ble place. At last they spoke of surrender, for they
had delayed too long, and our retreat was cut off. A
truce was made, and my husband, who was quite worn
out, could come into the house, and go to bed again,
for the first time in a long while. Not to disturb his
sleep, I had had a good bed made for him in a little
room, and I lay down to sleep with my children and
my two women in a hall near by. But about one
o'clock in the night somebody came and wanted to
speak to him. Greatly against my will, I was obliged
to wake him up. I noticed that the message was not
pleasant to him; that he immediately sent off the man
to headquarters, and then lay sullenly down again.
Presently afterwards, General Burgoyne had all the
other generals and staff officers called to a council of
war, to be held early in the morning. In this council
he proposed, on the strength of false news which he
had received, to break the capitulation which had
already been made with the enemy. It was at last
decided, however, that this was neither feasible nor
advisable; and this was lucky for us, for the Americans
told us later that if we had broken the capitulation
we should all have been massacred, which they could
easily have done, as we were not over four or five
thousand strong, and had given them time to bring
together more than twenty thousand men.
“On the morning of the 16th of October my husband had to go to his post again, and I into my cellar.
“On this day the officers, who had hitherto received only salt meat, which was very bad for the wounds of those who were hurt, had a great deal of fresh meat divided among them. The good woman who had al-