and I now fear for my children confined in the house; and 1 would therefore humbly beseech your Honorable Body to grant a pass for the said children and such servants as may be deemed necessary to their safety in the present unsettled condition of the country. With the Greatest Respect Your Most Obedient and Humble Servant,

" DiRCK Lefferts."

Now, in reading this, the question that one naturally asks is, did he fear the children were to be eaten, or driven to death ?

Again we change the scene. It was the dead of winter, and the snow lay thick upon the ground, when General Parsons collected a force of American troopers for a foraging expedition into Morrisania. The party of a hundred or more,i<lesiring to be as silent as possible, to avoid a conflict with the Royal Refugees under Colonel De Lancey, were all put into sleighs and driven rapidly through Morrisania Manor towards Kingsbridge. No merry jingle of bells in this sleighing party; no laugh, no sound save the grim click of a musket's lock, or the rattle of the officers' side arms. On and on they sped over the silent, yielding snow, until their goal was almost reached, when suddenly an order rang out loud and clear upon the frosty air of midnight, and on all sides, like spectres from their graves, appeared armed and mounted men. Undismayed for a time, the Americans defended their sleighs with courage, almost with desperation, but the Light Horse were too nuiFate of a