons of his most outspoken opponents; then he stared the troops out of countenance and defied the frigates. Finally he stripped the British batteries of their guns, began to recruit an army, and build forts and redoubts to guard all the approaches to the city. While this man, Mr. Dana,” and the staff rang upon the stones, “has my unqualified disapproval, I cannot refuse him my admiration. He understands his duty and he does it.”

[22]

“Well, thank goodness, he’s been ordered from the city by his chiefs,” ejaculated Mr. Dana, fervently. “One could scarcely count upon one’s liberty while he was here.”

[23]“This hectoring fellow, Putnam, who is now in command, as he calls it, is little milder in his arrestings and confiscatings,” complained Camp. “And I understand that the arch-rebel himself is even now upon his way here. When he arrives, I suppose there’ll be scarce a tree or pole in the town that’ll not have the body of some poor Loyalist gentleman dangling from it.”

[23]

“Do you actually believe that Washington will have the effrontery to show himself here, with the king’s fleet and an army due at any time?”

His companion snapped his fingers. “Mr. Washington,” declared he, “is to all appearances a man of enterprise. To be sure he’ll come here, and he’ll bring his rabble of raw countrymen with him to overawe us.”

During the period in which he had engaged his friend and business partner as above, the angry 

 Prev. P 10/155 next