CHAPTER XXX.

MARGARET MONCRIEFFE ON STATEN ISLAND.

HE breaking out of the Revolutionary war found a number of British officers domesticated among the colonists, and connected with them by marriage. In New York and the other garrisoned towns, officers of the army led society, as military men still do in every garrisoned town in the world. When hostilities began, and every man was ordered to his post, some of these officers left their families residing among the people; and it happened, in a few instances, that the events of war carried a father far away from his wife and children, never to rejoin them. The future Scott of America will know how to make all this very familiar to the American people by the romantic and pathetic fictions which it will suggest to him.

Margaret Moncrieffe, a girl of fourteen; but a woman in development, witty, vivacious, piquant and beautiful, who prior to the war had lived in New York city, and had become well known to the oldfashioned people of Staten Island, through her frequent visits here, had been left at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, by her father, Captain James Moncrieffe, who afterward became a Lieutenant-Colonel of Engineers in the British army. They were related to Governor Livingston, of New Jersey, and during her sojourn in Elizabeth, she made her home in Liberty Hall, the noted home of the Livingstons.

Captain Moncrieffe was cut off from all communication with his daughter. Destitute of resources, and anxious to rejoin her father, she wrote to General Putnam for his advice and assistance. General Putnam received her letter in New York about the time that Major Aaron Burr joined him, and his reply was prepared for his signature by the hand of his new aide-de-camp. The good old general declared in this letter that he was her father's enemy, indeed, as an officer; but as a man, his friend, and ready to do any good office for him or his. He invited her to come and reside in his family, (his headquarters being in the old Washington Hotel, No. 1, Broadway), until arrangements could be made for sending her to Staten Island. She consented, an

1 There was a Captain Moncrieffe in the Queen's Rangers, who has often been mentioned as the father of Margaret; but this is an error. This Captain Moncrieffe was still serving in that regiment at the close of the war with the same rank, while the other was promoted to Lieutenant-colonel of Engineers some

time before that, and served with General Percy. Judging from the fact that both, bearing the same name and rank, at the commencement of the war, and having resided in New York, we conclude that they were possibly relatives.

officer was sent to Elizabeth to conduct her to the city, and she was at once established in General Putnam's house. There she met and became intimate with Major Burr.

What followed from this intimacy has been stated variously by those who have written of it. The proper thing to do, all writers seemed to think, at a later period, was to strive to blacken the character of Aaron Burr; and so, Mr. Davis, Burr's supposed friend and biographer, played traitor to the memory of the man who had been true to him in sunshine and storm, when the grave had closed over his mortal remains and there was no opportunity of defence, and he joined the popular clamor and attributed Margaret Moncrieffe's subsequent career of sorrow and shame to Aaron Burr.

In support of this accusation, Mr. Davis quotes from Margaret Moncrieffe's autobiography, published after she had been the mistress of half a dozen of the notables of London, certain passages which, taken by themselves, do cer

tainly corroborate the charge. Great, indeed, was our astonishment on referring to the work itself (Memoirs of Mrs. Coghlan, 1783), to find that her narrative, read in connection, not only affords no support to Mr. Davis's insinuations, but explicitly, and twice, contradicts them. As a reply to Mr. Davis's garbled extracts, here follows the entire passage relating to her connection with the American army. It is known and conceded that the young officer whom she extols in such passionate language was Major Aaron Burr. Thus writes Mrs. Coghlan, nee Moncrieffe:

PERRINE HOMESTEAD, GARRETSONS, ERECTED ABOUT 1668.

"When I arrived in Broadway (a street so called), where General Putnam resided, I was received with great tenderness, both by Mrs. Putnam and her daughters, and on the following day I was introduced by them to General and Mrs. Washington, who likewise made it their study to show me every mark of regard; but I was seldom allowed to be alone, although some times, indeed, I found an opportunity to escape to the gallery on top of the house, where my chief delight was to view, with a telescope, our fleet and our army on Staten Island. My amusements were few; the good Mrs. Putnam employed me and her daughters constantly to spin flax for shirts for the American soldiers; indolence, in America, being totally discouraged; and I likewise worked for General Putnam, who, though not an accomplished mus cadin, like our dilletantes of St. James's-street, was certainly one of

the best characters in the world; his heart being composed of those noble materials which equally command respect and admiration.

"One day, after dinner, the Congress was the toast; General Washington viewed me very attentively, and sarcastically said, 'Miss Moncrieffe, you don't drink your wine.' Embarrassed by this reproof, I knew not how to act; at last, as if by a secret impulse, I addressed myself to the American Commander,' and taking the wine, I said, ' General Howe is the toast.' Vexed at my temerity, the whole company, especially General Washington, censured me; when my good friend, General Putnam, as usual, apologized, and assured them I did not mean to offend. Besides,' replied he, everything said or done by such a child ought rather to amuse than affront you.' General Washington, piqued at this observation, then said, 'Well, miss, I will overlook your indiscretion, on condition that you will drink my health, or General Putnam's, the first time you dine at Sir William Howe's table, on the other side of the water.'

"These words conveyed to me a flattering hope that I should once more see my father, and I promised General Washington to do any thing which he desired, provided he would permit me to return to him.

"Not long after this circumstance, a flag of truce arrived from Staten Island, with letters from Major Moncrieffe, demanding me, for they now considered me as a prisoner. General Washington would not acquiesce in this demand, saying that I should remain a hostage for my father's good behavior.' I must here observe, that when General Washington refused to deliver me up, the noble-minded Putnam, as if it were by instinct, laid his hand upon his sword, and, with a violent oath, swore that my father's request should be granted.' The Commander-in-chief, whose influence governed the Congress, soon prevailed on them to consider me as a person whose situation required their strict attention; and, that I might not escape, they ordered me to Kingsbridge, where, in justice, I must say, that I was treated with the utmost tenderness. General Mifflin there commanded. His lady was a most accomplished, beautiful woman, a Quaker. And here my heart received its first impression-an impression that, amid the subsequent shocks which it has received, has never been effaced, and which rendered me very unfit to admit the embraces of an unfeeling, brutish husband.

"O, may these pages one day meet the eye of him who subdued my virgin heart, whom the immutable, unerring laws of nature had pointed out for my husband, but whose sacred decree the barbarous customs of society fatally violated. To him I plighted my virgin vow, and I shall never cease to lament that obedience to a father left it incomplete. When I reflect on my past sufferings, now that, alas! my present sorrows press heavily upon me, I cannot refrain from expatiating a little on the inevitable horrors which ever attend the frustration of

natural affections: I myself, who, unpitied by the world, have endured every calamity that human nature knows, am a melancholy example of this truth; for if I know my own heart, it is far better calculated for the purer joys of domestic life, than for the hurricane of extravagance and dissipation in which I have been wrecked.

"Why is the will of nature so often perverted? Why is social happiness for ever sacrificed at the altar of prejudice? Avarice has usurped the throne of reason, and the affections of the heart are not consulted. We cannot command our desires, and when the object of our being is unattained, misery must necessarily be our doom. Let this truth, therefore, be for ever remembered: when once an affection has rooted itself in a tender, constant heart, no time, no circumstance can eradicate it. Unfortunate, then, are they who are joined, if their hearts are not matched!

"With this conqueror of my soul, how happy should I now have been! What storms and tempests should I have avoided, (at least I am pleased to think so), if I had been allowed to follow the bent of my inclinations! and happier, O, ten thousand times happier should I have been with him in the wildest desert of our native country, the woods affording us our only shelter, and their fruits our only repast, than under the canopy of costly state, with all the refinements and embellishments of courts, with the royal warrior who would fain have proved himself the conqueror of France.

"My conqueror was engaged in another cause; he was ambitious to obtain other laurels: he fought to liberate, not to enslave nations. He was a colonel in the American army, and high in the estimation of his country; his victories were never accompanied with one gloomy, relentless thought; they shone as bright as the cause which achieved them! I had communicated by letter to General Putnam the proposals of this gentleman, with my determination to accept them, and I was embarrassed by the answer which the general returned; he entreated me to remember that the person in question, from his political principles, was extremely obnoxious to my father, and concluded by observing, that I surely must not unite with a man who would not hesitate to drench his sword in the blood of my nearest relation, should he be opposed to him in battle.' Saying this, he lamented the necessity of giving advice contrary to his own sentiments, since in every other respect he considered the match as unexceptionable. Nevertheless, General Putnam, after this discovery, appeared, in all his visits to Kingsbridge, extremely reserved; nor did he ever cease to make me the object of his concern to Congress; and, after various applications, he succeeded in obtaining leave for my departure; when, in order that I should go to Staten Island with the respect due to

2 This is a mistake, caused by the common habit, even at this day, of speaking of a lieutenant-colonel as colonel. Although Aaron Burr

acted as brigadier-general in the Continental army for some time, his highest actual rank was that of lieutenant-colonel.

my sex and family, the barge belonging to the Continental Congress was ordered, with twelve oars, and a general officer, together with his suite, was dispatched to see me safe across the bay of New York. The day was so very tempestuous, that I was half drowned with the waves dashing against me. When we came within hail of the Eagle man-of-war, which was Lord Howe's ship, a flag of truce was sent to meet us; the officer despatched on this occasion was Lieutenant Brown. General Knox told him that he had orders to see me safe at headquarters. Lieutenant Brown replied, 'It was impossible, as no person from the enemy could approach nearer the English fleet'; but added, that if I would place myself under his protection, he certainly would attend we thither.' I then entered the barge, and bidding an eternal farewell to my dear American friends, turned MY

BACK ON LIBERTY.

"We first rowed alongside the Eagle, and Mr. Brown afterward conveyed me to headquarters. When my name was announced, the British commander-in-chief sent Colonel Sheriff (lately made a general, and who, during my father's life-time, was one of his most particular friends; although, alas! the endearing sentiment of friendship now seems extinct in his breast, as far as the unhappy daughter is concerned), with an invitation from Sir William Howe to dinner, which was necessarily accepted. When introduced, I cannot describe the emotion I felt; so sudden the transition in a few hours, that I was ready to sink into earth! Judge the distress of a girl not fourteen, obliged to encounter the curious, inquisitive eyes of at least forty or fifty people who were at dinner with the general. Fatigued with their fastidious compliments, I could only hear the buzz among them, saying, 'She is a sweet girl, she is divinely handsome'; although it was some relief to be placed at table next to the wife of Major Montresor, who had known me from my infancy. Owing to this circumstance, I recovered a degree of confidence; but being unfortunately asked, agreeable to military etiquette, for a toast, I gave, 'General Putnam.' Colonel Sheriff said, in a low voice, You must not give him here'; when Sir William complaisantly replied, 'O! by all means; if he be the lady's sweetheart, I can have no objection to drink his health.' This involved me in a new dilemma; I wished myself a thousand miles distant, and, to divert the attention of the company. I gave to the general a letter which I had been commissioned to deliver from General Putnam, of which the following is a copy (and here I consider myself bound to apologise for the bad spelling of my most excellent republican friend. The bad orthography was amply compensated by the magnanimity of the man who wrote it):

3 Major Aaron Burr was a member of General Knox's suite on this occasion, and represented General Putnam, who intended that his

aide should accompany the young lady to General Howe's headquarters at New Dorp.