Life of Count Ritmford. 91 



young husband and father's yearnings struggle in it with 

 the alternate expression of a deep and harrowing sense 

 of unjust treatment and unmerited obloquy. One can 

 hardly suppress the wish that the good old minister 

 might have survived to know the philanthropic labors 

 and the peaceful honors of his son-in-law. It is to be 

 feared, however, that he to whom Thompson owed so 

 much, and for whom he dropped a tear and yielded to 

 deep emotion when speaking confidentially to Pictet 

 about his obligations, went to his honored grave with- 



O 3 O 



out any further word from his son-in-law, though he 

 probably had tidings of him. 



Thompson was preparing to do effective service in 

 the British army in this country at the very time when 

 the aged minister sunk peacefully to rest in his parson- 

 age at Concord, September 2, 1782. 



From the facts and documents which have been thus 

 presented at length, a reader who cares to make a moral 

 estimate of the course pursued up to this stage by 

 Major Thompson, and of his subsequent action, must 

 form his judgment. Candor will make an allowance 

 on the score of his youth and the influence of the cir- 

 cumstances amid which he was compelled to reach a 

 decision. It is remarkable that his two most intimate 

 friends in later life have given us, seemingly as deduc- 

 tions from his own confidential statements, reasons for 

 inferring that his heart was from the first on the side 

 of the royalist party. The following is a translation 

 from the narrative of Pictet, in continuation of that 

 already given : 



" At the commencement of the troubles in America which 

 preceded and brought about the war of Independence, Thomp- 



