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familiar with the enterprise of General Riedesel, and of the intended journey of the baroness.

She left Portsmouth for America, with her children and servants, on April 15, 1777, and arrived in the harbor of Quebec on the 11th of June. There was a booming of guns from all the ships in the harbor, firing a salute in honor of her arrival, before she realized what it all meant. Presently a boat approached the ship to carry them ashore. The boat was manned by twelve sailors dressed in white, with silver helmets and green sashes. With the boat came letters from General Reidesel, informing his wife that he had been unable to await her arrival at Quebec, and had started on the summer campaign with General Burgoyne. Only remaining long enough at Quebec to dine with the wife of General Carleton, the baroness with her family took a boat, and proceeded up the St. Lawrence, in the hope of overtaking her husband. At midnight they landed, and took calashes for a drive across the country, riding in this way till the following afternoon, when they crossed the river, and reached the village of Three Rivers. Here the Hessians had been in winter quarters, and General Reidesel had left a house prepared for the reception of his family.

The Grand Vicar of the village, seeing the baroness's anxiety to join her husband, loaned her a covered calash, in which she immediately

resumed her journey in pursuit of the advancing army. And in this manner this refined lady and her three young children and servants were driven over the rough roads of the country.

"How touching a picture is this! A delicate, refined woman, accustomed only to the comfort, luxury, and shelter of an old civilization in a circle of devoted relations and friends, encountering the hardships of the wilderness, self-reliant, courageous, persevering, not for one moment forgetting or neglecting the babes who are dependent on her tenderness, even while her whole soul is absorbed in that intensity of wifely love and devotion that renders her regardless of fatigue, pain, and repeated disappointment. If we are moved with enthusiasm in recalling the valor and selfforgetfulness of the patriot in the service of his country on the wearying march and amid the carnage of the field, may we not be equally stirred at a manifestation of heroic endurance and selfabnegation in an exercise of the most sublime of human emotions, even though it be on the part of one who sympathizes with the enemy?"

After meeting General Riedesel, and spending a few days, it became necessary for her to return to Three Rivers with the children. They spent some weeks at the village of Three Rivers. In the meantime the British and German forces had met with their successes at Ticonderoga and elsewhere. Major Ackland had been wounded at

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Hubbardston in the encounter with the "Green Mountain Boys," and his wife had been allowed to join him.

This permission led General Burgoyne to turn to General Riedesel and say,

"Your wife shall come too, General; despatch Captain Willoe to escort her at once."

They left Three Rivers in a boat; and after some strange experiences with rattlesnakes when landing on a small island, and the enjoyment of much charming scenery, they reached Fort Edward, where they were most gladly received by General Riedesel, and warmly welcomed by the commanding officers.

They spent three happy weeks, a reunited family, in the Red House, encircled by the British and German troops.

"The weather was beautiful," said the baroness, "and we often took our meals under the trees."

On the 11th of September the army moved forward; and the little family followed them until the battle of the 19th, when the baroness and her family were obliged to remain at one place, meeting the husband and father as often as circumstances permitted. At length a house was prepared for the family near the camp; and when she was to move into it, an unexpected change took place. Said the baroness, "On my way homeward, I met many savages in their war dress armed with guns. They cried out, 'War! War!'

This completely overwhelmed me; and I had scarcely got back to my quarters, when I heard skirmishing and firing, which by degrees became constantly heavier, until finally the noises were frightful." The baroness was expecting to have a dinner-party that afternoon, at which the generals were to be guests; but instead of the party, she was called upon to care for one of them, General Frazer, who was mortally wounded, and died soon after. The burial of General Frazer, alluded · to by my aged friend Mr. Colburn, is here described by the Baroness Riedesel, as she saw it from the standpoint of the enemy, whose leader he was. "Many cannon-balls also flew not far from me; but I had my eyes fixed upon the hill, where I distinctly saw my husband in the midst of the enemy's fire. The clergyman who was officiating was frequently covered with dust, which the shot threw up on all sides of him." Immediately after the funeral a retreat was ordered. Madam Riedesel, with children and servants, travelled all night in the pouring rain, and camped at Old Saratoga. The greatest consternation prevailed in the army; the provisions had failed, and the leading officers were forced from hunger to beg for a morsel from the baroness. Soon the cannonading drove them on, and the family sought refuge in a house. They were detected in entering the house by some of the Americans, who fired at them, and believing that the house was filled with officers,

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continued a heavy fire. Madam Riedesel and her children escaped by hiding in the cellar, where they sat upon the floor through the entire night, while cannon-balls crashed through the walls above them. Surrounded by the dead and dying, in hourly expectation of attack, this heroic woman cared for her children when servants failed, and also acted the part of a nurse to the suffering about her. After nearly a week of this extremity, the surrender came, and the entire army were prisoners of the Americans.

After the generals of the conquered army had been received by General Gates, and the formalities of surrender had taken place, a messenger was sent to the baroness, asking her to join her husband, who was a prisoner in the American camp.

She was met by General Philip Schuyler and General Gates, and also Generals Phillips and Burgoyne of the surrendered army. General Schuyler then took the baroness and her children. to his own tent, where he showed them much hospitality, and later sent them to his home in Albany, where they remained three days, when the baroness and her children left to join the General in the trials of the long captivity. They journeyed with the captured army to Cambridge, Mass. This beautiful lady, so recently a guest of the King of England, and during her entire life in Germany surrounded by luxury, was now practically a prisoner of war.