ng out; "Burn them in their own bonfire--
they were going to burn us out of our quarters!" We asked a civilian
who stood at a house-door looking on what had occurred.

"Why, the soldiers think they have got hold of the men who set the city
on fire, and they are going to pay them off. Maybe they are the men who
did it, or maybe they are rogues and vagabonds who were prowling about
for plunder--so it matters little, I guess," was the answer we received.

We left our philosophical friend smoking his pipe; he was evidently one
of those who care little what becomes of the world provided they are
comfortable. We followed the soldiers till we came to some scaffolding
erected for building a house, several ropes were hanging about it. The
humour seized the soldiers to hang up some of their prisoners, and in a
trice four of the unhappy wretches were run up by the heels, while their
heads hung downwards. In that position the infuriated soldiers dashed
at them with the butt-ends of their muskets, and very soon put them out
of their misery. Their companions in misfortune, if not in guilt,
meantime were shrieking out for mercy and protesting their innocence,
but in vain. The soldiers laughed and jeered at them, and hurrying them
on up to a burning house, forced them into the flames at the points of
their bayonets. As they rushed shrieking out covered with fire, they
were driven back again till the devouring element grasped them at length
in its deadly embrace. Then, with loud shouts of demoniacal
satisfaction, the enraged soldiers rushed away to look for fresh
victims. Miserable was the fate while they were in that humour, of
those who fell into their hands. I never saw so dreadful a spectacle
before, and hope never to see such a one again.

A short time afterwards General Howe had to send a flag of truce to
General Washington respecting an exchange of prisoners, when he was said
to have most solemnly denied having had anything to do with the burning
of the city. The flames were happily stopped after about a fourth part
of it had been burned to the ground. On the night of the 30th the
rebels made an attack on Montizieur's Island, but were repulsed with the
loss of a major and several men who were taken prisoners.

On the 2nd of October Delisle and I, with Harry Sumner, having got leave
to go on shore, agreed to walk out to visit the lines at King's Bridge,
where our army was intrenched in sight of that of the Americans