ssions to imply rank but to
give no claim to pay.

The Indians, after committing murders and barbarities upon the unhappy
people of the border country, retired beyond the mountains. Colonel Byrd
and Colonel Randolph were sent out with presents to the Cherokees,
Catawbas, and other Southern Indians, in order to conciliate their
good-will and counteract the intrigues of the French.

Colonel Washington obtained leave to visit General Shirley, so as to
deliver in person a memorial from the officers of the Virginia Regiment,
requesting him to grant them king's commissions; and also in order to
make himself better acquainted with the military plans of the North. He
set out from Alexandria early in February, 1756, accompanied by his
aid-de-camp, Colonel George Mercer, and on his route passed through
Philadelphia, New York, New London, Newport, and Providence. He visited
the governors of Pennsylvania and New York, and spent several days in
each of the principal cities. He was well received by General Shirley,
with whom he continued ten days, mingling with the society of Boston,
attending the sessions of the legislature, and visiting Castle William.
During the tour he was everywhere looked upon with interest as the hero
of the Monongahela. Shirley decided the contested point between
Dagworthy and him in his favor.

While in New York he was a guest of his friend Beverley Robinson
(brother of the speaker.) Miss Mary Philipse, a sister of Mrs. Robinson,
and heiress of a vast estate, was an inmate of the family, and
Washington became enamored of her. The flame was transient; he probably
having soon discovered that another suitor was preferred to him. She
eventually married Captain Roger Morris, his former associate in arms,
and one of Braddock's aids. She and her sister, Mrs. Robinson, and Mrs.
Inglis, were the only females who were attainted of high treason during
the Revolution. Imagination dwells on the outlawry of a lady who had won
the admiration of Washington. Humanity is shocked that a woman should
have been attainted of treason for clinging to the fortunes of her
husband.[487:A] Mary Philipse is the original of one of the characters
in Cooper's "Spy."

FOOTNOTES:

[483:A] Davies' Sermons, iii. 169; Sermon on the defeat of General
Braddock going to Fort Du Quesne; Memoir of Davies in Evan. and Lit.
Mag.

[483:B] Davies' Sermons, iii. 38. "Who is Mr. Washington?" inquired Lord
Halifax. "I know nothing of him," he add