Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/152

 134 The baroness had set out from Trois Rivières to join her husband at Fort Edward, on the Hudson. The party travelled in two boats, one of which carried the baggage. She writes: “Night overtook us and we saw ourselves obliged to land on an island. The other boat, which was heavier laden and not so well manned, had not been able to keep up with us; so we had neither beds nor light, and, worst of all, nothing to eat; for we had brought no more in our boat than we had expected to use during the day, and found nothing on this island but the four bare walls of a deserted and, indeed, never finished house, full of boughs, on which we made our camp. I covered them with our cloaks and took the cushions from the boat to help us out, so that we slept very well.

“I could not persuade Captain Willoe to come into the hut with us, and saw that he was very uneasy, which I could not understand. Meanwhile, I noticed a soldier who was setting a pot on the fire. I asked him what he had in it. ‘Potatoes, which I brought with me.’ I looked wistfully at him; he had so few that I thought it cruel to rob him of them, particularly as he looked so happy over them. At last the desire to give my children some conquered my modesty, so I asked and got half, which may have been, at most, a dozen. Thereupon he pulled two or three candle-ends out of his pocket, which made me very happy, because the children were afraid to stay in the dark. I gave him a big thaler for it all, which made him as happy as I was. Meanwhile, I heard Captain Willoe give orders to make fires around the building and to keep guard all night about it. I also heard them making