Heath instantly refused to give the necessary directions, exclaiming, " I have received positive written orders to the contrary." Lee replied that he would then give the orders himself, to which Heath could not do otherwise than to assent. "That makes all the difference," he said. "You are my senior; but I will not myself break those orders." He then showed Lee General Washington's letter of instructions, upon which his visitor made some comment to the effect that being upon the ground he would feel at liberty to act according to his own judgment in the matter. He attempted then to give the order through Heath's adjutant, but the latter w^as sternly forbidden by his chief to have any part in the affair. "Sir," said he to Lee, "if you come to this post and mean to issue orders here w^hich w411 break the positive ones I have received, I pray you to do it yourself and through your own deputy Adjutant-General, who is present, and not draw me or any of my family in as partners in the guilt."

3i6 The Hudson River

To appreciate this scene one must pictm-e the contestants. Heath, bald and very corpulent, but soldierly and alert; "a man one could not see without loving," was said of him; Lee, on the other hand, not unpleasing as to feature or figure, but slovenly in his dress and consumed with a sense of his own importance. George Clinton, General and Governor of New York, was present. Heath resolutely demanded and received from Lee a certificate that he had assumed command of the post. Then, when the comedy was all played, and his wayward will satisfied, the usurper of authority changed his mind and recalled the regiments he had ordered out. "The erratic Lee," as some one has called him, crossed the Hudson with his army on the 2nd and 3rd of December, to the great relief of the commander of the post.