THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 6 1 



part of the fine army with which General Abercrombie 

 was expected to take Ticonderoga. At the Flats near 

 Albany, Lee's company encamped on the farm of Mrs. 

 Schuyler, aunt of the distinguished general of that 

 name, a noble and benevolent woman, of whom Mrs. 

 Grant of Laggan has left such a charming description, 

 in her " Memoirs of an American Lady." Mrs. Schuy- 

 ler's generosity toward soldiers was well known ; but 

 Lee, who had forgotten to provide himself with the 

 proper certificates for obtaining supplies, and was 

 seizing horses and oxen, blankets and eatables, to 

 right and left, with as little ceremony as if in an 

 enemy's country, did not spare this lady's well-stocked 

 farm ; and when she ventured a few mild words of 

 expostulation, he replied with such a torrent of foul 

 epithet that she had much ado to restrain her ser- 

 vants from assaulting him. A few days later came 

 the murderous battle before Ticonderoga, where Brit- 

 ish and Americans were so terribly defeated by Mont- 

 calm. There Thomas Gage fought side by side with 

 Israel Putnam and John Stark, little dreaming of 

 another bright summer day near Boston, seventeen 

 years to come ; there was slain Lord Howe, eldest of 

 the three famous brothers ; and there in a gallant 

 charge our cynical young captain was shot through 

 the body and carried off from the field. Bruised and 

 battered, and with two ribs broken, he doubtless had 

 breath enough left to growl and snarl over the incom- 

 petency of the general whom, in the next letter to his 

 sister, he calls " beastly poltroon " and " booby-in- 

 chief." On hearing the news, Mrs. Schuyler had her 

 largest barn prepared for a hospital. Thither, with 

 many others, Captain Lee was taken and treated so 



