I begged her to persuade Mr. Fonda to go to Albany, and she promised to do so. And when I pointed out in detail how perilous was his situation here, and how desperate her own, she said she knew it, and had been horribly afraid, but that Caughnawaga folk seemed strangely indifferent to the danger,--could not bring themselves to believe in it, perhaps,--and were loath to leave their homes unprotected and their fields untilled. But when I touched on her leaving these foolish people and, as my wife, travelling southward with me to the great fortress on the Hudson, she only wept, saying, in tears, that she was needed by an old and feeble man who had protected her when she was poor and friendless, and that, though she loved me, her duty still lay first at Douw Fonda's side. Quit him she utterly refused to do; and it was in vain I pointed out his three stalwart sons and their numerous families, retainers, tenants, servants, and slaves, who ought to care for the obstinate old gentleman and provide a security for him whether he would or no. But argument was useless; I knew it. And all I obtained of her was that, whether matters north of us mended or grew worse, she would persuade Mr. Fonda to return to Albany until such time as Tryon County became once more safe to live in. This she promised, and even assured me that she had already spoken of the matter to Mr. Fonda, and that the old gentleman appeared to be quite willing to return to Albany as soon as his grain could be reaped and threshed. So with this I had to content my heavy heart. And now, by the tall clock, I perceived that my time was up; for Schenectady lay far away, and Albany father still; and it was like to be a long and dreary journey to West Point, if, indeed, I should find Lord Stirling still there. For at Johnstown fort that morning I was warned that my General Lord Stirling had already rejoined his division in the Jerseys; and that the news was brought by riflemen of Morgan's corps, which was now swiftly marching to join our Northern forces near Saratoga. Well, God's will must obtain on earth; none can thwart it; none foretell---- At the thought I looked down at Penelope, where I held her clasped; and I told her of the vision of Thiohero. She remained very still when she learned what the Little Maid of Askalege had seen there beside me in the cannon-cloud, where the German foresters of Hainau, in their outlandish dress, were shouting and shooting. For Penelope had seen the same white shape; and had been, she said, afeard that it was my own weird she saw,--so white it seemed to her, she said,--so still and shrouded in its misty veil. "Was it I?" she whispered in an awed voice. "Was it truly I that the Oneida virgin saw? And did she know my features in the shroud?" "She saw you all in white and flowers, floating there near me like mist at sunrise." "She told you it was I?"