LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. "'Take that rebel alive!' ordered Colden." Frontispiece "'Give it to the Colonel.'" 82 "Leaned forward on the horse's neck." 111 "'You are too late, Jack!'" 154 "'Go, I say!'" 196 "'I take my leave of this house!'" 248 CHAPTER I. THE RIDERS. "I dare say 'tis a wild, foolish, dangerous thing; but I do it, nevertheless! As for my reasons, they are the strongest. First, I wish to do it. Second, you've all opposed my doing it. So there's an end of the matter!" It was, of course, a woman that spoke,--moreover, a young one. And she added: "Drat the wind! Can't we ride faster? 'Twill be dark before we reach the manor-house. Get along, Cato!" She was one of three on horseback, who went northward on the Albany post-road late in the afternoon of a gray, chill, blowy day in November, in the war-scourged year 1778. Beside the girl rode a young gentleman, wrapped in a dark cloak. The third horse, which plodded a short distance in the rear, carried a small negro youth and two large portmanteaus. The three riders made a group that was, as far as could be seen from their view-point, alone on the highway. There were reasons why such a group, on that road at that time, was an unusual sight,--reasons familiar to any one who is well informed in the history of the Revolution. Unfortunately, most good Americans are better acquainted with the French Revolution than with our own, know more about the state of affairs in Rome during the reign of Nero than about the condition of things in New York City during the British occupation, and compensate for their knowledge of Scotch-English border warfare in remote times by their ignorance of the border warfare that ravaged the vicinity of the island of Manhattan, for six years, little more than a century ago.