"Erubutes in whose large mind alone,

Ulysses viewed the image of his own."

Thus was it with Colden. Among the number of governors who succeeded each other in his time, if by chance one happened to be a man of ability, he estimated his merit at its just rate; and whatever original measure he might find it necessary to take for the public good, left the common routine of business in the hands of that tried integrity and experience, in which he found them; satisfied with the state and the popularity of governor, on which the other had not a wish to encroach. Colden, however, enriched his own family, in a manner on the whole not objectionable; he procured from the successive governors various grants of land, which, though valuable in quality, were not, from the remoteness of their situation, an object of desire to settlers; and purchased grants from many, who had obtained the property of them, among which were different governors and military commanders. He allowed this mine of future wealth to lie quietly ripening to its value, till the lands near it were, in process of time, settled, and it became a desirable object to purchase or hold on lease.

Chapter II

MRS. SCHUYLER'S ARRANGEMENTS AND CONDUCT AFTER THE COLONEL'S DEATH

TH

HE mind of our good aunt, which had never before yielded to calamity, seemed altogether subdued by the painful separation from her husband. Never having left her consort's bedside, or known the refreshment of a quiet sleep, during his illness, she sunk at first into a kind of torpor, which her friends willingly mistook for the effects of resignation. This was soon succeeded by the most acute sorrow, and a dangerous illness, the consequence of her mental sufferings. In spring she slowly recovered, and endeavored to find consolation in returning to the regulation of her family, and the society of her friends, for both which she had been for some months disqualified. Her nieces, the Miss Cuylers, were a great comfort to her, from their affectionate attention, and the pleasure she took in seeing them growing up to be all that her maternal affection could wish. In the social grief of Pedrom,' who gave all his time

1 The colonel's brother Peter, so called. Mrs. Grant. [Query, Peteroom, Uncle Peter ? His portrait is preserved in the mansion of Madame Schuyler at the Flats, by Mr. Stephen Schuyler, the recent

to her during the early part of her widowhood, she also found consolation; and whenever she was able to receive them, her friends came from all quarters to express their sympathy and their respect. The colonel's heir and her own eldest nephew made, with one of her nieces, a part of her family; and the necessity of attending to such affairs as formerly lay within the colonel's province, served further to occupy her mind; yet her thoughts continually recurred to that loss, which she daily felt more and more. She had buried the colonel in a spot within a short distance of his own house, in which he had formerly desired to repose; that his remains might not quit a scene so dear to him; and that the place, rendered sacred by his ashes, might in future be a common sepulture to his family; that he might in death, as in life, be surrounded by the objects of his affection and beneficence. This consecrated spot, about the size of a small flower garden, was enclosed for this purpose, and a tombstone, with a suitable inscription erected over the grave, where this excellent person's relict proposed her ashes should mingle with his.1 In the mean

owner and occupant of the premises. The portrait had been artistically copied for the late Gen. John T. Cooper, and was among the rare objects of art at his residence in Albany].

1 From the second bridge that spans the Erie canal north of the entrance to the Albany cemetery, on the Watervliet turnpike, a quiet lane leads to the ancient Schuyler bouwery, known in history as The Flats; and nearly equidistant between the canal and the river, in a cluster of locust trees, a few rods north of the lane, is the family burial

time, though by continually speaking of her deceased friend, she passed the day without much visible agitation, she had fallen into a habit of vigilance; rarely sleeping till morning, and suffering through the silent hours from a periodical agony, for such it might be called, with which she was regularly visited. She had a confidante in this secret suffering; a decent and pious woman, who, on the death of her husband, a sergeant in the army, had been received into this family as a kind of upper domestic; and found herself so happy, and made herself so useful in teaching reading and needle-work to the children, that she still remained. This good woman slept in aunt's

ground. The earliest dead were buried in the church on State Street, or in the graveyard on Beaver and Hudson Streets, now the site of the Middle Dutch Church. The Schuylers and Van Rensselaers frequently intermarried, and several of the former were entombed in the Van Rensselaer vault. This monument mentioned by Mrs. Grant, and alluded to on a previous page, is undoubtedly the oldest one in the ground, as well as the most conspicuous. Madame Schuyler's remains were buried by the side of those of her husband, but there is no monument or other object to mark her place of sepulture. The reason assigned for this neglect is, that she left a portion of her property in such a way as to give offence to some of the heirs, and a question of duty or a sense of dissatisfaction arising among the parties upon whom it was incumbent, neither of them would charge themselves with the undertaking. A large slab lies upon the ground near that of Colonel Philip, of the same size and material, having a cavity in its upper side, apparently designed for a metal tablet, which is supposed to have been abstracted. There is nothing remaining upon it to indicate its purpose; but it is traditional that it was not designed for Madame Schuyler. The slab is now believed to cover the dust of John Schuyler, Jr., the father of General Schuyler,

room; and when all the family were at rest, she used to accompany her to a small distance from the tomb which contained those remains so dear to her. Madame, in the meantime, entered alone into the hallowed enclosure, and there indulged her unavailing sorrow. This she continued to do for some time, as she thought unobserved; but being very tall, and become large as she advanced in life, her figure, arrayed in her night-clothes, was very conspicuous, and was on different occasions observed by neighbors, who occasionally passed by at night; the consequence was, that it was rumored that an apparition was seen every night near the colonel's grave. This came to the ears of the people of the house, some of whom had the curiosity to watch at a distance, and saw the dreaded form appear, and, as they thought, vanish. This they carefully concealed from their revered patroness. Every one else in the house, however, heard it; and a pensive air of awe and mystery overspread the whole family. Her confidante, however, told her of it; and the consequence of this improper indulgence of sorrow greatly increased the dislike which Madame had always expressed for mystery and concealment. She was unwilling to let a family, to whom she had always set such an example of self-command, know of her indulging a weakness so unsuitable to her character and time of life. At the same time, however, she was resolved not to allow the belief