A half-century of conflict. France and England in North America. Part ...

1745.] THE BURDENS OF COMMAND. 115came from wives and fathers entreating that husbandsand sons who had gone to the war should be sentback. At the end of the siege a captain "humblebegs leave for to go home," because he lives in avery dangerous country, and his wife and childrenare " in a declining way " without him. Then twoentire companies raised on the frontier offeredthe same petition on similar grounds. SometimesPepperrell was beset with prayers for favors andpromotion; sometimes with complaints from onecorps or another that an undue share of work hadbeen imposed on it. One Morris, of Cambridge,writes a moving petition that his slave "Cuffee,"who had joined the army, should be restored to him,his lawful master. One John Alford sends thegeneral a number of copies of the Rev. Mr. Prentice'slate sermon, for distribution, assuring him that "itwill please your whole army of volunteers, ashe hasshown them the way to gain by their gallantry thehearts and affections of the Ladys," The end of thesiege brought countless letters of congratulation,which, whether lay or clerical,never failed to remindhim, in set phrases, that he was but an instrumentin the hands ofProvidence.One of his most persistent correspondents was hisson-in-law, Nathaniel Sparhawk, a thrifty merchant,with a constant eye to business, who generally beganhis long-winded epistles with a bulletin concerningthe health of" Mother Pepperrell," and rarely endedthem without charging his father-in-law with some