Chapter 20

"Come, let a proper text be read,
An' touch it aff wi' vigour,
How graceless Ham leugh at his dad,
Which made Canaan a nigger."

BURNS.

Ten days after the departure of the ----th, Herman Mordaunt and his
family, with our own party, left Albany, on the summer's business. In that
interval, however, great changes had taken place in the military aspect of
things. Several regiments of King's troops ascended the Hudson, most of the
sloops on the river, of which there could not have been fewer than thirty
or forty, having been employed in transporting them and their stores. Two
or three corps came across the country, from the eastern colonies,
while several provincial regiments appeared; everything tending to a
concentration at this point, the head of navigation on the Hudson. Among
other men of mark, who accompanied the troops, was Lord Viscount Howe, the
nobleman of whom Herman Mordaunt had spoken. He bore the local rank of
Brigadier, [32] and seemed to be the very soul of the army. It was not his
personal consideration alone, that placed him so high in the estimation
of the public and of the troops, but his professional reputation, and
professional services. There were many young men of rank in the army
present; and, as for younger sons of peers, there were enough to make
honourables almost as plenty, at Albany, as they were at Boston. Most of
the colonial families of mark had sons in the service, too; those of the
middle and southern colonies bearing commissions in regular regiments,
while the provincial troops from the eastern were led, as was very usual,
in that quarter of the country, by men of the class of yeomen, in a great
degree; the habits of equality that prevailed in those provinces making few
distinctions, on the score of birth or fortune.

Yet it was said, I remember, that obedience was as marked, among the
provincials from Massachusetts and Connecticut, as among those that came
from farther south; the men deferring to authority, as the agent of the
laws. They were fine troops, too; better than our own colony regiments, I
must acknowledge; seeming to belong to a higher class of labourers; while,
it must be admitted, that most of their officers were no very brilliant
representatives of manners, acquirements, or habits, that would be likely
to qualify them for command. It must have been that the officers and men
suited each other; for, it was said all round, that they stood well, and
fought very bravely, whenever they were particularly well led, as did not
always happen to be the case. As a body of mere physical men, they were
universally allowed to be the finest corps in the army, regulars and all
included.

I saw Lord Howe two or three times, particularly at the