The smoke and flame spread consternation among the inhabitants of other villages, and fugitives from the destroyed town sought asylum among the hills and in remote places. The spectacle of Kingston burning must have moved with rage and pity the stout hearts of Putnam and Clinton, on opposite sides of the river, witnesses to a calamity they were powerless to avert. Clinton had used the utmost dispatch, but was two hours too late to interpose an effort to save the town. It is recorded that he had the spy, he of the silver bullet, brought forward and hanged to the liml:) of an apple tree in sight of Kingston, an act which we can hardly conceive to have afforded any satisfaction to one of his disposition and character. At Rhinebeck, Tivoli, and elsewhere the destruction was repeated on a smaller scale. Here a mansion and there a barn or a hay-rick added a flame to the general conflagration. The intention of the enemy was evidentl}^ to advance to Albany, which seemed doomed to share the fate of Kingston, and there to effect that conjunction with Burgo}^ne which was the object of the expedition. But Burg03me was in no condition to co-operate with any armv. The diversion had come too late. Almost

Rondout an( Kin^^ston 465

simultaneoush' with the mo\-ements of CHnton and his subordinates on the Hudson, the forces of Burgoyne and Gates were in mortal conflict, and the decisive victory of the latter put a sudden end to Vaughan s advance. The State Legislature, in session at Kings-