The pastor spoke: “I would that the Pilgrim, John Robinson, were here to-day!”
[Madam Faith] removed the cloak and laid it over her arm. She bent her face on the floor, and slowly walked toward the rail that guarded the sacred things of the simple altar.
The pastor lifted his hands.
“Pray ye all for the principle of the right, for the cause of the soldier of liberty.”
She [laid the scarlet cloak] on the altar, and turned to the people and lifted her eyes to God.
[Madam Faith Trumbull contributing her scarlet cloak to the soldiers of the Revolution.]
She looked like a divinity as she stood forth there that day, like a spirit that had come forth from the Mayflower.
That Thanksgiving was long remembered in Lebanon. That cloak was turned into stripes on soldiers’ uniforms and made history, and some of the uniforms bearing them are yet to be seen.
To Dennis and Peter was entrusted the sending of the new uniforms with the red stripes to the army gathering around Yorktown. The faithful Irishman and the lad rode away from the alarm-post in the cedars amid the cheers of the people. What news would they bring back when they should return?