This unexpected attack is too much even for far famed English valor to endure ; it tells the foe that the patriot farmers of the old manor are rising in arms on every hand; it carries dismay and panic to their very hearts ; and those of them who have not already fallen, abandon their plunder, and seek safety in headlong flight. As they scurry down the road, many a patriot musket from behind boulder, tree or wall, booms out its resolute defiance ; and many a foeman falls. More than once the men of that militia regiment thus fought a miniature Lexington along that valley road. In one at least, not a single foe escaped death or capture, save the Tory guide, who, concealing himself in the wayside bushes, was overlooked in the hot pursuit.

In effective service to the cause, the patriots of this manor were excelled by the men of no other section ; for among their number, although not buried here, are to be included the three immortal captors of Andre. They fought bravely on many a bloody field ; and as scouts and in other irregular ways greatly aided the Continental arms. Each one of them, while at his home, was in effect an advanced picket of the American Army. Some of them, time and time again, taking their lives in their hands, assumed the part of Tories and going within the enemy's line at New York gained valuable information and faithfully communicated it to Washington or his officers. Upon several occasions was the patriot army or one of its outposts thus timely warned. In the actual career of more than one of them, that wonderful character, "The Spy," of Cooper s famous fiction, had its substantial prototype. Some of them, by their active and efficient services to the Continental cause, made themselves so especially obnoxious to the British authorities, that the latter offered money rewards for their capture ; in one instance, at least, that is, in case of a single individual, as high as one hundred pounds.