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SOME REMARKABLE CAVALIERS.

[From the Same.]

MONG the military phenomena of this campaign, the Connecticut light horse ought not to be forgotten. These consisted of a considerable number of old-fashioned men, probably farmers and heads of families, as they were generally middle-aged, and many of them apparently beyond the meridian of life. They were truly irregulars; and whether their clothing, their equipments or caparisons were regarded, it would have been difficult to have discovered any circumstance of uniformity; though in the features derived from "local habitation," they were one and the same. Instead of carbines and sabres, they generally carried fowling-pieces; some of them very long, and such as in Pennsylvania are used for shooting ducks. Here and there one, "his youthful garments well saved," appeared in a dingy regimental of scarlet, with a triangular, tarnished laced hat. In short, so little were they like modern soldiers in air or costume, that, dropping the necessary number of years, they might have been supposed the identical men who had in part composed Pepperell's army at the taking of Louisbourg. Their order of march corresponded with their other irregularities. It "spindled into longitude immense," presenting so extended and ill-compacted a flank, as though they had disdained the adventitious prowess derived from con centration. These singular dragoons were volunteers, who came to make a tender of their services to the commander-in-chief.

But they stayed not long at New York. As such a body of cavalry had not been counted upon, there was in all probability a want of forage for their jades, which, in the spirit of ancient knighthood, they absolutely refused to descend from; and as the general had no use for cavaliers in his insular operations, they were forthwith dismissed with suitable acknowledgments for their truly chivalrous ardor. It appears from a letter of General Washington, that they refused fatigue duty, because it was beneath the dignity of troopers. An unlucky trooper of this school had, by some means or other, found his way to Long Island, and was taken by the enemy in the battle of the 27th of August. The British officers made themselves very merry at his expense, and obliged him to amble about for their entertainment. On being asked what had been his duty in the rebel army, he answered, that it was "to flank a little and carry tidings." Such at least was the story at New York among the prisoners.

Timothy Dwight.

BORN in Northampton, Mass., 1752. DIED at New Haven, Conn., 1817.

THE PERILOUS ESCAPE OF WADSWORTH AND BURTON.

[Travels in New England and New York. 1821.]

ABOUT the middle of April Major Benjamin Burton, an agreeable,

brave, and worthy man, who had served under General Wadsworth the preceding summer, was taken on his passage from Boston to St. George's river, the place of his residence; brought to the fort at Bagaduce; and lodged in the same room with General Wadsworth. Burton confirmed the report of the servants. He had learned from a source which he justly regarded as authentic that both himself and the General were to be sent, immediately after the return of a privateer now out upon a cruise, either to New York or to Halifax, and thence to England. There they were to remain prisoners until the close of the war; and were to be treated afterward as circumstances should direct. This intelligence, thus confirmed, explained at once the monitory caution of Miss Fenno; and perfectly exhibited to General Wadsworth the importance of "taking care of himself."

The gentlemen were not long in determining, that they would not cross the Atlantic as prisoners. They resolved that they would effect their escape, or perish in the attempt. When an enterprise bordering on desperation is resolutely undertaken the means of accomplishing it are rarely wanted.

It must, however, be admitted that scarcely any circumstances could promise less than theirs. They were confined in a grated room, in the officers' barracks, within the fort. The walls of this fortress exclusively of the depth of the ditch surrounding it were twenty feet high; with fraising on the top and chevaux-de-frise at the bottom. Two sentinels were always in the entry; and their door, the upper part of which was a window-sash, might be opened by these watchmen whenever they thought proper and was actually opened at seasons of peculiar darkness and silence. At the exterior doors of the entries sentinels were also stationed; as were others in the body of the fort and at the quarters of Gen. Campbell. At the guard-house a strong guard was daily mounted. Several sentinels were daily stationed on the walls of the fort, and a complete line occupied them by night. Without the ditch, glacis, and abatis another complete set of solders patrolled through the night also. The gate of the fort was shut at sunset, and a piquet guard was placed on, or near, the isthmus leading from the fort to the main land.

Bagaduce, on the middle of which the fort stands, is a peninsula about a mile and a half in length and a mile in breadth, washed by Penobscot Bay on the south, Bagaduce river on the east, on the north-west by a broad cove, and throughout the remainder of the circle by the bay and river of Penobscot. A sandy beach, however, connects it with the main-land on the western side. From these facts the difficulties of making an escape may be imperfectly imagined. Indeed, nothing but the melancholy prospect of a deplorable captivity in the hands of an enemy, exasperated by a long and tedious war carried on against those who were deemed rebels, could have induced the prisoners to take this resolution.

Not long after a cartel arrived from Boston bringing letters from the Governor and Council to General Wadsworth, with a proposal for his exchange and a sum of money, etc., for his use. These were carefully delivered to him; but the exchange being, as General Campbell said, not authorized, he refused to liberate the prisoners. This determination they had expected.

Several plans were proposed by the gentlemen for their escape, and successively rejected. At length they resolved on the following. The room in which they were confined was ceiled with boards. One of these they determined to cut off, so as to make a hole sufficiently large for a man to go through. After having passed through this hole they proposed to creep along one of the joists, under which these boards were nailed, and thus to pass over the officers' rooms bordering on it until they should come to the next or middle entry; and then to lower themselves down into this entry by a blanket which they proposed to carry with them. If they should be discovered they proposed to act the character of officers, belonging to the garrison, intoxicated. These being objects to which the sentinels were familiarized, they hoped in this disguise to escape detection. If they should not be discovered, the passage to the walls of the fort was easy. Thence they intended to leap into the ditch; and, if they escaped without serious injury from the fall, to make the best of their way to the cove; on the surface of whose water they meant to leave their hats floating (if they should be closely pursued) to attract the fire of the enemy, while they were softly and silently making their escape.

Such was their original plan. Accordingly, after the prisoners had been seen by the sentinel, looking through the glass of the door, to have gone to bed, Gen. W. got up, the room being dark; and, standing in a chair, attempted to cut with his knife the intended opening; but he found the attempt useless and hazardous. It was useless, because the labor was too great to be accomplished with the necessary expedition. It was hazardous, because the noise made by the strokes of the knife could