brance by association with the memory of beauty and virtue.

Margaret Gaston, the mother of Judge Gaston, of North Carolina, was born in England, about 1755, and educated in a French convent. While on a visit in North Carolina, she met Dr. Alexander Gaston, and was married to him at the age of twenty. He was barbarously killed by the tories, in 1781. The widow had thenceforth but one object in life-the education of her son. Her piety and lovely character gave her the highest appreciation in North Carolina.

Mrs. Wilie Jones was the daughter of Colonel Mountfort, and was conspicuous in society, being said to be "loved enthusiastically by every being who knew her." Born to ample fortune, she dispensed it with munifi- · cence, and an elegant hospitality rarely seen in a new country. She was charitable, and had a "native nobility of soul." The famous reply to Tarleton, when he sneeringly expressed a wish to see the rebel colonel, Washington, that he ought to have looked behind him at the battle of the Cowpens, has been attributed both to her and her sister, Mrs. Ashe. Mrs. Jones died in 1828. Mrs. Long (Miss McKinney) was the wife of Colonel Nicholas Long, commissary-general of the North Carolina forces. She possessed great energy and high mental endowments, and was greatly admired by the officers on both sides.

Mrs. Ralph Izard, in her youth, was noted as a beauty in the gayest circles of New York society. She

was the daughter of Peter De Lancey, of Westchester, grand-daughter to Etienne De Lancey, a Huguenot nobleman, who came to America in 1686. Many women of this distinguished family married eminent men. Susan, daughter of Colonel Stephen De Lancey, married Lieutenant-Colonel William Johnson, and afterwards Lieutenant-General Sir Hudson Lowe, and was the beautiful Lady Lowe praised by Bonaparte. Charlotte married Sir David Dundas; another of the family, Sir William Draper. In later years, one of them became the wife of J. Fennimore Cooper. Alice married Ralph Izard, of Charleston, a gentleman of accomplishments and liberal fortune, in 1767. He took his bride to Europe, and lived in Paris some time; his family remaining abroad till peace was concluded. The old family residence, "The Elms," in South Carolina, was noted for their liberal hospitality. During the illness of her husband, Mrs. Izard managed his large estate and wrote his business letters, besides taking care of three families of children.*

* A fair relative of General Washington had a very remarkable experience. Born of wealthy parents, in Virginia, she was a widow at seventeen, living with her father, who had lost fortune and emigrated to Florida. His home was a log cabin with two rooms, in the unbroken solitude of a primeval forest. Colonel Gadsden was a neighbor, and often spoke of his friend-the Prince Achille Murat-exiled, with a price set on his head, living like a hermit on his plantation. He was introduced at length, and became enamored of the beautiful Kate. After some months she was married to the son of the Neapolitan monarch, the consent of his exiled family having been obtained. Madame Murat took the management of the plantation. In the Florida war Murat had the friendship of an Indian chief, who was accustomed to come at night, build a fire in his

dwelling, and stay till morning. "You and your squaw safe," he would say, when they trembled at the terrible deeds they witnessed. Twentyfive years after the marriage Murat died; but the princess continued to live on her Florida property, among her slaves; attending to the hospitals during the war, and selling her jewels to feed the destitute. Afterwards she visited England and France, and was received by the Emperor and Eugenie; returning to the gardens and fields of her beloved Southern home.

IX.

ABOUT 1779, Governor Caswell, of North Carolina, appointed Isaac Shelby lieutenant-colonel (Anthony Bledsoe being colonel) of the military company of Sullivan County. When Shelby returned from Kentucky, he became the affianced husband of Miss Susan Hart, a celebrated belle among the western settlements at that time. He took command, soon after, of the gallant volunteers who encountered the forces of Ferguson at *King's Mountain, October 7, 1780, and, coming home crowned with the victor's wreath, found that his betrothed had gone with her brother to Kentucky, leaving for him no invitation to follow her. A lively little damsel was Sarah, the daughter of Colonel Bledsoe, and as the young officer spent much time at her father's, she often rallied him on his dejection at this cruel desertion. Shelby would reply by expressing resentment at the treatment he had received at the hands of the fair coquette, and protesting that he would not follow her, nor ask her of her father; he would wait for little Sarah Bledsoe, a far prettier bird than the one that had flown away. The flippant maiden, then some thirteen years old, would laughingly return his banter by saying, “he had better wait, indeed! and see if he could win Miss

Bledsoe, who could not win Miss Hart!" The arch damsel was not wholly in jest; for a youthful kinsman of the officer-David Shelby, a lad of seventeen or eighteen, who had fought by Isaac's side at King's Mountain-had already captivated her merry fancy. She remained true to this early love. The gallant

colonel, who had threatened infidelity to his, did actually, notwithstanding his protestations, go to Kentucky the following year, seek out Miss Susan Hart, and marry her. She made him a faithful and excellent wife.

"Little Sarah" Bledsoe married David Shelby in 1784, and had her home in the midst of the wilderness of Cumberland valley. Shelby established himself as the first merchant in Nashville, in 1790. He afterwards removed to Sumner County; maintaining a high and honorable position, and giving valuable aid in building up the new State, in which his wife took her part. Her history, indeed, would embrace that of Tennessee. The names of Bledsoe, Shelby, Sevier, Robertson, Buchanan, Rains, and Wilson, are conspicuous in the country's annals; and amid the toil and heroic deeds. that have made them celebrated, no woman did her share more nobly than Mrs. Shelby. She lived to see the helpless colony increase to a goodly State; residing, for the last twenty years of her life, with her son, Dr. Shelby, at his beautiful country-seat, "Faderland," near Nashville. Here she received and conversed with all interested in the early history of that region, and daily