spv, Edmund Palmer, as a lieutenant in the King's service. Putnam did not waste words in writing his reply :

Headquarters, 7^^ Aug. 1777. Edmund Palmer, an officer in the enemy's service, was taken as a spy lurking within our lines. He has been tried as a spy, condemned as a spy and shall be executed as a spy; and the flag is ordered to depart immediately. Israel Putnam. p s. -- He has, accordingly, been executed.

That the temper of the country was such as to give great satisfaction to the leaders at this time may be gathered from Clinton's own words: "I never knew the mihtia to come out with greater alacrity." But he adds, in the same connection, " as a great many of them have harvests in the field, I fear it wiU be difficult to detain them long, unless the enemy will make some movements that indicate a design of coming this way suddenly, and so obvious as to be believed by the

militia." With Burgoyne trying to force his way to Albany from the north, and Clinton planning to co-operate with him by way of the Hudson, the general anxiety regarding the Highlands increased as the season advanced. The forts, by autumn, were feebly garrisoned. On the 2Qth of September, Putnam, from his

The Spirit of '76 3^7 headquarters at Peekskill, wrote to General George CUnton as follows:

I have received intelligence on which I can fully depend, that the enemy had received a reinforcement at New York last Thursday, of about three thousand British and foreign troops, that General Clinton has called in guides who belong about Croton River; has ordered hard bread to be baked; that the troops are called from Paulus Hook to Kings Bridge, and that the whole troops are now under marching orders.