"SWEETHEART: A tyranous Act, begotten in Envy and Jealousie, keeps
me here a prisoner. Last night I was Basely arrested by Servile
Hands for that Freedom of Thought and Expression for which I have
already Sacrifized so much--aye all that Man hath but Love and
Honour. But the End is Near. When for the Maintenance of Power,
the Liberties of the Peoples are subdued by Martial Supremacy and
the Dictates of Ambition the State is Lost. I lie in Vile Bondage
here in Morristown under charge of Disrespeck--me that a
twelvemonth past left a home and Respectable Connexions to serve my
Country. Believe me still your own Love, albeit in the Power of
Tyrants and condemned it may be to the scaffold.

"The Messenger is Trustworthy and will speed safely to me such as
you may deliver unto him. The Provender sanktified by your Hands
and made precious by yr. Love was wrested from me by Servil Hands
and the Eggs, Sweetheart, were somewhat Addled. The Bacon is,
methinks by this time on the Table of the Comr-in-Chief. Such is
Tyranny and Ambition. Sweetheart, farewell, for the present.

ALLAN."


Mistress Thankful read this composition once, twice, and then tore
it up. Then, reflecting that it was the first letter of her
lover's that she had not kept, she tried to put together again the
torn fragments, but vainly, and then in a pet, new to her, cast
them from the window. During the rest of the day she was
considerably distraite, and even manifested more temper than she