COLONEL DELANCEY'S FINAL DEPARTURE FROM WESTCHESTER

It had now been long evident, that the war was drawing to a close, and those Whigs whom civil strife had driven into vol-untary exile, had been for some time returning. The refugees from above and the loyalists in general who had been active supporters of the crown were busied with preparations to leave their native country for the purpose of seeking new homes in the wilderness of Nova Scotia. Although to these the Government of Britain lent its aid with no stinted hand, yet when they came to abandon the land of their fathers, it was with saddened spirits and "lingering looks behind," like those who underwent the primeval banishment from Eden. Among the most reluctant of the exiles was the celebrated commander of the "Westchester Refugees." The Commonwealth of New York had withdrawn from him her protection (by a formal act of her Legislature), had declared his estate, real and personal to be forfeited to the people, had banished him forever, and, in case of his return to the State at any future time, declared him thereby guilty of felony and sentenced him to death with- out benefit of clergy. Yet notwithstanding his attainder and the approaching relinquishment of royal authority, he had clung to his early home with all the fondness of an infant for the bosom of its mother, and that too, long after a further stay had become dangerous. Of all the Tories he was the most obnoxious to the violent Whigs and when, by common con-sent, a cessation of active hostilities took place, individual enterprise had made more than one effort to carry him off.-- From some of these attempts he had narrowly escaped; but the British out-posts in Westchester were now about to be with-