"'Sir, I have come—
"'Not another word, my dear colonel, until you have taken a seat and a glass of old Madeira.
"'But, sir, I don't think it proper—
"'Not another word, colonel. Taste this wine; I have had it in glass for ten years. Old wine, you know, unless it is originally sound, never improves by age. " He took a glass, swallowed the wine, smacked his lips and shbok his head approvingly.
"'Sir, I come—
"'Not another word until you have taken another glass, and then, my dear colonel, we will talk of old affairs and I have some droll events to detail.
"In short, we finished two bottles of Madeira, and parted as good friends as if we never had cause to be otherwise."[1]
During the time that Rivington was in Europe arranging for a new outfit, the British side of the controversy was set forth by Hugh Gaine, once a patriotic editor, but later—for business reasons—an enthusiastic Royalist. Gaine's double-dealing had been noted for some time, but it remained for the war to develop his talents to their full. When the British took possession of the city he fled to Newark, New Jersey, and apparently edited his patriotic paper there. His paper in New York was continued by the British, The only known file of the Newark issue shows Mr. Gaine running along very smoothly until his issue of November 2, 1776, when he apparently suffered what the modern alienists would describe as "brainstorm "for he takes both sides in the same issue, an article in one column referring to the ease with which "our troops "beat the "Britishers," while in an adjoining column, he recounted the skill with which "our" troops
- ↑ Lossing, Field-book of the Revolution, i, 508.
