A New York paper, published about seventy years ago, tells the history of some of these old letters, as follows:[14] "In one of the thirty apartments of the old colonial home of the Bland family, 'Cawsons,' a large party were assembled at dinner with the master of the house, a bachelor, and not a member of the Bland family, when a servant entered and informed him that the house was on fire! [14] "Bland Papers," edited by Charles Campbell. "He received the information with great coolness and composure, ordered that the fire should be extinguished, and requested his guests not to disturb themselves, that 'the servants would attend to it.' "For a time the wine continued to circulate, and it appears that the fire did also, for with less ceremony than their host it soon drove the party out of doors. In the confusion books and papers were thrust into boxes and barrels, or into anything that presented itself, and carried off into a neighboring barn. "The person who owned the place at the time of the fire has been dead many years, and the accidental discovery, very recently, of the papers was made in the following manner. A gentleman who had lived on an adjoining farm was called upon one morning by a poor negro who requested him to purchase a basket of eggs. The basket was lined with manuscripts which proved upon closer inspection to be original letters of importance from General Washington, the Marquis La Fayette and others, addressed to Colonel Theodoric Bland, and written during the Revolution." There was one letter, alas! written to the wife of a Virginia officer whom we should be loth to judge by her friends. It throws a sinister light upon one phase of the social life in the time of Mary Washington, and shows us women who could trifle, dress, dance, and flirt with the enemies of their country in the darkest hour of their country's peril, fiddling when Rome was burning. [Illustration: Sir William Howe.] Sir William Howe entered Philadelphia in the autumn of 1777, and found "many to welcome him."[15] Philadelphia was a charming old town with substantial colonial mansions surrounded by grounds of great beauty. September roses were blooming in those old-fashioned yards and gardens, and the gracious young beauties were quite willing to gather them for the British officers. The officers, when winter set in, were glad to give them all back in ball and concert, play and assembly. It was a light-hearted, happy time! Why should they not enjoy it? Why, indeed! Nobody would bleed the more freely or starve or freeze to death the sooner! [15] Irving's "Life of Washington."