of those who have no right to share it.

Hempstead left Captain Hale, who, now fully committed to his hazardous
quest, set forth on the armed sloop _Schuyler_ with Captain Pond--one of
the captains in the 19th Regiment--in command, across the Sound to Long
Island. When he landed Captain Hale said farewell to the last American
friend he was to be with, so far as we have any record.

Assuming that he reached this point on or near the 15th of September,
one or two other facts suggest themselves. It is known that the
Declaration of Independence had been carried to the American camp as
early as possible after its announcement in July, had been read to the
troops assembled for that purpose, and had been received with unbounded
enthusiasm. It is probable that both Colonel Knowlton, later in command
of the Rangers, and Captain Hale, one of its officers, were present at
that reading and joined in the huzzas. Singularly enough, neither one of
these two men was a citizen of the United States for three months.

Two months later Colonel Knowlton fell in the battle of Harlem Heights,
on September 16th, six days before Nathan Hale's execution. Knowlton's
last words are said to have been, "I do not care for my life, if we do
but win the day."

From the moment of his leaving New York, the mind of such a man as
Nathan Hale must have had solemn foreshadowings of the possible result,
of the tremendous risk he was facing. Men do not grow old by the passing
of years so much as by the endurance of great experiences, and in the
few brief days that were left to Nathan Hale we know really nothing of
his whereabouts, of what risks he ran, of how often he barely escaped
recognition as a spy, where he slept, of any possible friends whom he
may have encountered, or of any moment when his very life seemed to hang
on the accidental glance of an enemy's eye.

Finally dawned the 21st of September. Hale had fully accomplished his
mission.

There are conflicting accounts as to what occurred on the last evening
of Nathan Hale's life, some going into minute details of occurrences
that were assumed to have taken place. One with considerable
plausibility says that, as the time had elapsed which he had expected to
spend among the British (at the end of which time a boat was to be sent
across the Sound for him), Hale, having finished his quest, had entered
a tavern kept by a certain widow Chichester. She was a stanch friend of
the Tories, and her house w