Washington rewarded himself for his long land-voyage by lingering in New York four days.

He went to the theatre May 28th and to Hull's Tavern afterward. He records the fact that the tickets cost him eight shillings, but omits to mention that the play was "Hamlet" and the after-farce "Cross-Purposes," written by an actor who had married the daughter of an earl. Washington does not even mention that the Ophelia was the fascinating Sarah Hallam, whom he had seen in Williamsburg, and who finally resided there. Odell thinks that she was "doubtless an almost unique Ophelia, with her tragic gifts and her singing voice."

8

There is no evidence that he met his former inamorata, Mary Philipse, or her husband, Capt. Roger Morris, who had been one of Braddock's aides with him. But he did meet another fellow of that campaign. The first night he went to an entertainment given by the citizens of New York to General Gage, a popular English officer who had visited the colonies in 1765 as a lieutenant-colonel with Braddock's troops.

He had commanded the advance party in that catastrophe, and had been wounded in the battle. It was Gage, not Washington, who took command in the panic and gathering eighty men about him bravely held the ford against the Indians and French and drove them back.

Washington and he had been friends, and they met again now in New York to talk over old times at a dinner. Gage had been concerned in western land affairs, and was returning to England with no suspicion that in a few years he would be in America again to put down a revolution, or that his dinner companion, the ex-soldier and farmer, would soon be the commander-in-chief of a rebel army engaged in driving him away from Boston.

On May 31st, Washington set out on his return. He

records no meetings with Governors, but he did dine again with the Calverts in Baltimore and on the 8th of June "reach'd home to dinner, about 2 o'clock."

Three shattering blows were preparing for him. He was about to lose both Jacky and his sister from the household, and the Fairfaxes from his neighborhood.

XIV

THREE BEREAVEMENTS

MONG the untranslated cryptic symbols that Washington made on the margins of his almanac-diary in the year 1769, were a number which, Mr. Fitzpatrick is sure, refer to the increasing frequency and violence of the epileptic attacks that were seizing the pretty body of Patsy Custis, and shaking it to pieces.

She had failed rapidly, and one of her many physicians advised a visit to the spa at Frederick, the same Warm Springs that Washington had gone to in 1761 to retrieve his own health.

Martha and Patsy and George made the pilgrimage, setting out July 31, 1769, and reaching there August 6th. The place was a gay summer resort now, and the diary lists dinner after dinner. Ancient Lord Fairfax was there, and two Colonels Fairfax, Robert and George William. Sally is not mentioned.

One reads:

"13. We dined with Lord Fairfax.

"17. We drank Tea with My Lord.

"18. My Lord, the two Colo. Fx's and others drank Tea here." The catalog of festivals is interrupted by one sudden solemn note:

"23rd. Dined alone-Patcy unwell.”

On September 9th, Washington seems to have left Martha and Patsy there and "set out on my Return home about 8 Oclock but broke the Chariot and made it II before we got a Mile."

He had to hasten back because there was an election. He reached Mount Vernon two days before it, and on the 14th was returned without opposition.

While at the Warm Springs, Washington neglected the care neither of Patsy nor his Ledger A, for he enters:

"Miss Custis-to-George Washington-Dr.

To the Expences of a Journey to the Fredk Springs in Augt 1769.-Undertaken solely on her Acct to try (by the advice of her Physician) the effect of the Waters on her Complaint-viz.—

July. To a Cot...

To Travelling Expens up.

15 £20. 18. 9."

Among other things he charged her for a "Dinner &ca at Snicker's, 7 shillings," and for other dinners and lodgings; for "Repairs Houses & Builds an Arbr" 15 shillings, for "Roots, Green's & Fruit, £1. 18. 72." "For Paid the Bathkeeper" £1. 10.-"Oats & Pasturage for ye Horss £8. 4. 1.”

Then he deducted "25 pCt to reduce it to Virginia currency." He charged her for expenses down, and for servants' expenses there."

The journey to the springs or the resilience of youth helped Patsy to weather two more winters.

In April, 1771, Washington and Martha made a journey to Williamsburg to put her under special care. His Ledger shows that he paid the Williamsburg physician and druggist, "Mr. Jno. Carter for 4 bottles of Fit Drops £1. 5. 0." He bought other drugs there, including four ounces of "aether," which was sometimes prescribed.

He transacted some personal business, but did not neglect to go to the theatre three times. He also "Drank a Bowl or two of Punch at Mrs. Campbell's."

In October he took Patsy and Martha with him to Williamsburg again, dining with his mother and spending the

25th "at my Mother's all day having lost my Horses. Spent ye Eveng at Weedon's"-the tavern. He spent £1. 1. O for "sundry play tickets at Williamsburg." He went to the theatre five times, and saw "the Fireworks" once.

On his return he consulted Dr. John Johnston of Maryland about Patsy, and paid him £14 for his vain advice. In March, 1772, he took Patsy and Martha again to Williamsburg through wicked weather. He went to the theatre seven times, a concert, and a ball.

He lost £4. 10 at

cards and spent "By a pair of Drawer's," 5 shillings.

He paid a dentist £4 for himself, as his teeth were beginning already to give him the trouble that robbed him of all of them in 1789.

He took Patsy to a Dr. W. Pasteur, who charged her another £14 for useless treatment.

In May, 1772, he sat for his first authentic portrait. The painter was Charles Willson Peale, a Marylander, who had practiced the arts of saddlery, coach-making and watch-making before he decided to try portraiture. He was sent to London by generous gentlemen of Annapolis, studied with Benjamin West for a year and returned in 1770 to Maryland."

Two years later he was called to Mount Vernon where he painted the famous portrait of Washington as a Colonel (used as a frontispiece to Volume I of this work). He remained at Mount Vernon for several weeks and painted miniatures of the whole family. He painted fourteen portraits of Washington from life, and his pictures have a strong resemblance to one another, though little to the portraits by other painters.

Washington afterwards spent an appalling amount of his life frozen for portraiture, but his first sitting made him solemn and sleepy. He described his sensations as a model in a letter to Dr. Boucher: