by both. Foraged by the two armies, under the approved
rules of war, it underwent further a constant, irregular pillage by
gangs of mounted rascals who claimed attachment, some to the British,
some to the Americans, but were not owned by either. It was, too,
overridden by the cavalry of both sides in attempts to surprise
outposts, cut off supplies, and otherwise harass and sting. Unexpected
forays by the rangers and dragoons from King's Bridge and the Harlem
were reciprocated by sudden visitations of American horse and light
infantry from the Greenburg Hills and thereabove. The Whig militia of
the county also took a hand against British Tories and marauders. Of
the residents, many Tories fled to New York, some Americans went to
the interior of the country, but numbers of each party held their
ground, at risk of personal harm as well as of robbery. Many of the
best houses were, at different times during the war, occupied as
quarters by officers of either side. Little was raised on the farms
save what the farmers could immediately use or easily conceal. The
Hudson was watched by British war-vessels, while the Americans on
their side patrolled it with whale-boats, long and canoe-like, swift
and elusive. For the drama of partisan warfare, Nature had provided,
in lower West Chester County,--picturesquely hilly, beautifully
wooded, pleasantly watered, bounded in part by the matchless Hudson
and the peerless Sound,--a setting unsurpassed.

Thus was it that Miss Elizabeth Philipse, Major John Colden, and Miss
Philipse's negro boy, Cuff, all riding northward on the Albany
post-road, a few miles above King's Bridge, but still within territory
patrolled daily by the King's troops, constituted, on that bleak
November evening in 1778, a group unusual to the time and place.

'Twas a wettish wind, concerning which Miss Elizabeth expressed, in
the imperative mood, her will that it be dratted,--a feminine wind,
truly, as was clear from its unexpected flarings up and sudden
calmings down, its illogical whiskings around and eccentric changes of
direction. Now it swept down the slope from the east, as if it meant
to bombard the travellers with all the brown leaves of the hillside.
Now it assailed them from the north, as if to impede their journey;
now rushed on them from the rear as if it had come up from New York to
speed them on their way; now attacked them in the left flank, armed
with a raw chill from the Hudson. It blew Miss Elizabet