Major Burr suggested his suspicions to General Putnam,
and recommended that she be conveyed to her friends as soon as might
be convenient. She was, in consequence, soon after removed to
Kingsbridge, where General Mifflin commanded. This change of
situation, in the work which she has published, is ascribed to General
Washington, but it originated with Major Burr.
After a short residence at Kingsbridge, leave was granted for her
departure to Staten Island. She accordingly set off in a continental
barge, under the escort of an American officer, who was ordered to
accompany her to the British headquarters. As the boat approached the
English fleet, she was met by another, having on board a British
officer, and was notified that she could proceed no further, but that
the king's officer would take charge of the young lady, and convey her
in safety to her father, who was six or eight miles in the country
with Lord Percy. She says, in her memoirs, "I then entered the British
barge, and bidding an eternal farewell to my dear American friends,
_turned my back on liberty_."
Miss Moncrieffe, before she had reached her fourteenth year, was
probably the victim of seduction. The language of her memoirs, when
taken in connexion with her deportment soon after her marriage, leaves
but little room for doubt. Major Burr, while yet at college, had
acquired a reputation for gallantry. On this point he was excessively
vain, and regardless of all those ties which ought to control an
honourable mind.
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