On the second Sunday he still pursued the even tenor of his duties in this particular; but on the third Sunday, says Bolton, 4k when in the afternoon he was officiating, and had proceeded some length in the service, a company of armed soldiers -- said to have belonged to Colonel Sheldon's regiment, stationed on Keeler's Hill, opposite marched into the church with drums beating and fifes playing, their guns loaded and bayonets fixed, as if going to battle; and as soon as he commenced reading the collects for the king and royal family they rose to their feet, and the officer commanded him npon the peril of his life to desist. Mr. Townsend immediately stopped reading, closed his prayer-book, descended from the reading-desk, and so the matter passed over without any accident." On the 21st of October following he was sent to Fishkill as an enemy of America, and for six months was kept on parole at his own expense. In tin spring of 1777, having refused to take the oath of allegiance to the republic, he was permitted to remove with his "family, apparel, and household furniture" to the British lines, his property in Salem -- a very "genteel " one -- being confiscated. In 177!) he was appointed chaplain to a Loyalist battalion, which was ordered to Halifax, and he sailed with ii thither, accompanied by his wife and five children. His ship foundered, and he and his whole family perished. The first vessels of the British expedition against New York, which arrived at Sandy Hook on June 2!), were gradually joined by the entire fleet. The united military force comprised the army formerly quartered in Boston (which, after evacuating that place, had been transported to Halifax), some troops from the Southern colonies, n large addition of fresh troops from England, and some fourteen thousand Hessian mercenaries.