it doubtful whether he had fallen overboard by accident, or was prompted by despair to plunge into eternity. If this lat ter was the case, it must have been the consequence of a temporary fit of insanity; for no man had led a more spotless life, and no man was more beloved by all that were intimately known to him. He was, indeed, before the fatal affront which made such an undue impression on him, considered as a blessing to the place; and his memory was so beloved, and his fate so regretted, that this, in addition to some other occurrences about the same time, entirely turned the tide of opinion, and rendered the thinking as well as the violent party, more averse to innovations than ever.

Had the Albanians been Catholics, they would probably have canonized Mr. Freylinghausen, whom they considered as a martyr to levity and innovation. He prophesied a great deal; such prophecy as ardent and comprehensive minds have delivered, without any other inspiration but that of the sound, strong intellect, which augurs the future from a comparison with the past, and a rational deduction of probable consequences. The affection that was entertained for his memory induced people to listen to the most romantic stories of his being landed on an island, and becoming a hermit, his being taken up into a ship when floating on the sea, into which he had accidentally fallen, and carried to some remote country, from which he was expected to return, fraught with experience and faith. I remember some of my earliest reveries to have been occupied by the mysterious disappearance of this hard-fated pastor.

Meanwhile new events were unfolding more fully to the Albanians the characters of their lately-acquired friends. Scandal of fifty years standing must, by this time, have become almost pointless. The house where the young colonel, formerly mentioned, was billeted, and made his quarters good by every art of seductive courtesy, was occupied by a person wealthy, and somewhat vain and shallow, who had an only daughter; I am not certain, but I think she was his only child. She was young, lively, bold, conceited, and exceedingly well-looking. Artless and fearless of consequences, this thoughtless creature saw every day a person who was, no doubt, as much pleased with her as one could be with mere youth, beauty, and kindness, animated by vivacity, and

distinguished from her companions by all the embellishments which wealth could procure in that unfashioned quarter; his heart, however, was safe, as will appear from the sequel. Madame foresaw the consequences likely to result from an intimacy daily growing, where there was little prudence on the one side, and as little of that honor which should respect unsuspecting innocence on the other. She warned the family, but in vain; they considered marriage as the worst consequence that could ensue; and this they could not easily have been reconciled to, notwithstanding the family and fortune of the lover, had not his address and attentions charmed them into a kind of tacit acquiescence; for, as a Roman citizen in the proud days of the republic would have refused his daughter to a king, an Albanian, at one period, would rather have his daughter married to the meanest of his fellow-citizens, than to a person of the highest rank in the army; because they thought a young person, by such a marriage, was not only forever alienated from her family, but from those pure morals and plain manners in which they considered the greatest possible happiness to exist. To return;—

While these gayeties were going on, and the unhappy Domine embarking on the voyage which terminated his career, an order came for the colonel to march: this was the only commander who had ever been in town who had not spent any time, or asked any counsel, at the Flats. Meanwhile his Calista (for such she was) tore her hair in frantic agonies at his departure; not that she in the least doubted of his returning soon to give a public sanction to their union, but lest he should prove a victim to the war then existing; and because, being very impetuous, and unaccustomed to control, the object of her wishes had been delayed to a future period. In a short time things began to assume a more serious aspect; and her father came one day posting to the Flats, on his way to the lakes, seeking counsel too late, and requesting the aid of their influence to bring about a marriage, which should cover the disgrace of his family. They had little hopes of his success, yet he proceeded; and finding the colonel deaf to all his arguments, he had recourse to entreaty, and finally offered to divest himself of all but a mere subsistence, and give him such a fortune as was never heard of in that country. This, with an angel, as the fond father thought her, appeared

irresistible; but no! heir to a considerable fortune in his own country, and perhaps inwardly despising a romp, whom he had not considered from the first as estimable, he was not to be soothed or bribed into compliance. The dejected father returned disconsolate; and the astonishment and horror this altogether novel occurrence occasioned in the town, was not to be described. Of such a circumstance there was no existing precedent; half the city were related to the fair culprit, for penitent she could hardly be called. This unexpected refusal threw the whole city into consternation. One would have thought there had been an earthquake; and all the insulted Domine's predictions rose to remembrance, armed with avenging terrors.

Many other things occurred to justify the Domine's caution, and the extreme reluctance which the elders of the land showed to all such associations. All this Madame greatly lamented, yet could not acquit the parties concerned, whose duty it was, either to keep their daughters from that society for which their undisguised simplicity of heart unfitted them, or to give them that culture and usage of life which enables a young person to maintain a certain dignity, and to revolt at the first trespass on decorum. Her own protégées were instances of this; having their minds early stored with sentiments such as would enable them truly to estimate their own value, and judge of the characters and pretensions of those who conversed with them, they all conducted themselves with the utmost propriety, though daily mixing with strangers, and were solicited in marriage by the first people in the province, who thought themselves happy to select companions from such a school of intelligence and politeness, where they found beauty of the first order, informed by mind, and graced by the most pleasing manners.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Death of Colonel Schuyler.

THIS year (1757) was marked by an event, that not only clouded the future life of Madame, but occasioned the deepest

concern to the whole province. Colonel Schuyler was scarcely sensible of the decline of life, except by some attacks of the rheumatism, to which the people of that country are peculiarly subject: he enjoyed sound health and equal spirits, and had, upon the whole, from the temperance of his habits, and the singular equanimity of his mind, a more likely prospect of prolonging his happy and useful life, than falls to the lot of most people. He had, however, in very cold weather, gone to town to visit a relation, then ill of a pleurisy; and having sat awhile by the invalid, and conversed with him both on his worldly and spiritual affairs, he returned very thoughtful. On rising the next morning, he began the day, as had for many years been his custom, with singing some verses of a psalm in his closet. Madame observed that he was interrupted by a most violent fit of sneezing; this returned again a little after, when he calmly told her, that he felt the symptoms of a pleuritic attack, which had begun in the same manner with that of his friend; that the event might possibly prove fatal; but that knowing as she did how long a period of more than common felicity had been granted to their mutual affection, and with what tranquillity he was enabled to look forward to that event which is common to all, and which would be earnestly desired if withheld; he expected of her that, whatever might happen, she would look back with gratitude, and forward with hope; and in the mean time honor his memory, and her own profession of faith, by continuing to live in the manner they had hitherto done, that he might have the comfort of thinking that his house might still be an asylum of the helpless and the stranger, and a desirable place of meeting to his most valued friends this was spoken with an unaltered countenance, and in a calm and even tone. Madame, however, was alarmed; friends from all quarters poured in, with the most anxious concern for the event. By this time there was a hospital built at Albany for the troops, with a regular medical establishment. No human aid was wanting, and the composure of Madame astonished every one. This, however, was founded on hope; for she never could let herself imagine the danger serious, being flattered both by the medical attendants, and the sin

* Forty years.

gular fortitude of the patient. He, however, continued to arrange all things for the change he expected: he left his houses in town and country, his plate, and in short all his effects, to his wife, at her sole disposal; his estates were finally left to the orphan son of his nephew, then a child in the family; but Madame was to enjoy the rents during her life.

His negroes, for whom he had a great affection, were admitted every day to visit him; and with all the ardor of attachment peculiar to that kind-hearted race, implored heaven day and night for his recovery. The day before his death, he had them all called round his bed, and in their presence besought of Madame that she would upon no account sell any of them; this request he would not have made could he have foreseen the consequences. On the fifth day of his illness, he quietly breathed his last; having expressed, while he was able to articulate, the most perfect confidence in the mercy of the God whom he had diligently served and entirely trusted; and the most tender attachment to the friends he was about to leave.

It would be a vain attempt to describe the sorrow of a family like his, who had all been accustomed from childhood to look up to him as the first of mankind, and the medium through which they received every earthly blessing; while the serenity of his wisdom, the sweet and gentle cast of his heartfelt piety, and the equal mildness of his temper, rendered him incapable of embittering obligations; so that his generous humanity and liberal hospitality were adorned by all the graces that courtesy could add to kindness. The public voice was loud in its plaudits and lamentations. In the various characters of a patriot, a hero, and a saint, he was dear to all the friends of valor, humanity, and public spirit; while his fervent loyalty, and unvaried attachment to the king, and the laws of that country by which his own was protected, endeared him to all the servants of government, who knew they never should meet with another equally able, or equally disposed to smooth their way in the paths of duty assigned to them.

To government this loss would have been irreparable, had not two singular and -highly meritorious characters a little before this time made their appearance, and by superiority of