Even with a whirlwind's rush."
James G. Percival.
Around me were strewn mementoes of the Revolution. My feet pressed the russet turf upon the ramparts of a ruined fort. Eastward, behind which were glowing the splendors of approaching day, stretched a range of broken hills, on whose every pinnacle the vigilant patriots planted batteries and built watch-fires. At their feet, upon a fertile terrace almost a mile in breadth, was the "Beverly House," from which Arnold escaped to the Vulture; old Phillipstown, around which a portion of the Revolutionary army was cantoned in 1781, * and intermediate localities, all rich with local traditions and historic associations. On the left, over Constitution Island, arose the smoke of the furnaces and forges at Cold Spring, a thriving village at the river terminus of a mountain furrow that slopes down from the eastern hills. A little beyond, and beneath the frowning crags of Mount Taurus, ** appeared "Under Cliff," the country seat of George P. Morris, Esq., lying like a pearl by the side of a sleeping giant, and just visible in the fading shadows of the mountains. Nowhere in our broad land is there a more romantic nook, or more appropriate spot for the residence of an American song-writer than this,
"Where Hudson's waves o'er silvery sands
Winds through the hills afar,
And Cro' Nest like a monarch stands
Crown'd with a single star."
Morris.
Hark! the sunrise gun on the plain below hath spoken! How eagerly its loud voice is caught up by echo and carried from hill to hill! The Sugar Loaf answers to Redoubt Mountain, and Anthony's Nose to Bear Mountain and the Dunderberg, and then there is only a soft whisper floating away over the waters of the Haverstraw. The reveille is beating; the shrill notes of the fife, and the stirring music of the cornet-players, come up and fill the soul with a martial spirit consonant with the place and its memories. Here, then, let us sit down upon the lip of this rock-fountain, within the ruins of the fort, and commune a while with the old chronicler.
The importance of fortifying the Hudson River at its narrow passes among the High-