Henry Clinton announced the departure of Andre next morning,
on a secret and most important expedition, and added, 'Plain
John Andre will come back Sir John Andre.'

"How brilliant soever the company," Mr. Sargent adds,

"how cheerful the repast, its memory must ever have been
fraught with sadness to both host and guests. It was the
last occasion of Andre's meeting his comrades in life. Four
short days gone, the hands, then clasped by friendship, were
fettered by hostile bonds. Yet nine days more and the
darling of the army, the youthful hero of the hour, had
dangled from a gibbet."

For two hundred and twelve years this mansion of venerable memories
remained. Then it was swept away by the resistless tide of an
advancing population. The thronged pavements of Thirty-fifth street
now pass over the spot, where two centuries ago the most illustrious
men crowded the banqueting hall, and where youth and beauty met in the
dance and song. In view of these ravages of time, well may we exclaim
in the impressive words of Burke, "What shadows we are and what
shadows we pursue."

In the year 1774, John Adams rode from Boston to Philadelphia on
horseback, to attend the first meeting of Congress. His journal
contains an interesting account of this long and fatiguing tour.
Coming from the puritanic simplicity of Boston, he was evidently
deeply impressed with the style and splendor which met his eye in New
York. In glowing terms he alludes to the elegance of their mode of
living, to the architectural grandeur of their country seats; to the
splendor of Broadway, and to the magnificent new church they were
building, which was to cost one hundred thousand dollars.

The aristocratic families of New York were generally in favor of the
Crown. They were not disposed to pay any special attention to a
delegate to the democratic Congress. He had therefore no opportunity
of witnessing the splendor of these ancient families. Two lawyers who
had become wealthy by their professional labors, received him with
honor. At their breakfast tables he beheld display, common enough in
almost every genteel household at the present day, but to which he was
quite unaccustomed in his frugal home at Quincy. One cannot but be
amused in reading the following description of one of his
entertainments:

"A more elegant breakfast I never saw; rich plate; a very
large silver coffee pot; a very large silve