"The scruples of a Christian have determined me to expose my own life to any extent rather than subject myself to the guilt of taking the life of another. This much increases my hazards, and redoubles my pangs for you.... "If it had been possible for me to have avoided the interview, my love for you and my precious children would have been alone a decisive motive. But it was not possible, without sacrifices which would have rendered me unworthy of your esteem." Mrs. Hamilton remained at The Grange as long as possible, directing the men in the care of the estate and caring for her children. But she could not afford to keep a carriage, and the inaccessibleness of the estate and the drain it made on her limited purse soon made it necessary for her to rent a house in the city. Though friends proposed the raising of a fund that would care for Mrs. Hamilton and the children, it does not seem that there was any relief until 1816, when Congress gave to Mrs. Hamilton back pay amounting to ten thousand dollars. After The Grange was sold to pay debts, its career was checkered. Some years ago it was moved to the east side of Convent Avenue, and it then became the schoolhouse of St. Luke's Episcopal Church. [Illustration: VAN CORTLANDT HOUSE, NEW YORK CITY _Photo by Ph. B. Wallace_ See page 104] XXII THE VAN CORTLANDT HOUSE, NEW YORK CITY AT THE EDGE OF THE MANHATTAN "NEUTRAL GROUND" In 1699 Jacobus Van Cortlandt bought the first fifty acres of the ground now included in Van Cortlandt Park, New York City, and for one hundred and ninety years the property remained in the Van Cortlandt family. Until fifty-three years before the first of the Van Cortlandts acquired it, the Indians were the undisputed possessors of the plot. Adriaen Van der Donck, the first settler to acquire title, lived until his death in the _bouwerie_ or farmhouse, which he built on the shore of a brook. When Jacobus Van Cortlandt built his _bouwerie_ by the side of the same brook, he dammed the water to make a mill-pond, which is to-day the beautiful Van Cortlandt lake. There he built a grist mill which remained in use until 1889. Early visitors to the lake delighted to study the ancient structure to which, during the Revolution, both British and patriot soldiers resorted with their grain. The mill was struck by lightning and destroyed in 1901. The third house on the estate was built in 1748 by Frederick the son of Jacobus, who acquired by the will of his father the "farm, situate, lying, and being in a place commonly called and known by the name of Little or Lower Yonkers." This house, which was modelled after the Philipse Manor House at Yonkers, is still in a fine state of preservation. Since 1897, it has been used as a public museum, in charge of the Colonial Dames of the State of New York.