Indeed, notwithstanding the recent visitation of his ruffianly countrymen to each of these peaceful families and the reckless depredations of those cowardly banditti, Colonel Waterbury, who commanded the Regiment whom General Lee had mustered into the Continental service -- himself, as was subsequently seen and heard, in the City of New York, as fine a specimen of the same class as was needed to perpetuate it 2 -- under the direct sanction of the General and with his orders, but without the slightest authority, legal or revolutionary, of either the local or the general Committees or of either of the Congresses, forced his way into every house he reached, ransacked them, and carried away, without even a memorandum of the names of those from whom they were taken, everything which bore the semblance of Arms, 3 leaving his victims, as far ag he could possibly do so, entirely without the means of defense, easy prey for whomsoever might next appear, on an errand of similar pillage and outrage.

An amusing instance of the consequential airs assumed by the petty local Town-committees, in Westchester-county, in whom had been vested such extraordinary powers over the persons and properties of those who lived within the several Towns in which

1 Vide pages 129, 132, ante.

« The associations and conduct of Colonel Waterbury, while he was in the City of New York, to say nothing of his acknowledged thefts in Westchester county, afford ample evidence of his ruffianly personal character.

• Vide page 146, ante.