After forty-three years the body of General Montgomery was delivered, through the courtesy of Sir John Sherbrooke, to Colonel Lewis Livingston, and, escorted by the Adjutant-General, with Colonel Van Rensselaer and a detachment of cavalry, it was brought to Albany and lay in state in the Capitol. The impressive ceremonies held there extended over the Fourth of July. Two days later commenced a funeral progress without parallel in the history of New York. Placed in a magnificent coffin and accompanied by a suitable military escort, the remains of the hero of

Quebec were taken aboard the steamer Richmond, ' which had been temporarih^ converted into a funeral catafalc[ue. The sombre spectacle made a dee]) impression upon the thousands of people who witnessed the departure. The villages along the course of this mournful procession paid every possible mark of respect and grief, and at some places the melancholy rei^ort of minute guns announced the passing of the steamer. But more imj^ressive than the beat of mufifled drums or the salute of the cannon, more significant than the emblems of mourning, more sad than the tears of a

484 The Hudson River

multitude, was the presence of one woman, past the prime of Hfe, with hair whitened by nearh* half a centur}' of widow^hood. At her own request, Mrs. Montgomer}' was left alone upon the ]:)iazza of her home, "Montgomery Place." There, un watched, she coidd witness the pomp and ceremony of that melanchoh^ progress that, w4iile it could not fail to gratify her pride, yet renewed the anguish of her loss and brought the scalding tears to her aged eyes. The steamboat stopped before her house and the troops stood under arms as the distant strains of the dead-march came up from the river. At last the final honours to Montgomery were paid in New York City, and on the 8th of July, 181 8, his remains were interred under the monument in St.