there be? I married a good man and true, a faithful friend, and it needs no divorce to sever me from a traitor and a coward. If you take your amnesty you lose your wife, and I — I lose my husband and my home!”
With the last words her voice broke into a pathetic fall, and a mist gathered before her eyes. The men were deeply moved; the words of Mrs. Arnett had touched every soul. Gradually the drooping heads were raised, and eyes grew bright with manliness and resolution. Before they left the house that night they had sworn a solemn oath to stand by the cause they had adopted, and the land of their birth through good or evil, and to spurn as deadliest insult the proffered amnesty of their tyrannical foe.
Some of the men who met in this secret council afterward fought nobly, and died upon the field of battle for their country. Others lived to rejoice when the day of triumph came; but the name of this wonan was found upon no heroic roll, nor is it on the page of any history that men have since written, although she made heroes of cowards, and helped to stay the wave of desolation which, in the dark days of ’76, threatened to overwhelm the land.
At one time some British officers quartered themselves at the house of Mrs. Dissosway, situated ai the western end of Staten Island, opposite Amboy. Her husband was a prisoner; but her brother, Captain Nat. Randolph, was in the American army, and gave much annoyance to the tories by his frequent incursions. A tory colonel promised Mrs, Dissosway to procure the release of her husband on condition of her prevailing on her brother to stay quietly at home. “And if I could,’ she replied, with a look of scorn, drawing up her tall figure to its utmost height, “if I could act so dastardly a part, think you General Washington has but one re, Captain Randolph in his army?"
At a period when American prospects were most clouded, and New Jersey overrun by the British, an officer stationed at Bordentown (said to be Lord Cornwallis) endeavored to intimidate Mrs. Borden into using her influence over her husband and son, who were absent in the American army. The officer promised her that if she would induce them to quit the standard they followed and join the royalists, her property should be protected; while in case of refusal, her estate would be ravaged and her elegant mansion destroyed. Mrs. Borden answered, “ Begin your threatened havoc then ; the sight of my house in flames would be a treat tome; for I have seen enough to know that you never injure what you have power to keep and enjoy. The application of a torch to my
