Washington’s secretary, Mr. Reed, had, after the close of the conference, signified to him his intention to return to Philadelphia, where his private concerns required his presence. His departure was deeply regretted. His fluent pen had been of great assistance to Washington in the despatch of his multifarious correspondence, and his judicious counsels and cordial sympathies had been still more appreciated by the commander-in-chief, amid the multiplied difficulties of his situation. On the departure of Mr. Reed, his place as secretary was temporarily supplied by Mr. Robert Harrison of Maryland, and subsequently by Colonel Mifflin; neither, however, attained to the affectionate confidence reposed in their predecessor. We shall have occasion to quote the correspondence kept up between Washington and Reed, during the absence of the latter. The letters of the former are peculiarly interesting, as giving views of what was passing, not merely around him, but in the recesses of his own heart. No greater proof need be given of the rectitude of that heart, than the clearness and fulness with which, in these truthful documents, every thought and feeling is laid open. CHAPTER VII. MEASURES OF GENERAL HOWE—DESECRATION OF CHURCHES—THREE PROCLAMATIONS—SEIZURE OF TORIES—WANT OF ARTILLERY—HENRY KNOX, THE ARTILLERIST—HIS MISSION TO TICONDEROGA—RE-ENLISTMENT OF TROOPS—LACK OF PUBLIC SPIRIT—COMMENTS OF GENERAL GREENE. The measures which General Howe had adopted after taking command in Boston, rejoiced the royalists, seeming to justify their anticipations. He proceeded to strengthen the works on Bunker’s Hill and Boston Neck, and to clear away houses and throw up redoubts on eminences within the town. The patriot inhabitants were shocked by the desecration of the Old South Church, which for more than a hundred years had been a favorite place of worship, where some of the most eminent divines had officiated. The pulpit and pews were now removed, the floor was covered with earth, and the sacred edifice was converted into a riding-school for Burgoyne’s light dragoons. To excuse its desecration, it was spoken of scoffingly as a “meeting-house, where sedition had often been preached.” The North Church, another “meeting-house,” was entirely demolished and used for fuel. “Thus,” says a chronicler of the day, “thus are our houses devoted to religious worship, profaned and destroyed by the subjects of his royal majesty.”[24]