whom it was her pride and happiness to be united by ties so tender, so endearing, and so blessed!

Thus, then, though surrounded by discomfort, subjected to trials, sorrows, and sufferings, called to witness and to partake apprehensions, cares, and responsibilities, in their results at once the most engrossing and the most important, it was to those portions of her existence which were passed in the Camp of the heroic Army of the Revolution, that Mrs. Washington could, in after years, revert, as having afforded some of the happiest hours of her life!-hours of enjoyment so pure, so exalted, so spiritual, that there was

less of earth in them than Heaven !"

CHAPTER VII.

The field of freedom, faction, fame, and blood :
Here a proud people's passions were exhaled,
From the first hour of empire in the bud.

BYRON.

If the consciousness of perpetual endeavor to advance our race be not alone happier than the life of ease, let us see what this vaunted ease really is. Tell me, is it not another name for ennui ? This state of quiescence, this objectless, dreamless torpor, this transition du lit a la table, de la table au lit; what more dreary and monotonous existence can you devise? Is it pleasure in this inglorious existence to think that you are serving pleasure? Is it freedom to be the slave of self?

PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE.

We resume our somewhat interrupted narrative of the events of MRS. WASHINGTON'S life, with that of her return to Mount Vernon, in the Spring of 1777, after her first thorough initiation into the hardships, privations, and sufferings of the American Camp, during the winter passed by her in the log hut that constituted her abode at Morristown.

This interval of leisure for home duties and avocations, was, much of it, passed, like that of the previous season, in arrangements for the well

being of the relatives and domestics dependent upon her care and guidance.

We gather from the private Correspondence of Washington, that he maintained, throughout his protracted absence from home, the general supervision and direction of affairs relative to his plantation; but it will readily be supposed that the skill and judgment displayed by this eminentlypractical woman, when she was but little more than twenty years of age, in the exclusive management of a large landed estate, were now of most essential service in promoting the proper management of all out-of-door matters, as well as of those of a merely household character. The gloomy aspect of public affairs rendered the prospect of her husband's ability to resume the personal care of his private affairs more and more remote and uncertain, and Mrs. Washington was, consequently, impressed with the necessity of so regulating her family arrangements as to supply, in a degree, at least, the place of their absent master to those employed in his service, or dependent upon his bounty.

When winter approached, this heroic and devoted wife was prepared again to return to the companionship of her husband, and to re-assume

the interesting and benevolent offices she had appropriated to herself.

This was, as our readers will remember, the terrible winter of 1777-78, which witnessed the frightful sufferings of our Army at Valley Forge, where, "while the foe were luxuriating in the comfortable quarters of a populous and luxurious. city, the Americans were sheltered in huts of their own fabrication, and frequently suffering the extremity of want."*

The following brief passage from one of Mrs. Washington's letters, written at this time, contains a passing description of her camp accommodations:-"The General's apartment is very small; he has had a log cabin built to dine in, which has made our quarters more tolerable than they were at first."

Thus, then, did this high-souled and self-sacrificing woman voluntarily exchange the ease, the comfort, and the security of her home, for incon

* VALLEY FORGE is six miles above Norristown, in Pennsyl vania, on the west side of the Schuylkill river, and about twenty miles from Philadelphia. It is a deep, rugged hollow, at the mouth of Valley Creek, from which, and from an ancient forge once established there, it takes its name. On the mountain sides of this wild spot, Washington fixed the camp of the American Army during the winter of 1777-78.

venience, privation, and danger, that she might the better sympathize with, and minister to her husband; who, oppressed by conflicting duties, difficulties, and trials, and, at the same time, a mark for the shafts of public animadversion and private intrigue, could turn trustingly to the faithful and tender friend who was ever ready to share his cares, his anxieties, and his toils.

True to the faith and fortitude of a Christian, side by side with her heroic husband, did she stem alike the tide of popular discontent and the tumultuous commotion more immediately surrounding her in the Camp. Unappalled by the disaffection, persecution, mortality, and despair by which she was environed, she was content to endure all, brave all, save separation from the cherished objects of her warmest affections.

Calm, cheerful, hopeful, her presence and her example shed light and blessing even upon the deepest gloom and the most fearful horrors!

The last ensanguined record of this ever-memorable winter was at length traced upon the Page of Time!

Well has it been said, that, in the moral, as in the physical world, the darkest hour precedes that of dawning light. The calumnies by which the