ended the hill. The men had orders on no account to fire. Taking the
colours of the Sixty-third, and bearing them aloft, Sir Henry mounted
with the stormers. The place was so steep that the men pushed each
other over the wall and through the embrasures; and it was there that
Lieutenant Joseph Blake, the father of a certain Joseph Clinton Blake,
who looks with the eyes of affection on a certain young lady, presented
himself to the living of Warrington by saving the life of the unworthy
patron thereof.

About a fourth part of the garrison, as we were told, escaped out of
the fort, the rest being killed or wounded, or remaining our prisoners
within the works. Fort Montgomery was, in like manner, stormed and taken
by our people; and, at night, as we looked down from the heights where
the king's standard had been just planted, we were treated to a splendid
illumination in the river below. Under Fort Montgomery, and stretching
over to that lofty prominence, called Saint Antony's Nose, a boom and
chain had been laid with a vast cost and labour, behind which several
American frigates and galleys were anchored. The fort being taken, these
ships attempted to get up the river in the darkness, out of the reach of
guns which they knew must destroy them in the morning. But the wind was
unfavourable, and escape was found to be impossible. The crews therefore
took to the boats, and so landed, having previously set the ships on
fire with all their sails set; and we beheld these magnificent pyramids
of flame burning up to the heavens and reflected in the waters below,
until, in the midst of prodigious explosions, they sank and disappeared.

On the next day a parlementaire came in from the enemy, to inquire as to
the state of his troops left wounded or prisoners in our hands, and the
Continental officer brought me a note, which gave me a strange shock,
for it showed that in the struggle of the previous evening my brother
had been engaged. It was dated October 7, from Major-General George
Clinton's divisional headquarters, and it stated briefly that "Colonel
H. Warrington, of the Virginia line, hopes that Sir George Warrington
escaped unhurt in the assault of last evening, from which the Colonel
himself was so fortunate as to retire without the least injury." Never
did I say my prayers more heartily and gratefully than on that night,
devoutly thanking Heaven that my dearest brother was spared, and making
a vow at the same time to withdraw