allis back on the Hudson again.

Then we lay in Jersey, watching them over in New York, until far into
the summer, ready to take up the march when the news should come of
the destination of the English fleet that lay off Sandy Hook.

At last one day there came a horseman spurring fast from the
southward, bearing the news of a vast fleet that covered the waves of
the Chesapeake and lay at that moment off the harbor of Baltimore,
threatening it with fire and sword.

Then there was a mighty bustle in the camp, and we whose homes were
now in danger took up the march to the southward, eager to meet the
foe.

When we reached Philadelphia we found that the enemy had entered the
Elk, and was now marching on the city, while the hastily called
Maryland and Delaware volunteers threw themselves in the way, cutting
off straggling parties and obstructing the advance.

So we hurried on to assist them, and found ourselves on the evening of
the 10th of September at the Brandywine, with the English advance but
a few miles away.

It was here that I met with one of the volunteers, who on hearing the
English were in the Chesapeake had taken his rifle from the rack and
joined in the defence. He came from lower Kent, but told me of the
devastation all through the county of Cecil, wherever the enemy had
laid its blighting hand.

"They tell me," he said, "that the old Tory, Charles Gordon, whom they
ran out of Cecil, is with Lord Howe, and high in his counsels. When
they arrived in the Elk, Gordon, with a body of troops, marched all
night and attacked the house of James Rodolph at dawn. Rodolph was
away from home, and that is the only thing that saved him, for they
say that Gordon swore that he would hang him if he once caught him. As
it was, he gave Rodolph's house to the flames, and burned everything
on the place. 'An eye for an eye,' said he, 'is a Highland saying as
well as a Jewish one. I regret that I cannot destroy the land as
well.' Rodolph, when he heard of it, stormed and swore, but he has not
dared to venture within the confines of Cecil since."

"Did Gordon do anything else?" I asked.

"No. After he burnt Rodolph out he tried to stop Lord Howe from
pillaging, but his lordship answered, 'You have had your turn, and now
you must let the others have theirs,' and so the pillaging went on."

But the planters and the yeomen who had risen at the first alarm hung
on the flanks of Lord Howe's army, cutting off stragglers and
sco