While they con\-ersed, Hugo and his followers burst upon them. ^Misunderstanding his daughter's agitation, the old man in a rage ordered his followers to seize the stranger and fling him into the furnace. What the girl saw, when this inhuman decree had been obeyed, was a form clad in robes of sih'er float from the furnace and drift upward into the night. It is said that that sight brought peace to her soul and serenity to her countenance, which is hardh' less strange than all the other incidents of this marvellous tale.

Chapter XVIII The Storming of Stony Point

Peekskill, above BETWEEN Croton Point and the railway station, are scattered pleasant residences. A few miles to the north is the

little village of Cruger's; then, just above Montrose's Point, back of the bay that forms the south shore of Verplanck's Point, is the historic ground where Baron Steuben laboured to lick the raw material of '76 into serviceable battalions.

The history of Verplanck's Point is intimately connected with that of Stony Point, on the opposite side of the river. The storming and reduction of Stony Point by the American army under General Wayne occurred on the night of the 15th of July, 1779. It w^as one of the brilliant achievements of the Revolution, and, indeed, in some respects, can hardly be excelled by any action in our history. The British had retired from Philadelphia; Washington's army had passed through the trying experience of Valley Forge, and Monmouth had been fought. Now the old struggle for supremacy on the Hudson was renewed. Sir Henry Clinton had captured the