V ' ' '*, 
 
 ' M /*****
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID
 
 BETSEY REGARDED HERSELF CRITICALLY IN THE 
 MIRROR."
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID 
 
 BY 
 
 EDITH ROBINSON 
 
 AUTHOR OF "FORCED ACQUAINTANCES' 
 
 Illustrated by Amy M. S acker 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY 
 1897
 
 Copyright, i&qb 
 BY JOSEPH KNIGHT COMPANY 
 
 Colonial 
 
 C. H. Simonds &. Co., Boston, Mass., U. S. A. 
 Electrotyped by Geo. C. Scott * Sons
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ' BETSEY REGARDED HERSELF CRITICALLY IN THE 
 
 MIRROR" Frontispiece 
 
 'SHE PAUSED FOR A MOMENT" .... 3 
 
 THE OLD DUTCH CLOCK IN THE CORNER" . . 20 
 
 "YOUR PART OF THE GAME Is TO BRING HIM TO 
 
 THIS ROOM '" 28 
 
 HER FINGERS BUNGLED SADLY OVER THE CORD" 33 
 
 ' BETSEY'S HORSE SPED OVER THE OFT-TRAVERSED 
 
 RIVER ROAD " 43 
 
 "I AM AFRAID YOUR ANKLE Is SPRAINED'" . 46 
 
 'THE VIEW FROM THE STAIRCASE" .... 49 
 
 'A CHARMING FIGURE APPEARED IN THE DOOR- 
 WAY " 67 
 
 "HARK, Do You HEAR THAT?'" .... 73 
 
 2133W4
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID, 
 
 I. 
 
 BETSEY jumped ashore at the Philipse land- 
 ing and moored her canoe to the stump of the 
 old sycamore. Familiar as the scene was to 
 her, she paused for a moment to drink in its 
 beauty. Opposite, the Palisades arose above 
 the bright waters of the Hudson, their precipi- 
 tous sides, clad with autumnal foliage, present- 
 ing an unbroken wall of splendid color, of 
 manifold gradations, in the haze of Indian 
 summer. On this side of the river, nature 
 gave place to painstaking cultivation. A strip 
 of shingly beach, bordered by stately yew-trees, 
 merged into a wide expanse of velvet lawn, 
 dotted with rare shrubbery. On the summit 
 of its gentle slopes stood Manor Hall, the 
 residence of the Philipse family. Built in the 
 Dutch style of architecture, with galleries and 
 a flat balustraded roof, massive half doors 
 brought from Holland, and wide, pillared
 
 2 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 porches with bull's-eye lights, it was esteemed 
 the finest mansion on the banks of the Hudson. 
 A thrifty apple orchard lay between the house 
 and the high road or river road, as it was 
 usually called that followed the course of the 
 Hudson from the town of New York, seven- 
 teen miles distant, to the little Dutch settle- 
 ment of Albany, near the head of navigation. 
 
 The fortunes of the Philipse family had run 
 in a high and unbroken tide since the days 
 when their gracious Majesties, William and 
 Mary, had been pleased to erect the Manor of 
 Philipsburgh, which, according to the Royal 
 Charter, was "to be holden of the King, in 
 free and common soccage, its lords yielding, 
 rendering and paying therefore, yearly and 
 every year, on the feast-day of the Annuncia- 
 tion of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the fort in 
 New York, the annual rent of 4 I2s." 
 
 In the years that followed the Royal grant, 
 by purchase and by marriage with heiresses, so 
 many broad acres were added to the original 
 demesne, that when that young heir known 
 amongst the Dutch as the Yonkheer * who 
 
 * For whom the present town of Yonkers (Yonk-heer's) is 
 named.
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 built Manor Hall 
 came to his ma- 
 jority, the estate 
 equaled in extent 
 a prince's realm. 
 It was said, indeed, 
 that increase of 
 this domain had 
 become a mania 
 in the Philipse 
 family ; certain it 
 was that no gener- 
 ation passed that 
 a considerable 
 "part and parcel " 
 of land was not 
 added to the Manor 
 of Philipsburgh. 
 Yet this appar- 
 ently unbroken 
 prosperity may 
 have had its flaw. 
 Upon the comple- 
 tion of Manor Hall 
 the Yonkheer 
 gave a great ban-
 
 4 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 quet. In the midst of the merrymaking, an 
 Indian appeared on the threshold and spoke 
 words that, mysterious as the writing on the 
 wall at Belshazzar's feast, was said to lie with 
 terrible foreboding on the secret heart of each 
 and every descendant of the Yonkheer. 
 
 The present Lord Philipse or Colonel 
 Philipse, as he was usually called may have 
 been, at heart, as loyal to his Majesty, King 
 George III., as was his ancestor, the recipient 
 of the bounty of their Majesties, William and 
 Mary. But this was a time when prudent folk 
 took heed to their words and ways ; for evil 
 days had fallen upon the land. A murmuring 
 faction had arisen against the so-called tyran- 
 nical course of the Ministry and Parliament ; 
 and, ere long, disaffection had made such prog- 
 ress as to reach, from petition and remon- 
 strance, to an armed attempt at throwing off 
 the allegiance to the mother country. Al- 
 though the popular English belief, as publicly 
 expressed by my Lord, the Earl of Sandwich, 
 was that "all Yankees are cowards," the course 
 of events in what was still, in British parlance, 
 the " insurrection," since the first shot was 
 fired at Concord Bridge a year ago, had not
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 5 
 
 borne unvarying testimony to this opinion. 
 Loyal adherents to the crown there undoubt- 
 edly were, who would have laid down life and 
 fortune in the royal cause. But there were 
 others who, whatever their party predilections, 
 held their own interests paramount, and deemed 
 it wise to await a little longer the progress of 
 affairs before declaring themselves openly on 
 either side. To this class belonged the present 
 owner of the Manor of Philipsburgh. 
 
 Frederick Philipse had no mind to have his 
 fine house burnt over his head, his lands de- 
 spoiled and himself haled to the gallows, seated 
 on a coffin with a rope around his neck even 
 if the farce went no farther, all of which 
 catastrophes would belike befall him if he were 
 convicted by the British of any overt act of 
 rebel sympathy. While, on the other hand, the 
 leader of the insurgents was known to hold the 
 Tories as those of Royalist sympathies were 
 called by the opposing faction in particular 
 detestation, deeming them a constant menace 
 to the American cause, and openly referring to 
 them as "abominable pests of society," and 
 " execrable parricides." In the remote event 
 of the provincials gaining the ascendency, Mr.
 
 6 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 Washington, who was known to be a person of 
 much decision of character, would unquestion- 
 ably follow up this vigorous language with still 
 more forcible action. So Frederick Philipse, 
 being a man to whom temporizing was easy 
 and natural, held himself in a nice balance be- 
 tween the contending forces, ready, at any con- 
 clusive happening, to drop gently into the camp 
 of either party. 
 
 It looked as though the decisive moment had 
 at last arrived. The preceding July, the pro- 
 vincials had burnt their ships behind them by a 
 formal Declaration of Independence. Repeated 
 disaster had since followed their military oper- 
 ations ; after meeting with a signal defeat on 
 Long Island, they had skulked off, under cover 
 of the night, to New York, where they were 
 speedily fallen upon by the British. After a 
 brief encounter near the landing on East River, 
 known as Kip's Bay,* in which the Yankees 
 exhibited all their expected cowardice, they 
 were chased out of town, their pursuers blowing 
 their bugles as on a fox-chase, as far as the hill 
 on which lay Mr. Murray's farm.f Here the 
 
 * Near the foot of what is now 34th Street, 
 t Now Murray Hill,
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 7 
 
 good lady of the house had spread an elaborate 
 repast for the British officers, which proved so 
 appetizing that the pursuit was given over to 
 its enjoyment. The scattered provincials took 
 refuge among the hills to which the lower 
 banks of the Hudson rise ; here the officers 
 at last succeeded in rallying them, and at 
 Harlem Heights an entrenched camp was 
 thrown up, and the commander-in-chief estab- 
 lished his headquarters. 
 
 It chanced that Miss Philipse had been shut 
 up in New York throughout the progress of 
 these exciting events, having gone thither on a 
 visit before the tide of combat reached the 
 town. An elder sister had married Col. Bev- 
 erly Robinson, a Virginian by birth, and a 
 gentleman of wealth and consideration. Susan- 
 nah Robinson had been dead several years, 
 but Miss Philipse kept up the long established 
 custom of frequent visits to the hospitable 
 mansion in the Battery, out of affectionate 
 regard for her sister's children. Of late, these 
 visits had been longer and more frequent. 
 Colonel Robinson had openly given all the 
 weight of his influence to the Royalist cause ; 
 he was known to be in active communication
 
 8 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 with the Royalist governor, and other repre- 
 sentatives of his Majesty, and his house was the 
 recognized headquarters of the strong Tory 
 element in New York. Miss Philipse, though 
 cast in gentlest mould, was regarded as a per- 
 son of much decision of character, and it was 
 no secret that she found, in the Royalist circle 
 at Colonel Robinson's, a more congenial atmos- 
 phere than that afforded by her brother's non- 
 committal policy at home. 
 
 It was in eager anticipation of Miss Philipse's 
 return to Manor Hall that Betsey Schuyler had 
 paddled up the river from her own home, some 
 miles distant, where she had been living in the 
 care of an old servant, since her father and 
 brother had joined the Continental Army. 
 
 Betsey had just passed her fourteenth birth- 
 day, but, despite the disparity of years, the 
 friendship between her and Miss Philipse was 
 deep and true, holding, on the side of the latter, 
 something of the maternal element that is part 
 of every good woman's love, and which, in 
 this instance, was particularly called forth by 
 the circumstances of the girl's motherless life. 
 Though she smiled at and even sometimes 
 gently chid the worship of which she was the
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 9 
 
 object, she could not but be touched by the 
 unquestioning faith, and responsive to an affec- 
 tion so deep and true and wholly unselfish as 
 scarcely to need years to mature. " Miss 
 Philipse said so," was, to Betsey, all sufficient 
 ground for any belief. " Miss Philipse could do 
 no wrong!" was part of the girl's very creed. 
 
 The influence of beauty and of a rare mag- 
 netic charm was felt by all in the presence of 
 Mary Philipse ; but there was another reason for 
 Betsey's loving reverence, beside personal at- 
 tractions, or even the tendency, not uncom- 
 monly displayed by a young and impressionable 
 girl, of seeing, in a woman older and stronger 
 than herself, the very ideal of womanhood. 
 Betsey had never read any fairy tales ; she knew 
 nothing of novels ; poetry was an unknown realm 
 to her. The only books at her home were the 
 Bible and an old copy of Fox's " Book of 
 Martyrs," and she could scarcely spell her way 
 through them, for, though her parents were 
 gentlefolk, in those days a girl's education was 
 held of scant account. 
 
 There was a story to which, on some long- 
 forgotten day, she had hearkened, that was at 
 once a fairy tale to the imagination of the child
 
 IO A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 she still was in years, and a romance to the 
 half-wistful, half-timid fancy of the girl whose 
 dreams were beginning to take on the tinge of 
 womanhood. 
 
 Once upon a time, many years ago, there 
 lived a princess whose grace and beauty were 
 the theme of every tongue. Many suitors 
 sought her hand, but in vain, till there jour- 
 neyed to her realm the prince of a far-off 
 country. He was rich and handsome, and of 
 gentlest courtesy to high and low. Even brave 
 men spoke, with bated breath, of a strength 
 that was as the strength of ten, of a more than 
 mortal valor. A great ball was given at the 
 royal palace, and in the stately steps of the 
 first dance the prince and princess looked at 
 each other with the love light in their eyes. 
 
 But the mission on which the prince was 
 bound brooked no tarrying, and on the morrow 
 he took leave of the princess, saying that in 
 seven days he would come again. But the 
 promised time had long expired when he once 
 more drew rein at the palace gates. It was to 
 find the princess gone ! Whence, he did not 
 seek to follow, nor did he stay to question or 
 parley, but, putting spurs to his snow-white
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. II 
 
 steed, rode on to his home in the far South, and 
 he and the princess never met again. 
 
 The princess's name was Mary Philipse. 
 The prince's was George Washington. 
 
 It was not merely that Betsey would have 
 shrunk from any impulse of curiosity regarding 
 that episode of her friend's youth, as from a 
 sacrilege, she did not want to know more 
 concerning it. The knowledge of the fairy tale 
 without the proper ending, " and they lived 
 happy ever after;" of the sweet beginning of 
 a romance that was never finished, added the 
 last touch of grace and reverence to her love 
 for her friend. To have let in the light of day 
 upon the precious secret would have been to 
 have the fairy tale made real, and so lose its 
 reality ; to have met the hero and heroine of 
 the romance at the dinner - table and found 
 them middle-aged people, fat and bald and 
 stupid. By some subtle chord of sympathy 
 Miss Philipse understood all this, and the bond 
 between the child and woman was the closer 
 and finer because of it. 
 
 It was the most momentous event of Betsey's 
 life when she met nay, actually talked with, 
 the fairy prince, the hero of romance ! It was
 
 12 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 still through the glamor of the ideal that she 
 beheld him, rather than in the harsher light of 
 reality although he was become the most 
 important personage in the Colonies the 
 commander -in -chief of the Continental Army. 
 Happily for Betsey, General Washington more 
 than realized the fondest dreams of girlish 
 imagination. General Schuyler's house was 
 not far from the provincial camp at Harlem 
 Heights, and Philip Schuyler, who had recently 
 been appointed to the command of General 
 Washington's body - guard a mounted escort 
 of twenty young gentlemen of family snatched 
 a few minutes from his duties to visit his home 
 and the little sister from whom he had been 
 separated a twelvemonth. Yielding to Betsey's 
 eager pleading, he took her to see the en- 
 trenched camp. 
 
 It was spread out over a peninsula half a 
 mile in width, that lay between the Hudson 
 River on the west and the Harlem River on 
 the east. On three sides precipitous walls 
 or pathless crags formed a natural defence ; the 
 only approach was from the south, where a 
 narrow highway wound up a steep declivity 
 known as Breakneck Hill. This quarter was
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 13 
 
 guarded by three parallel lines of fortifications, 
 at the distance of about a quarter of a mile 
 apart. A little beyond the third parallel was 
 the big square house of Col. Roger Morris, 
 now occupied by General Washington and his 
 military family. On the brow of the hill, 
 commanding a wide stretch of the river, stood 
 Fort Washington. At the left of a path that 
 zigzagged from the landing near the foot of 
 Breakneck Hill to the highway was a little 
 spring, that had been a favorite haunt of 
 Betsey's in more peaceful times. Its margin 
 was now trampled and muddy, and the grass 
 worn away for many feet around. It was here 
 she stood and looked with absorbing interest 
 upon the strange scene into which war had 
 converted the familiar rocky meadows of the 
 Jumel place. 
 
 It was a motley settlement stretched out 
 behind the fortifications, consisting of almost 
 every imaginable kind of rude shelter that 
 could be thrown up to serve as protection 
 against the autumn winds that already swept 
 keenly over the exposed plains. Some of the 
 huts were constructed of boards or sail-cloth, or 
 partly of both ; others were of stone or turf, or
 
 14 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 of birch or other brush. Most of them had 
 evidently been put together in a careless hurry, 
 but here and there was one whose construction 
 evinced considerable skill, boasting doors and 
 windows elaborately woven out of withes and 
 reeds. A few men were lounging about the 
 settlement, smoking or playing cards, but the 
 greater number were at work upon the ditches 
 or abatis. None of the soldiers wore what 
 could properly be called a uniform, and no 
 considerable number were dressed alike. Men 
 with lean, sinewy figures and shrewd faces, 
 bronzed to the color of mahogany, wore check 
 shirts and breeches of homespun. The plain 
 tight - fitting blue coats of the New England 
 farmers, with their hats decorated with a turkey- 
 cock feather,* the parting gift of some Yankee 
 sweetheart, mingled with the white frocks and 
 round hats of the men from Maryland and 
 Pennsylvania. But what especially attracted 
 Betsey's attention was a number of tall men 
 she had never before seen such an assemblage 
 of men of extraordinary height clad in ash- 
 colored shirts, with double capes ornamented 
 
 Whence Yankee Doodle, 
 
 " Stuck a feather in his hat."
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 1 5 
 
 with fringe, that reached to the middle of the 
 thigh ; fringed leggins and gay moccasins com- 
 pleted the picturesque attire. 
 
 All at once she saw a tall man taller than 
 any of the Virginia riflemen who was silently 
 watching the men at work with the spades and 
 pickaxes. No need to question who he was, 
 there could be no mistaking General Washing- 
 ton, even by one who had never seen him be- 
 fore. Nevertheless, Betsey tightened her clasp 
 of her brother's hand and whispered : 
 
 "Is it General Washington?" 
 
 " Yes, it is his Excellency," answered Philip, 
 in a low voice, saluting General Washington, 
 who just then glanced in their direction. 
 
 He approached with a firm, graceful step, 
 force and dignity in each line of the stately fig- 
 ure and handsome bronzed face, and Betsey 
 had time to note every detail of his appearance. 
 He wore a blue coat, with buff-colored facings, 
 and two brilliant epaulettes ; buff-colored small- 
 clothes and a three-cornered hat, with a black 
 cockade, completed his attire. An elegant 
 small sword was by his side, and boots and 
 spurs showed him ready, at a moment's warn- 
 ing, to mount his charger. His hair, powdered
 
 1 6 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 and turned back from his forehead, was tied 
 with a black ribbon. He had a strong, but 
 mobile mouth, the lips slightly compressed, 
 and earnest, far-seeing eyes to which sleep 
 was evidently a stranger in whose gray-blue 
 depths was an expression of resignation, almost 
 of sadness. 
 
 He looked down upon the young girl with 
 kindly scrutiny. 
 
 "Whom have we here?" he asked, and, with 
 the gentle courtesy of his tone, Betsey's clasp 
 of her brother's hand relaxed. Reverence, even 
 to awe, she would always feel in the presence 
 of General Washington, but not fear. 
 
 "Betsey Schuyler, your Excellency," she 
 answered, and dropped a curtsy. 
 
 " And a loyal little maid, I make no doubt. 
 Your father and your brother would answer 
 for that, even if those blue eyes did not tell 
 their own tale," he said, with a bow in which 
 courtly grace blended with soldierly dignity. 
 Then, with a smile whose memory lingered like 
 a benediction, he walked on toward the outer 
 line of fortifications, and the child's eyes, 
 blinded with unconscious tears, followed him 
 till he was out of sight.
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. I/ 
 
 Ardent little patriot as Betsey had heretofore 
 been, it is not too much to say that, after that 
 memorable meeting, she would gladly have died 
 for her country or for General Washington, she 
 could not have told which. Somehow, in her 
 crude, childish understanding, the one seemed 
 to stand for the other.
 
 II. 
 
 As Betsey now hastened across the lawn, 
 toward Manor Hall, her eager eyes were fas- 
 tened upon the centre window in the upper tier 
 of small paned casements. There it was Miss 
 Philipse's habit to muse, gazing on the broad 
 stretch of water and woodland. But no sweet, 
 fair face and welcoming wave of the hand 
 greeted Betsey to-day. 
 
 She passed around the house, and entered 
 by the front porch. Through the closed door 
 of the drawing-room, on the left of the entrance, 
 came the murmur of voices, and she paused 
 with mingled hesitation at interrupting a con- 
 versation and childish diffidence of strangers. 
 The door on the opposite side, of the hall was 
 open, and, after a moment's hesitation, she en- 
 tered the dining-room, and seated herself in the 
 deep embrasure of the window. Presently the 
 drawing-room door opened, and the murmur 
 resolved into the voices of two men. One was 
 that of Colonel Philipse ; as Betsey recognized
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 19 
 
 that of the other, she sprang from the window- 
 seat into the middle of the room, and looked 
 wildly about for some chance of escape. 
 
 Col. Roger Morris, the owner of the great 
 Jumel place, was a familiar figure in the neigh- 
 borhood, and had been a frequent visitor at 
 Betsey's home, till the outbreak of the war 
 enlisted his sympathies and those of General 
 Schuyler on opposite sides of the struggle. For 
 no reason of which she could give a rational 
 account, he had inspired Betsey, from her very 
 babyhood, with a vague, but awful terror, which 
 his grotesque ugliness of form and feature was 
 inadequate to explain. This instinctive antipa- 
 thy had not lessened with years, so that even 
 now, "grown up" though she was, she could 
 not look upon Colonel Morris's stout, square 
 figure, with the bowed legs and bull neck, the 
 fiery face and protuberant eyes, without being 
 overwhelmed as with the terror of the nursery 
 bugaboo. The present emergency had come 
 upon her too suddenly for her to restrain the 
 old wild impulse of flight. 
 
 But which way to flee ? By the one door, 
 she would fling herself into the very arms of 
 Colonel Morris ; by the other, that connected
 
 2O 
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 with the kitchen, she must run against the ser- 
 vant, whose footsteps were already heard in the 
 passage. It was over in an instant the blind 
 terror, the wild leap, the flash of thought, and 
 a plunge toward the old Dutch clock in the 
 
 corner. Its case was large enough to conceal 
 a slender girl. Pushing aside the heavy leaden 
 weights, Betsey whisked inside and drew the 
 door after her not a moment too soon. 
 
 The conversation between the two gentlemen 
 was upon indifferent topics, till the servant left
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 21 
 
 the room. Then Colonel Morris, apparently 
 resuming a discussion of absorbing interest, 
 said, in lowered tones and with an involuntary 
 glance about the apartment : 
 
 " You are sure that the passage is unob- 
 structed ? If it has not been used since the 
 days of the Yonkheer, there might be danger 
 from foul air." 
 
 " I have examined it myself," answered 
 Colonel Philipse, in an evident sulky tone. 
 " It is in as good condition as when it was 
 excavated." 
 
 " I suppose the original idea of a subter- 
 ranean passage was to provide a means of 
 escape against an attack of the Indians ? " sug- 
 gested Colonel Morris. 
 
 Philipse briefly assented. 
 
 " The wisdom of your ancestor was yours 
 in providing against a like danger from the 
 rebels," went on the other, in a significant tone. 
 " So prominent and uncompromising a Royalist 
 as Colonel Philipse is necessarily exposed to 
 the ill will of the insurgents." 
 
 " I should not have told you of the passage 
 if I had not been on your side," returned 
 Philipse, with a furtively resentful air.
 
 22 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 "We do not doubt your good-will," rejoined 
 Colonel Morris, " although I must confess that 
 I was somewhat under the impression that it 
 was by a fortunate slip that I learnt of this 
 passage, of whose existence you and your sister 
 were the only living persons cognizant. We 
 are showing our reliance upon your loyalty in 
 the most conclusive manner by depending upon 
 your cooperation in this scheme." He spoke 
 in the bluff tones that were generally regarded 
 as the exponent of a rugged honesty and 
 blunt good-will. But there were those who, 
 having in some wise given offence to Roger 
 Morris, had lived to hold a different opinion of 
 what that open manner covered. " Besides," 
 he went on, " any doubts that you have naturally 
 felt as to the expediency of showing your hand 
 may well be set at rest by recent events. The 
 rebels are disheartened by defeat. All their 
 heavy artillery was left behind in the flight from 
 New York ; they are without military stores for 
 offensive operations, or camp supplies to lie 
 long upon the defensive. Local jealousies dis- 
 tract the rabble they call their army ; its two 
 best regiments the Marblehead fishermen 
 and Morgan's Virginia riflemen are in con-
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 23 
 
 stant broils. Now is the time to strike a 
 decisive blow. The insurrection is stamped out 
 once we have laid our hands upon its backbone, 
 George Washington. Ha ! what was that ? " 
 Colonel Morris started, and threw a glance over 
 his shoulder in the direction of the clock. 
 
 " I heard nothing a mouse behind the 
 wainscoting, perhaps." 
 
 " He is as superbly handsome now as when 
 a boy," went on Morris, in a tone of strange 
 discontent. " One could see, as he sat his 
 horse, that he was straight as an Indian." He 
 glanced, perhaps unthinkingly, at his own bowed 
 legs. 
 
 " Where did you see him ? " 
 
 " In the recent encounter. Washington, 
 hearing the firing, galloped to Kip's Bay. He 
 was just in time to see two regiments of the 
 provincials, without having fired a shot, flying 
 before sixty or seventy of the British. He was 
 beside himself at their cowardice ; never did I 
 see a man in such a towering rage. Regardless 
 of the bullets that were whistling around him, 
 he stood alone within eighty yards of the 
 enemy, threatening the fugitives with sword 
 and pistol, till one of his officers seized the
 
 24 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 bridle of his horse and dragged him from the 
 field. Egad, whatever else may be said of 
 George Washington, he is no coward ! " wound 
 up Colonel Morris, with soldierly enthusiasm. 
 Perhaps, if Roger Morris had been a handsome 
 man, he would have been a better man. 
 
 " You are old friends, are you not ? " queried 
 Frederick Philipse. 
 
 "Old friends," assented the other, in his 
 bluffest tones. " We served together on Gen- 
 eral Braddock's staff, in the French and Indian 
 campaign. His appearance at Kip's Bay, de- 
 spite the inevitable changes of years, recalled 
 the last time I saw him, on that awful day of 
 Braddock's defeat. We had fallen into the am- 
 bush on the Monongahela ; the regulars were 
 flying in every direction ; men were being 
 slaughtered like sheep. Washington, heedless 
 that he was the target of all the best marksmen 
 among those howling fiends, that his coat was 
 riddled with bullets, and two horses had been 
 shot from under him, refused to take to cover, 
 lest his example unnerve his men, and towered 
 through the smoke, the very incarnation of 
 physical power. Seizing a field-piece as though 
 it were a fagot, he brought it to bear on a body
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 25 
 
 of French and Indians, and so, giving a momen- 
 tary check to the attack, enabled us to beat a 
 disorganized retreat. Not one of us would have 
 been alive to tell the tale if it had not been for 
 George Washington ! " 
 
 " My recollections of him, though dating at 
 about the same time, are of a widely different 
 character," observed Philipse. " On his sub- 
 sequent journey to Massachusetts to hold con- 
 ference with Governor Shirley regarding the 
 military precedence, he tarried over night in 
 New York, and Beverly Robinson, who was 
 an old friend and schoolmate, gave a ball in his 
 honor. The following morning, the young Vir- 
 ginian resumed his journey northward. As the 
 gay little cavalcade clattered along the Battery, 
 the company at Beverly's flocked to the gallery, 
 to call good speed and fling flowers to the 
 departing guests. A rose I know not from 
 whose hand it fell Washington deftly caught, 
 and pressed to his lips. He rode a little in 
 advance of the others, on a magnificent white 
 charger, dressed in a uniform of blue and buff, 
 with a scarlet and white cloak flung over his 
 shoulder, and a sword knot of scarlet and gold 
 at his side. As he passed out of sight, he
 
 26 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 waved his hand to us the hand still holding 
 the rose ; and so I have ever borne him in mem- 
 ory. A gallant figure, truly, that might well 
 have been potent in love as in war ! " 
 
 " Where is the outlet of the passage ? " asked 
 Colonel Morris, abruptly, apparently wearied of 
 reminiscence. 
 
 "There are two outlets," answered Philipse, 
 with greater readiness of tone, perhaps con- 
 vinced by his companion's representations of 
 the policy of the course to which he had acci- 
 dentally committed himself. "The Yonkheer 
 provided a means of escape by both water and 
 land. The outlet at the river end is not far 
 from the stump of an old sycamore-tree, a few 
 feet up the bank, concealed by bushes. Mid- 
 way of the main passage a branch strikes off 
 to the left ; it had its exit originally between 
 the roots of a large oak. When the ground 
 was cleared for St. John's Church, although 
 no further danger menaced from the Indians, 
 it was deemed expedient not to block up the 
 passage. A flight of steps was accordingly 
 built into the masonry of the church, leading 
 to a sliding panel in the sacristry." 
 
 " How is the passage reached from the 
 house ? "
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 2? 
 
 " From the clock yonder. The back of the 
 case gives way on touching a spring ap- 
 parently a screw in the upper left - hand 
 corner." 
 
 " Good ! Nothing could be better for our 
 purpose. It was most opportune that Mr. 
 Washington should desire to pay his respects 
 to the sister of his old friend, and truly amiable 
 of Miss Philipse that she should consent to 
 receive him this afternoon. I will arrange to 
 have Conly and half a dozen men on hand. 
 The river road is in the possession of the pro- 
 vincials, but, by taking the inside road from 
 New York, and striking across the wooded 
 meadows by the Sawmill River, Conly can 
 reach the church, and so gain the passage 
 without danger of discovery." 
 
 " Will six men be enough ? " demurred Phil- 
 ipse. "They tell prodigious stories of Wash- 
 ington's strength." 
 
 "Call it ten, if you like," rejoined Morris, 
 impatiently. " Your part of the game is to 
 bring him to this room. That is easily man- 
 aged, as you will naturally wish to offer wine 
 before his departure. Conly will be at the 
 aperture yonder at sharp five of the clock.
 
 28 
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 Let the signal for his appearance be his 
 Majesty's health. The trap cannot fail." 
 
 " You know the old Indian prophecy," said 
 Colonel Philipse, thoughtfully, " ' He was not 
 made to be killed by a bullet.' " 
 
 " There are missives more unerring than a 
 bullet, more silent than the knife," responded 
 Morris, sententiously. " Mr. Washington will 
 be placed in safe quarters in the Jersey, in 
 Wallabout Bay. Let us hope that his gal- 
 lant figure and potent charm of manner will
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 29 
 
 not suffer from confinement in the prison 
 ship." 
 
 The conversation ceased as the servant en- 
 tered to remove the soup. 
 
 "You are expecting Miss Philipse's return?" 
 queried Colonel Morris, with a courteous display 
 of interest. 
 
 "She will be here soon," answered Philipse, 
 glancing mechanically at the clock. " Why, it 
 has stopped!" he exclaimed, and, rising, walked 
 toward the timepiece.
 
 III. 
 
 FOLLOWING the other's motion, Colonel Mor- 
 ris turned and glanced over his shoulder ; in 
 so doing he thrust out his foot, over which 
 the servant stumbled and fell headlong. The 
 dishes crashed upon the floor, and some of 
 the soup was scattered over Colonel Morris's 
 breeches. In the mishap and its apologies, the 
 attention of both host and guest was diverted 
 from the errant timepiece. The dinner pro- 
 gressed in silence, both gentlemen apparently 
 absorbed in their own thoughts. 
 
 Stiff from standing so long in one position, 
 the imminent peril of discovery had made Betsey 
 almost insensible with fright ; but, as soon as 
 the immediate danger was averted, physical 
 and mental discomfort were forgotten in the 
 face of the awful danger that menaced General 
 Washington. 
 
 She must save him ! 
 
 But the very intensity of the thought para- 
 lyzed further conception, and for a few moments 
 30
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 3! 
 
 she stood inanimate as a mummy in its case. 
 Then her brain slowly cleared, and calmly and 
 collectedly she reviewed the situation in all its 
 bearings. 
 
 Until recently Betsey had been a child, her 
 healthful, out-of-door life tending to check a 
 precocious mental development. But the stirring 
 events of the past year, the ever-present thought 
 of the danger to which her father and brother 
 were exposed, and the sense of responsibility 
 that was developed, unconsciously, in the ab- 
 sence of those under whose guidance her years 
 would naturally have placed her, all these 
 influences tended to produce a rapid growth of 
 character, so that, suddenly confronted by an 
 awful responsibility, she was capable of a matu- 
 rity of judgment and nicety of execution that 
 were beyond her years. 
 
 Her first and natural impulse was to inter- 
 cept General Washington on the river road, 
 which he would undoubtedly follow from Har- 
 lem Heights. But the next breath showed her 
 that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to 
 emerge from her present hiding-place, leave the 
 house and gain the river road, without detec- 
 tion, and she must risk no encounter with
 
 32 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 Colonel Morris ; for, aside from her childish and 
 unreasoning terror, she instinctively felt that 
 those bulging eyes, fixed upon her guilty face, 
 would at once read her cognizance of the deadly 
 plot. The only feasible plan would be to follow 
 the subterranean passage to the river and pad- 
 dle with all speed to Harlem Heights. General 
 Washington would not, in all probability, leave 
 the camp before three o'clock ; as nearly as she 
 could judge, it was now a little past noon. 
 Expert at paddling as she was, she could cover 
 the distance to the encampment in two hours. 
 There would therefore be ample time, and even 
 a considerable margin, in which to convey the 
 warning ; and she drew a long breath of relief 
 as she saw the way grow clear before her. 
 
 The gentlemen left the room at last ; very 
 cautiously, Betsey felt for the spring ; the back 
 of the clock slid noiselessly back, revealing, in 
 the light that straggled in through the chinks 
 of the case, a narrow staircase built into the 
 solid walls of the house ; carefully closing the 
 door, and with an awful thought of the mice 
 that swarmed behind the wainscoting, she 
 plunged into the darkness below. Even after 
 her eyes had become accustomed to the dim
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 33 
 
 light of the passage there were apertures over- 
 head, concealed by the shrubbery on the lawn 
 the inequalities of the pathway obliged her to 
 grope her way. At last she reached the outlet, 
 and, by the aid of the bushes, scrambled down 
 
 the bank to the sycamore stump ; her ringers, 
 clumsy with haste, and chilled from contact 
 with the damp walls of the passage, bungled 
 sadly over the cord that secured the canoe. 
 Even after she was fairly afloat, further uncon- 
 sidered delay tortured her. The tide, strongly
 
 34 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 felt for many miles above the mouth of the 
 Hudson, had turned, and, although Betsey kept 
 her light craft in the comparatively still water 
 near the bank of the stream, it was impossible 
 to make rapid headway. More than once she 
 would have laid down the paddle in weariness 
 and despair, had not the thought of the peril 
 that she only could avert nerved her to fresh 
 effort. But, in spite of her utmost endeavor, 
 the accumulated delays consumed the time with 
 frightful rapidity, so that when she reached 
 Spuyten Duyvil, as the confluence of the Hud- 
 son and Harlem Rivers was called, the clock in 
 the neighboring hamlet of Kingsbridge struck 
 three. And there were still two miles before 
 her! 
 
 At last the canoe shot toward the landing by 
 the camp. 
 
 " Who goes there ? " challenged the sentinel. 
 
 " I am Captain Schuyler's sister. Take me 
 to him," panted Betsey. 
 
 She told her tale as briefly as possible. 
 Beneath the tan of a year in camp, Philip 
 Schuyler turned white. 
 
 "He has gone and unattended! The devil 
 himself could n't overtake his Excellency on his
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 35 
 
 white charger," muttered the young captain of 
 the body-guard. " Come with me to Colonel 
 Hamilton." 
 
 He led the way toward the Morris Mansion, 
 and Betsey was ushered into its former draw- 
 ing-room. At a table in the centre of the apart- 
 ment sat a boy, writing. He may have been a 
 few years Betsey's senior, but he was not so 
 tall by several inches, and his slight, delicate 
 frame, and a face which, though keen and alert, 
 had not lost the roundness of its early years, 
 added to the impression of extreme youth. A 
 pair of deep-set dark eyes was fixed upon the 
 unexpected visitor, and then the boy threw back 
 his beautifully shaped head, and broke into a 
 peal of apparently irresistible laughter. 
 
 Betsey flushed hotly as a sudden vivid picture 
 of her appearance arose before her. Her pretty 
 chintz frock no longer recognizable hung 
 in tattered and bedraggled folds that slapped, at 
 every movement, about her ankles ; her hat had 
 been somewhere left behind on her late journey, 
 and, as she impatiently brushed her disheveled 
 hair from out her eyes, her face, dripping with 
 exertion, had become grotesquely streaked and 
 stained with the soil with which her hands were 
 encrusted.
 
 36 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 " My sister," announced Captain Schuyler, 
 stiffly ; and, turning to Betsey, " Colonel 
 Hamilton," he added, with pointed formality. 
 
 " I crave your pardon," said Colonel Hamil- 
 ton, instantly grave, and, with a low bow, placed 
 a chair for his visitor. Betsey struggled to 
 grasp the fact that this handsome, rude boy 
 was General Washington's confidential secre- 
 tary and first aid-de-camp. As her brother 
 briefly rehearsed the story, Colonel Hamilton 
 listened in silence, his close - set mouth grow- 
 ing more compressed. At the mention of the 
 prison ship, a fire came into the magnificent 
 eyes that transfigured the whole mobile face. 
 
 "Good God; I saw one of those floating 
 hells at the West Indies ! " he cried. " The 
 prisoners were packed, like herrings, into a 
 filthy oven in the hold of the vessel, without 
 decent food, or water that was fit to drink, 
 denied even the means of the commonest 
 decency. The poor wretches, cursing, in a 
 breath, heaven and their hellish masters, crip- 
 pled and distorted with rheumatism, and rotting 
 with putrid fever out of all semblance to 
 humanity, went raving mad, or became drivel- 
 ing idiots before death at last released them
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 37 
 
 from their sufferings. General Washington!" 
 He shuddered and put his hands before his 
 eyes. 
 
 Only for an instant did emotion overmaster. 
 Stepping to a topographical map that hung on 
 the wall, 
 
 " You know the country ? " he queried. 
 
 " Every inch," answered Captain Schuyler, 
 promptly. 
 
 "There are woods in front of the Philipse 
 house ? " 
 
 "An orchard." 
 
 Hamilton went on in rapid direction. 
 
 " Detail Morgan and a squad of his riflemen. 
 He is to dispose of them in the orchard ; they 
 have learnt the Indian art of making themselves 
 invisible, and the British stand in wholesome 
 awe of their skill as marksmen. Instruct 
 Morgan that when his Excellency displays his 
 handkerchief at the window, instantly to throw 
 himself upon the house. Bid him have a care 
 not to precipitate matters. The evident aim of 
 the conspirators is to secure General Washing- 
 ton alive, but they will not lightly let him slip 
 through their fingers. Conly's name, alone, 
 stamps the character of the plot ; he was one
 
 38 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 of Brewer's men, who, by a miracle, escaped 
 the fate of his mates when they were hanged at 
 Jamaica for their atrocious crimes, of which 
 piracy was the least," concluded the young 
 West Indian. " Report for further orders." 
 
 Captain Schuyler saluted and left the room. 
 
 " Your brother will mount you to your 
 home," Hamilton went on, turning to Betsey. 
 "Then saddle your own horse and ride on to 
 Manor Hall. At this juncture, you are the 
 only person who can effect entrance without 
 exciting suspicion. Get his Excellency's ear. 
 Say to him unseen, hark you that if he 
 hears proposed the health of the King, instantly 
 to display his handkerchief at the window. 
 Remember, it is General Washington's life, the 
 fate of the country itself, that hangs in the 
 balance, and depends upon your prompt and 
 discreet action. Can we rely upon you ? " 
 
 " Yes," answered the girl, and all her love 
 for her friend seemed compressed into the 
 word. To save General Washington was to 
 save him for Miss Philipse. That had been the 
 guiding thought throughout the intense strain 
 of the past few hours, and its inspiration now 
 strung her aching limbs and over -wrought
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 39 
 
 nerves to renewed effort. " I will tell Miss 
 Philipse," she added, confidently. 
 
 Hamilton started, and in his most imperious 
 tones cried : 
 
 " On your life, no ! Miss Philipse is at the 
 bottom of the affair ! " 
 
 " She knows nothing of it ! " exclaimed the 
 girl, angrily. " Why, she has been away from 
 home ever since Colonel Morris has been 
 there." 
 
 "Exactly; at Col. Beverly Robinson's," re- 
 joined Hamilton, calmly. 
 
 " I don't believe it ? You don't know her. 
 You have no right to say such a thing ! " cried 
 the girl, in a passionate, incoherent outburst. 
 " Miss Philipse could do no wrong ! " 
 
 With his burning eyes holding the girl in 
 spite of herself, Hamilton, with the grasp and 
 succinctness of the born lawyer, summed up his 
 terrible indictment. 
 
 " The Tories are the most implacable and 
 virulent of our enemies. Miss Philipse's Tory 
 sympathies are well known. She is in constant 
 communication with Colonel Robinson, whose 
 house is the headquarters of the Tory element. 
 It is by her appointment that General Washing-
 
 4O A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 ton visits Manor Hall this afternoon. I have 
 heard mention of an old love affair between her 
 and his Excellency, in which, if report has not 
 garbled, the lady had some reason to hold 
 herself slighted. 
 
 " ' Hell knows no fury like a woman 
 scorned,' " quoted Hamilton, who had the repu- 
 tation of being a scholar. " Moreover," he 
 added, in his crisp, concise tones, "if the end 
 were merely to crush the provincial cause, the 
 ignominy of the gallows would supply the most 
 effective means. A knowledge of women 
 readily instructs that to destroy an enemy's 
 good looks is essentially a woman's revenge," 
 he concluded, with a touch of youthful brag- 
 gadocio that would have been amusing under 
 less serious circumstances. 
 
 Captain Schuyler returned with the report 
 that Morgan and his men, in their saddles in 
 instant obedience to their leader's "turkey- 
 call " summons, were already on the road. 
 Betsey left the room with her brother. 
 
 " What a hateful, horrid boy! " she exclaimed, 
 before the door had hardly closed behind them. 
 
 " Every one either loves or hates Alexander 
 Hamilton," returned Captain Schuyler.
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 4! 
 
 "Well, I hate him," cried the girl, with a 
 vehemence that was unheedful of the near 
 presence of the object of her dislike. 
 
 Never had Betsey's horse sped over the oft- 
 traversed river road at such a pace. Only 
 once did his mistress draw rein. As she neared 
 Kingsbridge, three men suddenly scrambled 
 down the bank, where they had been con- 
 cealed behind a thicket, playing cards, and held 
 her up. They proved to belong to a body of 
 the neighboring country folk, recently banded 
 together under the leadership of John Paulding, 
 an old farmer of Tarrytown, for the purpose of 
 waging a kind of independent warfare against 
 the British marauders known as "cowboys," who 
 infested the lower stretch of river road, har- 
 assing the inhabitants and carrying aid and 
 comfort to the British troops in New York. 
 As one of the men, David Williams by name, 
 was a tenant on the Manor of Philipsburgh, and 
 well known to Betsey, she was speedily on her 
 way again, with the cheery words, 
 
 " We only stop bad people. A pleasant ride 
 to you, Miss Betsey, and my respects to Miss 
 Philipse ! " 
 
 In former times, there had been many mar-
 
 42 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 riages between the English officers stationed at 
 New York, one of the most important military 
 posts in the colonies, and the fair Colonial 
 dames, and these alliances were the paramount 
 reason of the present strong Tory influence in 
 the town. At the beginning of the struggle, it 
 was inevitable that there should result much 
 heartburning when, as often happened, the in- 
 terests of kith and kin, or the ofttimes far 
 stronger bonds of friendship, pulled in one direc- 
 tion, while patriotism and conviction tugged with 
 equal force in the other. But though some- 
 thing of the inner meaning of war had come 
 home to Betsey, this most poignant experience, 
 as of brother raising his hand against brother, 
 she had hitherto been spared. The influence 
 of Miss Philipse was too strong, the conviction 
 of her infallibility too inviolate, to permit any 
 question as to her party sympathies. Besides, 
 "Tory" or "rebel," she remained Miss Philipse. 
 It was not that Betsey's faith in her friend was 
 assailed by the cruel words to which she had 
 been forced to listen; girlish loyalty is not 
 lightly shaken. But, in spite of herself, the 
 burning eyes of Alexander Hamilton had laid 
 their ukase upon her thoughts, as well as on
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 45 
 
 her acts and speech, as they were wont to 
 coerce the wills of wiser and stronger people 
 than Betsey. 
 
 Truth and loyalty were gone out of the world 
 when Miss Philipse could do wrong. 
 
 She had reached, at last, St. John's Church, 
 where, in spite of the commands of Congress, 
 the King's name was still retained in the 
 liturgy. She had turned from the river road, 
 and was galloping along the driveway leading 
 to Manor Hall ; there was a glimpse of a figure 
 in blue and buff seated in the embrasure of 
 the drawing-room window, and then she felt 
 the saddle slipping from under her and was 
 flung headlong, her head striking against some- 
 thing hard. 
 
 When she recovered consciousness, it was to 
 find herself on a big four -posted bed, with a 
 high tester, and a valance of red and white 
 India patch. A turbaned head was bending 
 over her ankle with some hot embrocation, and 
 there was a queer pungent smell, as of some- 
 thing burning, in the air. Opposite, was a big 
 fireplace faced with quaint Dutch tiles repre- 
 senting scenes from Bible history ; an over-
 
 46 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 mantel, wrought with arabesques of the English 
 rose, was surmounted by a device of a crowned 
 lion, rampant, rising from a coronet ; as Betsey's 
 bewildered gaze strayed to the familiar Philipse 
 
 crest, all at once her thoughts grew clear. A 
 wave of recollection spent itself in the cry, 
 
 " General Washington ! " 
 
 The valance was pushed aside, and Miss 
 Philipse' s face, pale and anxious, looked down 
 upon her.
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 4/ 
 
 " Don't try to move, dear. Your foot caught 
 in the stirrup, and I am afraid your ankle is 
 sprained." 
 
 " General Washington ! " repeated the girl, 
 mechanically, her thoughts apparently unable to 
 advance beyond the point where everything had 
 ended in darkness. 
 
 " Yes, darling, it was General Washington 
 who carried you here, in his own arms," said 
 Miss Philipse, soothingly. "He saw the acci- 
 dent from the drawing-room window, and was 
 instantly on the spot. Draw the bandage tight, 
 Rose," she directed to the slave woman. 
 " Does it hurt ? " she added, bending low over 
 the bed. 
 
 But it was not physical pain that wrung the 
 moan from Betsey. Her glance had fallen on 
 the clock upon the mantel shelf. It lacked but 
 five minutes of five o'clock ! 
 
 General Washington's life the fate of the 
 country hung in the balance, and she lay 
 there, helpless ! " Not a word to Miss Phil- 
 ipse ! " rang the masterful voice. 
 
 What, keep silence ! with the touch of that 
 soft hand on her forehead, with the beautiful 
 eyes looking lovingly and pityingly into her
 
 48 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 own ? Straightway Betsey forgot the lesson 
 that had been read her by the youthful mas- 
 ter whose intuitive insight and foresight made 
 him one of the marvels of the age; forgot 
 that those who were older and wiser than 
 herself had taken the matter in hand and 
 that it was now her part to obey ; forgot 
 the momentous issues that hung upon her 
 action. She only knew that truth and loyalty 
 were in the world, and Miss Philipse could do 
 no wrong ! 
 
 She flung her arms about her friend's neck 
 and whispered. Miss Philipse gave a slight 
 start ; a strange, set look came into her face, 
 and then, without query or comment, she swiftly 
 left the room. Through the open door, Betsey 
 heard the murmur of voices in the hall below. 
 Then she distinguished Colonel Philipse's tones, 
 saying, 
 
 " May I be permitted to offer a glass of wine 
 to your Excellency ? " 
 
 " Will not his Excellency allow me to show 
 him the view from the staircase landing ? " 
 suggested Miss Philipse. 
 
 Their footsteps ascended the broad, low 
 stairs. It was but a moment that they lin-
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 49 
 
 gered before the window, for other matters 
 claimed General Washington than a fair 
 scene of water and woodland. Had Miss 
 Philipse opportunity to voice the warning, 
 with her brother and Colonel Morris intent 
 
 in the hall below ? Would Colonel Morgan 
 be on time would he see the signal ? 
 And somewhere, in her inmost conscious- 
 ness, the warning words of Alexander Hamil- 
 ton rang with dizzy pertinacity. Miss Philipse 
 and the three gentlemen went into the dining-
 
 5<D A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 room and their voices were no longer audible 
 from above. 
 
 The wine was poured. Frederick Philipse 
 raised his glass. 
 
 " His Majesty, the King! "
 
 IV. 
 
 WASHINGTON turned and placed his untasted 
 glass upon the window-seat. As he did so, 
 there was an almost imperceptible movement 
 of his left hand toward the breast - pocket of 
 his coat. 
 
 Hardly had the toast left the lips of Fred- 
 erick Philipse, when the door of the clock 
 was flung violently back and a redcoated 
 figure stepped through the aperture ; another, 
 and yet another, till half a score of armed 
 men stood drawn up in line, passively awaiting 
 orders. 
 
 Colonel Morris advanced a step or two. 
 Something held him from farther approach. 
 
 " I trust you see that resistance is useless," 
 he said. " Mr. Washington, you are my 
 prisoner ! " 
 
 Washington stood silent and motionless, one 
 hand behind his back, the other resting on the 
 hilt of his sword. But he was not good for his 
 foes to look upon. 
 
 5
 
 52 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 It was not alone that the high temper nearly 
 broke loose and ran uncontrolled at the aspect 
 of the broken troth plight of hospitality, sacred 
 to the Virginian as to the Norseman of old, and 
 of the cowardice that would overwhelm a de- 
 fenceless man with numbers. At the sight of 
 the armed men, there had arisen the fighting 
 spirit, before which even savage warriors had 
 quailed, the indomitable eagerness for the fray, 
 the love of battle for battle's sake, that flowed 
 in his veins with the hot blood of his race of 
 those far-off Norman de Wessyngtons. The 
 veins stood out on his temples, the blue-gray 
 eyes grew clear and dark, with the glint of 
 steel, the jaw was more firmly set, the massive 
 figure towered with the force that, far back in 
 the centuries, had stood in the forefront of 
 battle and wrested for itself, by the spirit of 
 all that is boldest and worthiest in man, the 
 "divine right " of kings ! 
 
 The iron will had reasserted its mastery. 
 
 " I beg your pardon, gentlemen," said 
 Washington, imperturbably, "but you are my 
 prisoners ! " 
 
 There was the sudden trample of many feet 
 in the hall without, and into the room trooped a
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 53 
 
 score of big men, in fringed hunting-shirts and 
 with levelled rifles. 
 
 " If you decide to remain, I will give you all 
 the protection in my power," said Washington. 
 
 Miss Philipse shook her head, gravely and 
 sadly. 
 
 " How could I accept the protection of one 
 who is in arms against my King ? " she an- 
 swered, with the gentle dignity, the sweet and 
 serious simplicity, that belonged to her. 
 
 " Colonel Morris and your brother shall be 
 released on their paroles," continued Washing- 
 ton ; " but I should not be doing my duty if I 
 suffered Colonel Philipse to remain at Philips- 
 burgh. The Hudson is the key to the whole 
 situation ; I cannot endanger its possession." 
 
 There was no suggestion of rancor in his 
 tones. Although treachery, like cowardice, was 
 something he could not understand, his mag- 
 nanimity was greater than his scorn. He was 
 pacing the room to and fro, as was his habit 
 when deeply perturbed. 
 
 " I could not remain in a land where the 
 name of my King must no more be mentioned, 
 even in prayer. If we could reach our friends
 
 54 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 in New York, they would assist us to England. 
 John Williams, our faithful steward, will remain 
 here and care for the estate," said Miss Philipse. 
 She spoke quietly and collectedly, as though 
 the words were the result of some long fore- 
 seen contingency. " Years ago, it was foretold 
 us, ' Your possessions shall pass from you, 
 when the eagle shall despoil the lion of his 
 mane.' The mysterious words have grown 
 clear ; for from the hour you drew your sword 
 beneath the Cambridge elm, the commander- 
 in-chief of the Continental Army, I knew that 
 these Colonies were lost to King George for- 
 ever ! " 
 
 They had withdrawn to the upper chamber 
 to hold their brief parting conference, forgetting 
 or disregardful of the child's presence on the 
 bed. Too full of love, and sorrow, and rever- 
 ence for tears ; feeling vaguely that she was in 
 the presence of something that was beyond her 
 girlish understanding, Betsey listened, perforce, 
 to the words that followed, but with no more 
 taint of curiosity than the guardian angels listen. 
 She might have let the valance veil her sight, 
 but there her strength failed her. Foreboding, 
 soon deepened to certainty, lay heavily upon
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 55 
 
 her heart, that the time in which she could look 
 upon her beloved friend was fast drawing to a 
 close. She plucked back a corner of the cur- 
 tain, and gazed hungrily upon every detail of a 
 picture whose memory must last her forever. 
 
 Miss Philipse stood at one end of the fire- 
 place, with a hand resting lightly on the mantel 
 shelf. She was dressed in a delicate blue and 
 white copperplate calico, with a muslin apron, 
 over a flounced petticoat of blue lutestring ; a 
 half handkerchief, knotted with straw ribbons, 
 was folded, kerchiefwise, over her breast ; her 
 hair, drawn back in loose waves from her lovely 
 pale face, was partially concealed beneath a 
 frilled muslin cap, from which soft dark curls 
 drooped low in the neck behind. 
 
 Washington stood at the other end of the fire- 
 place, in the prime of his magnificent manhood. 
 
 " You have saved my life at the cost of your 
 beloved home," he said, at length, in low, 
 strained tones. 
 
 " I would have saved your life at the cost of 
 my own ! " returned Mary Philipse, and, for the 
 first time, there was a tremor in her voice. 
 
 Her downcast eyes were raised slowly, as 
 though impelled by an irresistible impulse, and
 
 56 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 through a mist met his own, in which the pen- 
 sive look had deepened to sadness. It was by 
 a supreme effort of the iron will that Washing- 
 ton held the distance between them. 
 
 " I thought to find you the wife of Roger 
 Morris," he said, quietly. 
 
 " I have given no man the right to hold me 
 in his thoughts as wife," answered Mary Philipse, 
 slowly and wonderingly. 
 
 There was a deadly stillness in Washington's 
 voice when its tones again broke the silence. 
 
 " That night do you remember we danced 
 the minuet together, I asked your permission to 
 wait upon you on my return from Boston. De- 
 spite my utmost urgencies, when I arrived 
 again at the house of Beverly Robinson, I was 
 three little days too late. You had returned to 
 Manor Hall, and your sister told me of your 
 betrothal to Roger Morris, yesterday's con- 
 summation of a long-standing family compact." 
 
 " Susannah is dead," said Mary Philipse, 
 softly. " It was the dearest wish of her heart 
 to see the Jumel place added to the Manor of 
 Philipsburgh." A subtle echo rang in the words 
 that lay not in their spoken sense " May 
 Heaven forgive her, and help me to forgive
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 5/ 
 
 her ! " " Shortly after, I heard of your marriage 
 with the Widow Custis," she added, presently. 
 
 " She has been a good and faithful wife to 
 me. God knows my heart has never strayed 
 from her," said Washington, simply. 
 
 There was a silence that was long in the 
 reckoning that is not of minutes. Then each 
 looked into the other's face, as they look who 
 may not look again, and to the words that were 
 wrung from them, the child and the angels 
 listened. 
 
 " As I passed beneath the gallery, you flung 
 a rose to me ! " 
 
 " As you passed out of sight, you waved your 
 hand to me ! " 
 
 There was no tremor in the gentle tones, and 
 no mist dimmed the light finer and purer and 
 higher than even the love light of long ago in 
 the beautiful eyes, as Mary Philipse spoke her 
 farewell words. 
 
 " I saw you, even then, one on whom God 
 had laid His consecrating hand. I see you now, 
 the great soldier who shall fight this war to a 
 successful issue. I shall see you the statesman, 
 standing at the head of the nation he has done 
 more than any other man to make, silent amidst
 
 58 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 every difficulty, firm before every onslaught, 
 aiming at no other ends than his country's, his 
 God's and truth's. May my prayers shield 
 you and aid you, even in your high estate ! 
 More than all, I shall see you, as I have al- 
 ways seen you, for did any human being ever 
 bate one jot of his faith in you ! the pure, 
 high-minded gentleman, of dauntless courage 
 and stainless honor. God grant I may not die, 
 till I see the land, for which you have fought 
 and toiled, in the foremost rank of nations." 
 
 He bent his head low over her outstretched 
 hand. 
 
 " God be with you," he said.
 
 V. 
 
 THE neighborhood of the lower Hudson was 
 again the scene of active warfare, and Betsey's 
 continued sojourn at the summer home was in- 
 expedient, if not dangerous. Fortunately, at 
 this juncture, General Schuyler was appointed 
 to the command of the northern army, and as 
 his headquarters were at the family mansion 
 in Albany, he was enabled to relieve his anxi- 
 ety concerning his little daughter by transfer- 
 ring her thither. Here, busied with the many 
 and varied cares of a large household, three 
 years passed. 
 
 Late one afternoon in midsummer, Betsey's 
 little negro maid, Marian, came to her mistress's 
 bedroom with the tidings that a guest had 
 arrived, who would sup and spend the night. 
 
 " Let the squirrel pasty and the haunch of 
 cold venison be served," directed Betsey. " I 
 prepared a sufficient variety of cakes this morn- 
 ing, and there is an abundance of hickory and 
 other nuts cracked. Fresh strawberries and
 
 6O A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 wild grape jelly will no doubt be welcome to a 
 traveller, and the compote of our ground cherry 
 may not be amiss to one who knows not the 
 flavor of that rare fruit. You heard not his 
 name, Marian ? " 
 
 " He is called Colonel Hamilton," answered 
 the girl. 
 
 Betsey started and dropped her bunch of 
 keys, which in housewifely fashion was sus- 
 pended from her girdle. 
 
 " Was he short and slight, but of rare grace 
 and activity ; had he burning dark eyes eyes 
 that once seen could never be forgotten ? " she 
 questioned, eagerly. 
 
 " That is he," returned the maid. " You 
 know him, then?" she added, with deep in- 
 terest. 
 
 The little slave girl, when three years old, 
 had been given to Betsey as a birthday present ; 
 in the close companionship of the succeeding 
 years, there had grown up between mistress 
 and maid a degree of familiarity in which, on 
 the one side, a care and protection that held no 
 suggestion of the harsh rule of authority was 
 met, on the other, by a single-hearted devotion 
 that made its mistress's interests its own.
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 6 1 
 
 Betsey had matured rapidly in the past three 
 years ; her domestic responsibilities, her close 
 contact with the stirring life of the times, as 
 the daughter of one of the leaders of the Revo- 
 lution, the frequent visits at the Schuyler man- 
 sion of men whose minds were making their 
 impress upon the age, had all contributed to 
 this result. But she was still a girl in years, 
 and the need of a youthful confidant was some- 
 times imperative. 
 
 " I saw him but once," she answered ; " 't was 
 years ago ; doubtless he has forgotten. Tell 
 me, Marian, am I not much changed since we 
 came to Albany ? " she went on, drawing her- 
 self to her full height. " I am taller, my face 
 is not so round ; this fashion of dressing my 
 hair over a cushion gives me quite a different 
 air, does it not ? " 
 
 Marian regarded her mistress dubiously. 
 
 " In that white jaconet muslin, with the frill 
 of scalloped lace about your neck, and the 
 bright morone sash, you look just as you did 
 three years ago," she answered, decidedly. " In 
 the blue brocade, now, you are such a stately 
 dame that I am sure no one would know you 
 who may have seen you in New York."
 
 62 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 "Then fetch me the blue brocade, Marian," 
 cried Betsey. " Doubtless Colonel Hamilton 
 comes on an official mission, and I would show 
 him all the attention that is due his Excellency's 
 special envoy, and not less his own distin- 
 guished merits, for, notwithstanding his youth, 
 'tis said that Alexander Hamilton does the 
 thinking of the times." 
 
 Her toilet completed, Betsey regarded herself 
 critically in the mirror. The blue brocade, with 
 its pointed stomacher, opened in front over a 
 long trained skirt of crimson satin, without 
 vanity, became her right well; the green mo- 
 rocco slippers with the high heels added a good 
 inch to her height, and the two little half-moon 
 patches one on her cheek and the other on 
 her forehead gave an air of the mode that 
 would surely dispel any possible vague recollec- 
 tion of a dirty-faced little girl. But 
 
 " I fear I do not look so very old, after all ; 
 not nearly so old as did Aunt Schuyler in this 
 very gown," she sighed. 
 
 "Madam Schuyler was a very old lady 
 nearly fifty years old when she died," rejoined 
 Marian. " But perhaps I made a mistake 
 in suggesting the brocade," she added, regard-
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 63 
 
 ing her mistress critically. "Your eyes are 
 brighter than usual, and your cheeks are very 
 red ! " 
 
 " I will endeavor to add ten, twenty years to 
 my age by the dignity of my demeanor, and the 
 gravity of my speech ! The late surrender of 
 Burgoyne and the proceedings of Congress will 
 afford becoming themes. 'Tis the fashion in 
 Albany not to rise in receiving company ; in 
 New York, they are wont to greet a guest in 
 different wise. I would not that Colonel Ham- 
 ilton think we know nothing of courtly ways in 
 our little provincial town." Betsey swept a low 
 curtsy to her own reflection in the glass. 
 
 " Colonel Hamilton comes, then, from New 
 York ? " queried Marian. 
 
 " He came there, at an early age, from 
 Jamaica." 
 
 "Jamaica ! " 
 
 Marian dropped the jaconet gown she was 
 smoothing out, and her eyeballs rolled up till a 
 ghastly extent of white appeared. 
 
 " Why should not Colonel Hamilton be born 
 in Jamaica, or anywhere else if he so pleases ! " 
 exclaimed Betsey, impatiently. 
 
 "Jamaica bad place!" chattered the girl.
 
 64 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 " You foolish child ! Bad people go to 
 Jamaica, they do not come from there ! " cried 
 Betsey. 
 
 But this was too fine a distinction for the 
 little slave girl's comprehension. Her knees 
 shook beneath her, and her face had a hideous 
 livid pallor. 
 
 "I am ashamed of you, Marian!" said Bet- 
 sey, severely. "Could you not read in Colonel 
 Hamilton's eyes that he would wittingly do no 
 one harm, even in thought ? Those eyes belie 
 him sorely, if, despite the occasional self-suffi- 
 ciency of youth, he could ever be aught but the 
 just and generous gentleman." 
 
 But Marian, muttering something that may 
 have been either an attempt at self-exculpation, 
 or an incoherent expression of terror, slipped 
 from the room. Betsey, supposing she had 
 gone to the kitchen, to aid, as usual, in the 
 preparation of the supper, soon followed. Ab- 
 sorbed in her own thoughts, she did not notice 
 the absence of the usual servants about the 
 hall or corridors. To her surprise, the kitchen 
 was empty ! A survey of the outbuildings, and 
 a glance from their several windows, revealed 
 no one in sight. The recollection of Marian's
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 65 
 
 fright dispelled the momentary mystification. 
 The servants had taken flight in a body, before 
 the spell of that terrible word, Jamaica ! 
 
 General Schuyler had been suddenly called 
 away on some official errand, leaving his guest 
 on the portico to await his early return. The 
 portico at the Flats as the Schuyler estate 
 was called was the most characteristic feature 
 of the house. The dining-room or eating- 
 room, as it was usually called was a sunless 
 apartment, hung with Scripture paintings of a 
 gloomy tenor, and was used only when the 
 exigencies of the weather compelled. The 
 portico was not only, from early summer, 
 the living-room of the family, but was also 
 drawing-room and dining-room. It was open at 
 the sides, while overhead a light latticework, 
 covered with the luxurious growth of a wild 
 grapevine, afforded protection from the sun. 
 A seat ran around the sides, and on a long, 
 narrow shelf above a number of birds' nests 
 were arranged. Numerous birds of a bright 
 cinnamon brown color were darting hither and 
 thither in the flickering sunlight, or rustling 
 about in the foliage overhead ; others were glid- 
 ing over the table with a butterfly or a cherry
 
 66 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 in their bills with which to feed their young, 
 who were chirping from the nests on the shelf, 
 or from out the shelter of the leafy roof. Sev- 
 eral of the tame little creatures were hopping 
 about the bench by the stranger's side, or 
 venturing inquisitively upon his knees and 
 arms. He sat motionless, watching their move- 
 ments intently. 
 
 The chirping of innumerable insects mingled 
 with the twittering of the wrens ; the lowing 
 of the cows, wending their homeward way from 
 the common, sounded from beyond the garden ; 
 leading thence to the village street was a long 
 avenue, bordered by Morella cherry-trees, which 
 were evidently regarded by the birds as their 
 especial storehouse. A wren, with a particularly 
 fine cherry dangling from its bill, let go its hold 
 prematurely, and the fruit fell into Hamilton's 
 hand, as it lay palm upward, upon his knee ; 
 involuntarily the hand closed, and the wren, 
 instantly lighting upon it, cocked his head to 
 one side, and, in a storm of vituperative twitter- 
 ings, gave vent to his anger and indignation at 
 this bold-faced robbery. Hamilton threw back 
 his head with the gesture that betrayed his 
 youth, and laughed aloud.
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 6 7 
 
 A charming figure appeared in the doorway 
 in a stately garb that accentuated the graceful 
 outlines and girlish bloom of its wearer. Betsey's 
 steps were nicely balanced, and her face was 
 preternaturally grave, with two little frowning 
 
 lines between the brows, brought there partly 
 by the provoking domestic exigency, and partly 
 by the difficulty of managing a train whilst 
 carrying a pasty that plainly needed both hands 
 for its support.
 
 68 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 " Let me help you ! " cried Hamilton, and 
 sprang to her aid. 
 
 One on each side, the pasty was set upon the 
 table. Hamilton fell back a step or two. 
 
 " I have the honor of addressing Miss 
 Schuyler ? " he said, with a low bow. "We 
 have met before." 
 
 The stately curtsy seemed ignominiously out 
 of place. Betsey's equanimity, already sorely 
 tried, was unequal to a reply in courtly phrase, 
 and only her native honesty dictated her answer. 
 
 " I thought I hoped you had forgotten ! " 
 
 "I had not forgotten," returned Hamilton, 
 quietly. " It was, indeed, my unofficial mission 
 to Albany to tell you that I erred grievously at 
 our former meeting," he went on, in his simple, 
 direct fashion, the exponent of a magnanimity 
 of which only a proud, upright nature, self- 
 convicted of error, is capable. " I crave your 
 pardon for the wrong I did your friend." 
 
 But a hard, cold look had come into Betsey's 
 loyal blue eyes that boded ill for Hamilton's 
 petition. And he, partly because of the pure 
 integrity of a nature that could not rest content 
 with a wrong unrighted, though committed only 
 in thought, partly because of the imperious
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 69 
 
 will that brooked no opposition to its ungar- 
 nished yea or nay, went on in the tones, irresist- 
 ibly winning, that could wring assent from the 
 most stubborn adversary. 
 
 " Philip told me how she saved General 
 Washington's life, knowing well what the cost 
 would be. All that night I heard his Excellency 
 pacing his room ; even I, his most trusted 
 friend, dared not approach. Afterward, as you 
 know, when Colonel Philipse broke his parole 
 and was attainted for treason, she was unjustly 
 included in the sentence, and the Manor of 
 Philipsburgh was confiscated by Congress. I 
 was not behind General Washington in the 
 endeavor to right the cruel wrong. Letter after 
 letter was written ; but in vain his Excellency 
 expostulated, urged, condemned ; in vain I put 
 his representations into the strongest, most 
 convincing words at my command. I journeyed 
 to Philadelphia to hold personal conference with 
 Congress ; but in its fatuity, its self-sufficiency, 
 its bat -like opposition to every measure pro- 
 posed by Washington, because, forsooth, they 
 fancy him aiming at supreme power, Miss 
 Philipse, the one woman out of the records of 
 the time, must stand, forever, as traitor! Be-
 
 7O A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 lieve me, all that man could do I have done. 
 If I judged harshly, precipitately, cruelly, if 
 love of my friend made me, for the moment, 
 unlovely toward yours, will you not forgive me 
 for a horrid, hateful boy ? " 
 
 He spoke with the clear, calm reason, the 
 temperate self-assertion of maturity ; yet it was 
 less* the direct appeal of his words than that 
 which rang in his tones, the flawless gen- 
 erosity of a nature incapable of harboring re- 
 sentment, by which Betsey stood all at once 
 convicted before the court of conscience of an 
 unjust and paltry grudge ; and the echo of her 
 own childish, passionate words added to the 
 weight of the self-accusation. 
 
 But the rankling memory of the laugh at the 
 ragged, dirty -faced little girl was not readily 
 assuaged. Forgiveness might come by and by ; 
 but for the present, well, for the present, she 
 must set before him the daintiest fare her 
 housewifely stores afforded, and herself serve 
 him at table as an honored guest. 
 
 " Our servants have fled," she said, demurely. 
 " My father will soon, doubtless, be able to 
 persuade them to return ; but, meantime, will 
 you pardon me if household duties call me ? "
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. /I 
 
 " They have not run away ? " queried Hamil- 
 ton, perhaps with some vague reminiscence of 
 the life of the negro slaves in the West Indies. 
 
 " I think they have gone no further than a 
 clearing in the Bush, a few miles from here, 
 where a settler has been wont to receive them 
 kindly. Our people are warmly attached to 
 us ; it is seldom, indeed, that any one in Albany 
 has an unruly servant ; but when all gentle 
 means have failed to win such a one to better 
 courses, he is sold to Jamaica. And the dread 
 of that fate amongst the negroes is so great 
 that they have to be carefully watched on 
 the boat to New York, lest they attempt self- 
 destruction. Jamaica stands to them for I 
 know not what of horror ; so they are very 
 ignorant, very foolish when they heard that 
 you were from Jamaica " 
 
 " Instead of their going to Jamaica, it was 
 Jamaica coming to them," finished Hamilton. 
 " I crave your pardon, again, for having unwit- 
 tingly brought such panic into your house- 
 hold." 
 
 It might be that she had erred as grievously 
 as the servants in her conception of Alexander 
 Hamilton. Perhaps she would forgive him,
 
 72 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 quite, before his departure. She was glad he 
 was to remain but one night almost. 
 
 The following morning Betsey was early 
 upon the portico. It was her custom, before the 
 round of daily household duties began, to gather 
 a supply of cherries, and place a portion beside 
 each nest on the shelf ; the chirping and twitter- 
 ing that followed told that her ministrations 
 were appreciated. She had scarcely finished 
 her task, when Hamilton appeared, booted and 
 spurred for an early journey. 
 
 "It has been an unusually hot summer," ex- 
 plained Betsey ; " our wrens' wings have drooped 
 sadly with the heat and the difficulty of finding 
 food ; so I have been helping them. Hark, do 
 you hear that ! " she exclaimed, eagerly, and 
 held up her finger to enjoin silence. 
 
 It was the notes of a bird, exquisitely modu- 
 lated, rising from a few single notes, seemingly 
 shaken from its throat like dewdrops from the 
 heart of a rose, and swelling into a sustained 
 volume of melody, of wonderful compass and 
 variety ; the song died away as it had begun, in 
 the crystal clear, scattered notes. 
 
 " It is unlike the song of any bird I ever 
 heard ! " cried Betsey, breathlessly. " It sang
 
 "'HARK, DO YOU HEAR THAT?'"
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 75 
 
 for hours in the moonlight last night, as I lay 
 awake." 
 
 " It is a mocking-bird," explained Hamilton. 
 " I did not know that it built so far north as 
 this latitude. That is its call note," he added, 
 as a single long, mournful note sounded from 
 the upper branches of a tree in the garden. 
 
 "There must be a nest there ! " 
 
 " Doubtless; 'tis the breeding season." 
 
 " I wish the tree were not so high. I should 
 much like to see the eggs," said Betsey, wistfully. 
 
 " I will get one for you," volunteered Ham- 
 ilton. 
 
 " Oh, but indeed you must not ! " cried 
 Betsey. " We never allow our birds to be 
 molested ; they always know if an egg has been 
 touched, and are most indignant at the outrage. 
 I am afraid the mocking-bird would leave us if 
 its nest were disturbed. Besides, you might 
 get hurt yourself, and and his Excellency 
 would be so very sorry ! " 
 
 "My spurs will serve as spike nails," returned 
 Hamilton ; " there are usually five eggs. They 
 can surely spare us one." 
 
 " I should like much to have that glorious 
 song where I could hear it through our long
 
 76 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 winter. Perhaps, if I had the egg " hesitated 
 Betsey. 
 
 Hamilton was already in the garden. He 
 soon returned and placed a small egg in Bet- 
 sey's eagerly outstretched hand. 
 
 " How pretty, how charming it is ! " she cried. 
 " See how the lovely pale green is flecked and 
 splashed with the dainty brown ! " 
 
 " Blue, is it not ? " queried Hamilton. 
 
 His head and Betsey's nearly touched as they 
 bent together over the egg. Very gently, 
 Hamilton placed his hand beneath hers that 
 he might more closely scrutinize the debated 
 color. 
 
 " I think it is green," repeated Betsey, weigh- 
 ing her words. " In this light, so, is it not ? " 
 Her blue eyes were raised, gravely, to Hamil- 
 ton's face. 
 
 " In Albany, blue is the fairer color," he 
 answered, smiling. " I have not heard a mock- 
 ing-bird since I left Jamaica," he added. 
 
 " Jamaica must be a beautiful land with such 
 music to fill the nights," said Betsey, with a 
 gentle inflection in her voice that held more 
 than the spoken query ; and it was tone rather 
 than words that Hamilton answered.
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 77 
 
 The sunlight flickered through the foliage 
 overhead, dancing over her simple muslin gown, 
 and touching the broad, fair forehead, from 
 which the little sunbonnet had been pushed in 
 the heat. Now and again a wren lit on her 
 shoulder, or hopped upon her arm, with grate- 
 ful twitterings. Hamilton stood by her side, 
 his hand still aiding hers to support the weight 
 of the egg. 
 
 " To me, as to your servants, Jamaica was 
 ever the land of slavery," he made answer, 
 gravely. " While I would willingly have risked 
 my life, though not my character, to exalt my 
 station, my fortune condemned me to the 
 grovelling occupation of a clerk. As I was 
 but twelve years of age, I realized that my 
 youth stood in the way of immediate prefer- 
 ment, but I determined to prepare the way for 
 futurity." 
 
 " And the time came ? " questioned Betsey, 
 softly. 
 
 " The time came at last," assented Hamilton, 
 with his transfiguring smile. " My relatives 
 deemed a slight essay from my pen on one of 
 our tropical hurricanes not unworthy of com- 
 mendation, and they decided that I should be
 
 78 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 
 
 given the advantages of an education. Accord- 
 ingly, I took ship for Boston, and soon after 
 arrived in New York and entered King's Col- 
 lege. Fifteen months or less would have 
 sufficed to carry me through the course, but 
 the war broke out, and I left my books to offer 
 my services to the provincial cause." 
 
 " Then you are quite, quite alone ? " queried 
 Betsey, with unfeigned interest and sympathy. 
 
 " My mother died early, and my father, whom 
 I never knew, left me to the care of distant 
 relatives. As a child, I had but one companion 
 of my own age." 
 
 "It is sad to be alone," said Betsey, seriously. 
 " Never did children, I am sure, grow up in 
 such joyous companionship as we in Albany. 
 From the time we were five or six years old, 
 we were divided into little companies of some 
 twenty boys and girls, who shared with one 
 another all their games and diversions, all their 
 joys and sorrows if indeed, we then knew 
 aught of sorrow ! We seemed like the mem- 
 bers of one large family. Indeed, I think there 
 is scarce a person in Albany who is not called 
 ' cousin ' by every one else, although it may oft 
 happen that the kinship is somewhat remote or 
 obscure."
 
 A LOYAL LITTLE MAID. 79 
 
 " I have no cousins of my own," said Hamil- 
 ton. " Why should not we be cousins ? I 
 should like to be your cousin," he repeated, 
 eagerly. 
 
 " I am sure I should like very well to have 
 you for my cousin," returned Betsey, simply. 
 
 Impetuous in his wooing as over his books, 
 or in storming a redoubt, Hamilton raised her 
 hand to his lips. 
 
 " You don't hate me now ? " he questioned, 
 softly. 
 
 " Not now," she whispered. 
 
 In the following spring, Hamilton journeyed 
 to Albany again, this time upon a mission of a 
 different character. He and Betsey parted, not 
 as cousins, but as betrothed lovers ; and in 
 December of the same year, at the little Dutch 
 church by the river, Betsey Schuyler was mar- 
 ried to Alexander Hamilton. 
 
 THE END.
 
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 tone and pen-and-ink sketches of Scottish scenery. I vol., smal' 
 quarto, cloth and ornamental side, $1.50. 
 
 A pleasantly told story of a summer trip through Scotland, somewhat out of the 
 beaten track. A teacher, starting at Glasgow, takes a lively party of girls, her 
 pupils, through the Trossachs to Oban, through the Caledonian Canal to Inver- 
 ness, and as far north as Brora, missing no part of the matchless scenery and no 
 place of historic interest. Returning through Perth, Stirling, Edinburgh, Melrose, 
 and Abbotsford, the enjoyment of the party and the interest of the reader never 
 lag. With all the sightseeing, not the least interesting features of the book are 
 the glimpses of Scottish home life which the party from time to time are fortun? a 
 enough to be able to enjoy through the kindly hospitality of friends. 
 
 Published by L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY, 
 196 Summer St., Boston, Mass.
 
 University of California 
 
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