What belle of other days ever comes back to the Point without looking out upon the Parade from the windows of the hotel and indulging in a dreamy recall of the losing of her heart, pro tciii., on her first summer tour, to one of those grey-tailed birds of war? A flirtation with a greycoat at the Point is in every pretty woman's history, from Maine to Florida. Suppress those tapering swallow-tails! Whv, it would be a moulting of the feathers of first loves, which will make a cold shiver throughout the Union. I doubt whether the blue frock, with its similarity to the coats of common mortals, will ever acquire the same mystic irresistibleness which has belonged to that uniform of grey. The blue may be admired, but the pepper-and-salt of other days will be perpetuated in poems.

Upon the rising ground near Fort Chnton, a memorable fete, attended by the civil and military officers of high rank in the United States, occurred in 1785. The occasion was the birth of the Dauphin of France, and Washington presided over an assemblage that was bright with the beauty of what Griswold called "the Republican court." With whatever of splendour the resources or the taste of the time could accomplish, the celebration took place, for the gratitude of the lately liberated country towards France was still keen and the desire to do honour to the heir to her throne,

384 The Hudson River

though somewhat at variance with the sentiment of a democratic declaration, was yet strong and spontaneous. Who, at that time of rejoicing and congratulations, could anticipate the horror and mystery that would afterwards surround the fate of this ro\-al infant ? History has related the imprisonment of the Dauphin, after the downfall of his ill-fated house, has told of the cruelty of the brutish Simon, and has recorded the prince's death from a scrofulous affection induced by the filth and malnutrition which made his lot more to be pitied than that of the meanest peasant in the land.