Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/215

 Rh handed to his wife, who ate a little of it and gave it back to him. Seeing the baroness staring at them, they passed the stump to her, and she felt obliged to pretend to take a few bites, and then threw it into the fire. Peace was now entirely made, and Baroness Riedesel obtained some potatoes, and made a pot of soup.

This was not the only occasion on which food was refused or lodging begrudged to the baroness and her children. The people with whom she lodged were generally ardent revolutionists. On one occasion she spent the night at the house of a Colonel Howe, whom she thought to compliment by asking him if he were related to the British general of that name. “God forbid!” answered the colonel, “he is not worthy of me.” “This same colonel had a pretty daughter, fourteen years old, but of a bad disposition,” says Frau von Riedesel. “I was sitting with her before a bright, open fire; she looked at the coals, and cried out ‘Oh, if I only had the King of England here! With what pleasure I would cut open his body, tear out his heart, cut it in pieces, lay it on these coals, and then eat it.’ I looked at her with abhorrence, and said to her: ‘I am almost ashamed to be of the same sex with one who could have such a desire.’ ” In the middle of January, 1779, the Germans reached Charlottesville, in Virginia. Here they found no barracks ready for them, and were obliged to build for themselves. Soon a village was raised, and here, and in various other parts of Virginia, the remainder of their captivity was passed. For many of them this lasted until the end of the war. The soldiers made