136 WINTER SKETCHES. 



drew." It would not have been to their dis- 

 credit if the truth had been told that they ran 

 away, although it was to the discredit of 

 somebody that valuable property like this was 

 so totally unprotected. 



The British entered the town on the night of 

 April 26, and immediately burned one house 

 with four persons in it, and on the next day 

 set the whole town on fire. They destroyed 

 about 5,000 barrels of salted provisions, 1,000 

 barrels of flour, 1,600 tents, and a quantity of 

 rum, wine, rice, etc. Besides these the esti- 

 mated private losses were over $80,000. 



The American and British accounts of this 

 conflagration differ only in the use of adverbs. 

 The American report says :" The town was 

 wantonly burned." The British report says : 

 ** The town was unavoidably burned." Thus 

 we see on what slender threads hangs the 

 truth of all history. For the credit of human- 

 ity it may be said in corroboration of Gov. 

 Tryon's story, that on their march through 

 Bethel, where there were no munitions of war, 

 private property was unmolested. 



In Danbury almost the only buildings 

 spared were the Episcopal church and the tav- 

 ern. The former owed its safety to the regard 



