luenced by
any sinister views, and was willing to sacrifice his individual repose
for the noble purpose, and with the hope of settling it again on the
nation, with a firmer basis, at some future period, when the expected
contest should be decided.

What feelings of commotion and deep anxiety must agitate the bosom of
the magnanimous hero who is labouring truly for the interest of his
country, and is actuated alternately by the claims of justice and
humanity, and on whom a whole community must depend for council in cases
of severe emergency, when his chief satisfaction consists in promoting
the interest and welfare of that community. When the hour of exigency
arrives, his mind, endued with the light of piety, feels its own
littleness, his weighty thoughts are big with the impending danger that
no human arm may be able to arrest. Impressed with religious awe, and
feeling conscious of his dependence for aid on the all-wise Disposer of
events, he bends in humble supplication to implore the favour of that
great and beneficent Being whose power alone can save, and in whose
mighty arm alone is victory.

The father of Alida received regular intelligence by the daily papers
respecting the political excitement in New-York; besides, he made
frequent visits to the city to see his several children, as one of his
daughters had resided there since her marriage. There was every kind of
conveyance at the neighbouring village suited to the accommodation of
travellers, both summer and winter, and the rapid improvement of the
town had long been a current topic of the inhabitants as well as
visiters, while they praised the proprietor of the new pavilion, in his
manner of conducting it, and his excellent accommodations; and it was
the general opinion that in the course of a few years this would become
a place of no small consideration.

CHAPTER V.

O, who that sighs to join the scenes of war?
If heaven-born pity in thy bosom glow,
Reject the impurpled wreath; the laurel crown
Can flourish only in the scenes of wo.

At length it became the unhappy fate of America to be a second time
involved in a war with Great Britain. "In a manifesto of the president,
the reasons of the war were stated to be the impressment of American
seamen, by the British; the blockade of the enemy's ports, supported by
no adequate force; in consequence of which the American commerce had
been plundered in every sea; and the British orders in co