but I will not myself break those orders." He then showed Lee General Washing- ton's letter of instructions, upon which his visitor made some-comrQent to the effect that being upon the ground he would feel at liberty to act according to his own judgment in the matter. He attempted then to give the order through Heath's adjutant, but the latter was sternly forbidden by his chief to have any part in the affair. "Sir," said he to Lee, "if you come to this post and mean to issue orders here which will break the positive ones I have received, I pray you to do it yourself and through your own deputy Adjutant-Gen- eral, who is present, and not draw me or any of my family in as partners in the guilt." Digitized by Microsoft® 3i6 The Hudson River To appreciate this scene one must picttxre the con- testants. Heath, bald and very corpulent, but sol- dierly and alert; "a man one could not see without loving," was said of him; Lee, on the other hand, not unpleasing as to feature or figure, but slovenly in his dress and consumed with a sense of his own importance. George Clinton, General and Governor of New York, was present. Heath resolutely demanded and received from Lee a certificate that he had assumed command of the post. Then, when the comedy was all played, and his wayward will satisfied, the usurper of authority changed his mind and recalled the regiments he had ordered out. "The erratic Lee," as some one has called him, crossed the Hudson with his army on the 2nd and 3rd of December, to the great relief of the commander of the post. When the French allies, under Rochambeau, mal"ched north after the winter of 1782, they were received by their American brothers-in-arms at Verplanck's Point and conducted to their encampment south of Peeks- kill. Seeing the steadiness and discipline of the lines extending from the ferry to headquarters, the French commander exclaimed in admiration: "You have formed an alliance with the King of Prussia! These troops are Prussians ! ' ' The house at which Washington stopped at one time during the war, and where not a few of the Digitized by Microsoft® At the Gate of the Highlands 2>'^7 notable figures of Revolutionar}^ story were entertained from time to time, was that built by the Hon. Pierre Van Cortlaildt in 1773. This must not be confounded with the manor-house at Croton, to which reference has already been made. A year after the building of the Peekskill house, Van Cortlandt seems to have been living in the older one at the Point, for it was there that Governor Tryon visited him in 1774, to secure, if possible, his interest for the King's cause in the ap- proaching contest. In 1775, Philip, the son of General Van Cortlandt, accepted a commission in the Continental army, an act which incurred the enmity of the Royalists against the whole family and led to bitter persecutions. The Peekskill house was the one occupied by Mrs. Beekman during the war. On one occasion she faced a party of Tories, led by Colonel Fanning, and sharply rebuked them for calling her father "an old rebel." "I am the daughter of Pierre Van Cortlandt," she exclaimed, " and it becomes not such as you to call m}^ father a rebel. " So she turned them out of the house. The little hamlet of Continental Village, on Canopus creek, just above Peekskill, was the place where the stores for the American army in the Highlands were accumulated. Gallows Hill, the place where Palmer the spy was executed, is a little north of a highwa,y that intersects the Albany Post road, or Broadway, ^ from the east; near the southern side of that hill was the house to which Andre was taken after his capture. Digitized by Microsoft® 3i8 The Hudson River John Paulding, the captor, lived for a number of years after the event which made him famous on a farm on the Crom-pond road, about three miles east of Peekskill. A number of tales concerning him are cur- rent, for one of which we have space. He was atten- tive to a young woman named Teed whose brother was a loyalist. Upon one of his frequent visits to the home of his lady-love, he was set upon by a number of Tories and forced to seek refuge in a barn, from which he fired upon his assailants, wounding some of them. Young Teed was one of the party and con- ducted a parley with the beleaguered lover, who finally agreed to surrender himself. He was handed over to the British officer near by and taken a prisoner to the Sugar House, on Liberty Street, New York. From