ng that had been done in consequence. According to
recent accounts, Mount Vernon had been considered in danger. Lord
Dunmore was exercising martial law in the Ancient Dominion, and it was
feared that the favorite abode of the "rebel commander-in-chief" would
be marked out for hostility, and that the enemy might land from their
ships in the Potomac and lay it waste. Washington's brother, John
Augustine, had entreated Mrs. Washington to leave it. The people of
Loudoun had advised her to seek refuge beyond the Blue Ridge, and had
offered to send a guard to escort her. She had declined the offer, not
considering herself in danger. Lund Washington was equally free from
apprehensions on the subject. Though alive to everything concerning
Mount Vernon, Washington agreed with them in deeming it in no present
danger of molestation by the enemy. Still he felt for the loneliness
of Mrs. Washington's situation, heightened as it must be by anxiety on
his own account. He wrote to her, therefore, by express, in November,
inviting her to join him at the camp. He at the same time wrote to
Lund Washington, engaging his continued services as an agent. This
person, though bearing the same name, and probably of the same stock,
does not appear to have been in any near degree of relationship.

Mrs. Washington came on with her own carriage and horses, accompanied
by her son, Mr. Custis, and his wife. Escorts and guards of honor
attended her from place to place, and she was detained some time at
Philadelphia by the devoted attention of the inhabitants. Her arrival
at Cambridge was a glad event in the army.

[Mrs. Washington presided at head-quarters with dignity and
affability. Some questions of ceremony had arisen, and jealousies had
been excited in reference to invitations to head-quarters. The
presence of Mrs. Washington relieved the general from numerous
perplexities of this character. After her arrival the camp assumed a
more convivial tone than before, and parties became common.]

While giving these familiar scenes and occurrences we are tempted to
subjoin one furnished from the manuscript memoir of an eye witness. A
large party of Virginia riflemen, who had recently arrived in camp,
were strolling about Cambridge, and viewing the collegiate buildings,
now turned into barracks. Their half-Indian equipments, and fringed
and ruffled hunting garbs, provoked the merriment of some troops from
Marblehead, chiefly fishermen and sailors, who tho