He rejoined that he would not like to bet on that, and then went on to
say that if my aunt had any trouble as to the officers quartered on her,
would she kindly say so. The Hessians were rough people, and an
exchange might be arranged. Gentlemen of his own acquaintance could
be substituted. He himself was in Dr. Franklin’s house. It was full of
books, and good ones too.
I thanked him, but said I fancied she was Whig enough to like the
Hessians better.
On Second street I bought a smock shirt, rough shoes, and coarse knit
stockings, as well as a good snapsack, and, rolling them up securely,
left them at home in the hay-loft. My sword and other finery I must
needs leave behind me. I had no friends to say good-bye to, and quite
late in the evening I merely ran in and kissed my aunt, and received
eight hundred pounds in English notes, her offering to the cause, which
I was to deliver to the general. Her gift to me was one hundred pounds
in gold, just what she gave to my Jack. The larger sum she had put aside
by degrees. It embarrassed me, but to refuse it would have hurt her.
I carefully packed my snapsack, putting the gold in bags at the bottom,
and covering it with the flannel shirts and extra shoes which made up my
outfit. I could not resist taking my pistols, as I knew that to provide
myself as well in camp would not be possible. The bank-bills I concealed
in my long stockings, and would gladly have been without them had I not
seen how greatly this would disappoint my aunt. She counted, and wisely,
on their insuring me a more than favourable reception. Lastly, I got me
a small compass and some tobacco for Jack.
It must be hard for you, in this happier day, when it is easy to get
with speed anywhere on swift and well-horsed coaches, to imagine what
even a small journey of a day or two meant for us. Men who rode carried
horseshoes and nails. Those who drove had in the carriage ropes and a
box of tools for repairs. I was perhaps better off than some who drove
or rode in those days, for afoot one cannot be stalled, nor easily
lose a shoe, although between Philadelphia and Darby I have known it to
happen.
I knew the country I was to travel, and up to a point knew it well;
beyond that I must trust to good fortune. Early in the evening came a
sergeant with the promised order for the boat, and a pass signed by Sir
William Howe’s adjutant. At ten I bade my father good-night and went
upstairs, where I wrote to him, and inclosed the note in one for my
aunt. This I gave to Tom, our coachman, with strict orders to deliver
it late the next day. I had no wish that by any accident it should too
early betray my true purpose. My gun I ostentatiously cleaned in the
late afternoon, and set in the hall.
No one but my aunt had the least suspicion of what I was in act to do.
At last I sat down and carefully considered my plan, and my best and
most rapid way of reaching the army. To go through Germantown and
Chestnut Hill would have been the direct route, for to a surety our
army lay somewhere nigh to Worcester, which was in the county of
Philadelphia, although of late years I believe in Montgomery. To go this
plain road would have taken me through the pickets, and where lay on
guard the chief of the British army. This would, of course, be full of
needless risks. It remained to consider the longer road. This led me
down the river to a point where I must leave it, shoulder my snapsack,
and trudge down the Darby, road, or between it and the river. Somewhere
I must cross the highway and strike across-country as I could to the
Schuylkill River, and there find means to get over at one of the fords.
Once well away from the main road to Darby and Wilmington, I should be,
I thought, safe. After crossing the Schuylkill I hoped to get news which
would guide me. I hardly thought it likely that the English who lay
at Germantown and Mount Airy would picket beyond the banks of the
Wissahickon. I might have to look out for foraging English west of the
Schuylkill, but this I must chance. I was about to leave home, perhaps
forever, but I never in my life went to bed with a more satisfied heart
than I bore that night.