headquarters--from a side whence a British force from New York might
be the less expected.

Each man of us carried a sword and two pistols, having otherwise no
burden but his clothes. At first we walked our horses, but presently
we put them to a steady, easy gallop. The snow on the ground greatly
muffled the sound of our horses' footfalls, and made our way less
invisible than so dark a night might have allowed. But it made
ourselves also the more likely to be seen; though scarce at a great
distance nor in more than brief glimpses, for the wind raised clouds
of fine snow from the whitened fields, the black growth of tree and
brush along the road served now as curtain for us, now as background
into which our outlines might sink, and a stretch of woods sometimes
swallowed us entirely from sight. Besides, on such a night there would
be few folk outdoors, and if any of these came near, or if we were
seen from farmhouses or village windows, our appearance of rebel horse
would protect our purpose. So, in silence all, following our captain
and his guide, we rode forward to seize the rebel chief, and make
several people's fortunes.

I must now turn to Philip Winwood, and relate matters of which I was
not a witness, but with which I was subsequently made acquainted in
all minuteness.

We had had no direct communication with Philip since the time after
our capture of Mr. Cornelius, who, as every exchange of prisoners had
passed him by, still remarked upon parole at Mr. Faringfield's. If Mr.
Faringfield received news of Winwood through his surreptitious
messenger, Bill Meadows, he kept it to himself, naturally making a
secret of his being in correspondence with General Washington.

Though Philip knew of Meadows's perilous employment, he would not risk
the fellow's discovery even to Margaret, and so refrained from laying
upon him the task of a message to her. How she found out what Meadows
was engaged in, I cannot guess, unless it was that, unheeded in the
house as she was unheeding, she chanced to overhear some talk between
her father and him, or to detect him in the bringing of some letter
which she afterward took the trouble secretly to peep into. Nor did I
ever press to know by what means she had induced him to serve as
messenger between her and Ned, and to keep this service hidden from
her father and husband and all the world. Maybe she pretended a desire
to hear of her husband without his knowing she had so far softened