Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/204

 184 I should be indeed wrong to be anxious any longer, when our chief was not so, and when I saw him on such good terms with General Gates.”

Schuyler had dinner served to Frau von Riedesel and her children in his own tent (“smoked tongue, beefsteaks, potatoes, good bread-and-butter”), and she spent three days with his family at Albany, treated with the greatest kindness. Burgoyne, also, was Schuyler's guest at Albany. He apologized to the latter for burning his house and barns at Saratoga. “It is the fortune of war,” answered Schuyler; “say no more about it.” The prisoners, or “conventionists,” as they called themselves, now set out on their march across Massachusetts. The weather was cold, and the roads bad. The march lasted from the 17th of October to the 7th of November. In some places the inhabitants refused to take the prisoners into their houses, and in other places, where it was necessary to halt, there were not houses enough to hold them. The inhabitants, on their side, complained that the passing prisoners burned their fences, destroyed their fodder, and stole clothes and furniture from their houses. From all sides the country people flocked to see the prisoners, and pressed into the houses where they were quartered, until the officers began to think that their landlords took money for the show.

In this way the Germans saw a great many of the women of the country, and the same officer who gave