They had taken me from a wife and four small children the two youngest not sixteen months old, which was my whole family -- and during my confinement they forbade people coming to my house, and they threatened all that should assist the family in any respect ; by this means they Buffered much for want of free intercourse with their friends, those that would gladly have assisted them, not daring to do it unless when it might be done privately. In this situation I know not how they could have long subsisted, had it not been

THE TOWN OF NORTH SALEM.

for a man with a small family who had removed from the seat of war at the White Plains, and had as yet no settled habitation, by taking this family into my house about Christmas, Mrs. Townsend had a friend of Government, though under some disguise, who, living under the same roof, was able to do many things for her benefit. To this, as well as many other instances during my imprisonment, the good providence of God always found some method, unforseen by us, to support us under the greatest difficulties, and after he had thus continued us under the Rebel discipline for near six months, he then granted us a happy delivance ; for on the 31st of March, in consequence of my refusing the oath of allegiance to the State of New York, I received an order to depart within eight days with my family, apparel and household furniture, to some place in possession of the King's troops, on penalty of my being confined in close jail and otherwise treated as an open enemy of the State. With this order I readily complied ; and after procuring a flag from a Rebel general to transport my family and furniture to Long Island, I set out.