Van Tassel had much trouble : his house was finally plundered and burnt, and he was carried a prisoner to New York. When

THE HUDSON. 351

the war was over, he rebuilt the Roost, but in more modest style, as seen in our sketch. "The Indian spring" -- the one brought from Rotterdam -- "still welled up at the bottom of*the green bank; and the wild brook, wild as evei', came babbling down the ravine, and threw itself into the little cove where of yore the water-guard harboured their whale-boats."

The "water-guard" was an aquatic corps, in -the pay of the revolutionary government, organised to range the waters of the Hudson, and keep watch upon the movements of the British. The Roost, according to the chronicler, was one of the lurking-places of this band, and Van Tassel was one of their best friends. He was, moreover, fond of warring upon his " own hook." He possessed a famous " goose-gun," that would send its shot half-way across Tappan Bay. "When the belligerent feeling was strong upon Jacob," Fays the chronicler of the Roost, "he would take down his gun, sally forth alone, and prowl along shore, dodging behind rocks and trees, watching for hours together any ship or galley at anchor or becalmed. So sure as a boat approached the shore, bang ! went the great goose-gun, sending on board a shower of slugs and buck shot."

On one occasion, Jacob and some fellow bush-fighters peppered a British transport that had run aground. "This," says the chronicler, " was the last of Jacob's triumphs ; he fared like some heroic spider that has unwittingly ensnared a hornet, to the utter ruin of its web. It was not long after the above exploit that he fell into the hands of the enemy, in the course of one of his forays, and was carried away prisoner to New York.