{311}On the night of the Mischianza, while the enemy were enjoying the festivities of the _fete_, Colonel Allen M'Lane, father of one of our ministers to the court of St. James, devised a stratagem to break them up. At ten o'clock he reached the _abatis_ in front of the British works with one hundred and fifty men, in four divisions, supported by Clow's dragoons. They carried camp-kettles filled with combustibles, and at a given signal they fired the whole line of _abatis_. The British beat the long alarm roll, and the assailants were attacked and pursued by the strong guard along the lines. The officers at the _fete_ managed to keep the ladies ignorant of the cause of the tumult without. M'Lane and his associates escaped to the hills of the Wissahicon, and bent their way toward Valley Forge. This was the last time the British felt the annoyance of the patriots while in Philadelphia; for they soon afterward evacuated the city, crossed the Delaware, and marched for New York. We shall overtake them on the plains of Monmouth. Germantown, Whitemarsh, Barren Hill, and Valley Forge, lying within a short distance of Philadelphia, are all intimately connected, in their Revolutionary history, with the city, particularly in relation to its possession and final evacuation by the British in 1777--8. We will proceed to these interesting localities, after considering, for a moment, the patriotism of the _women_ of Philadelphia, which beamed out, clear as Hesperus, at the darkest hour of the struggle for freedom." In the summer of 1780 the distress of the American army was very great, on account of the scarcity of clothing, and the inadequate means possessed by the commissary depart- ** He is represented by some as Sir William Erskine. ** Sir William Howe. *** The wife of a Boston refugee, who was then a commissary of prisoners in Philadelphia, being second only to Cunningham in cruelty, while others speak of him as an honorable man. [[[Patriotism of the Philadelphia Women.--Mrs. Reed and Mrs. Bache.--De Chastellux's Visit to Mrs. Bache.]]] {312}ment to afford a supply. The generous sympathies of the ladies of Philadelphia were aroused, and they formed an association for the purpose of affording relief to the poor soldiers. [Illustration: 9322] Never was the energy of genuine sympathy more nobly exercised than by the patriotic women who joined hands in this holy endeavor. Mrs. Esther Reed, the wife of General Joseph Reed, though feeble in health, and surrounded by family cares, entered with hearty zeal into the service, and was, by the united voice of her associates, placed at the head of the society. * Mrs. Sarah Bache, daughter of Dr. Franklin, was also a conspicuous actor in the formation of the association, and in carrying out its plans. [Illustration: 8322]