ECHOES OF THE REVOLUTION 261

of refinement. Next morning we heard his story
from hi§ *own lips. He began by fntroducing
himself as a *" loyalist " and went on to tell us
that he was the lineal descendant of a certain
Scottish Peer who had been exiled to the
Americas for participation in the rebellion of
the first Pretender, in 1715. His nearer
ancestors had lived in what is now the State of
New York, and had sided with the Crown at
the outbreak of the Revolution, the family
suffering a second exile at the conclusion of it.
The house, if I remember rightly, had been built
by his great-grandfather and had remained in
its original condition ever since. His sons and
daughters had left him long ago to join the
enterprises of the modern world. He lived
alone in the wilderness and there, please God,,
he would die. Every month a boat brought
him supplies in exchange for such products
as he was able to raise. Providence had greatly
favoured him, he said, in bringing a party of
English to his doors. " Your misfortune, gentle-
men, is my gain and I hope the lady will pardon
any shortcomings she may have noticed in my
housekeeping." Thanks to some tools he lent
us we were able to restart our engine and returned
to whence we came with a feeling that the
American Revolution was a thing of yesterday.

Having committed the sin of digression, I
may as well digress a little farther from my
path in the United States, and so (at the end of