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On that memorable day which beheld the retransfer
of the province of New York to the Dutch,
Mr. Benhadad Sharp was absent from the city, being
engaged on his estates, renewing some expired leases,
and grinding the faces of some very poor and very
industrious tenants.

“Never since I have been a—a patroon,” said
Benhadad to himself, assuming a title which he had
long coveted—“never since I have been a patroon,”
he said, as he journeyed leisurely homeward, “did I
see such indolence and neglect; and they to prate
about agues and fevers, and their troops of children
to be fed and clothed, the little dirty ragamuffins! but
they'll find there's to be a change: I've raised on 'em
all round, enough to make a hundred pounds extra in
my pocket for the next year, and I shall tell the governor
to do the same. I'm harder than Mr. Knickerbocker,
am I, Mr. Simpkins?—very well, I'll be harder
still next year; I'll have no lazy whining fellows
about me;” for Simpkins and Schmidt and Thompson,
who had swarms of youngsters, had all told the young

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landlord how Evert had always thrown off something
of his dues from them on account of their children;
“I'm harder, am I?” continued the soliloquist—“very
well—I'll be harder still, and teach you better manners—
I'll—”

Bang! bang! bang! came the sound of the cannon up
the bay, echoing far and wide across the silent waters,
and over the distant hills; for it was evening, and the
admirals had just received the keys off Staten Island,
as has been related in the preceding chapter.

“What in the name of wonder does all that mean?”
continued Sharp, who had now reached the ferry
boat, a huge scow, pulled by ropes across the river, at
its narrowest part—“what's all that firing at the fort,
Mr. Schnipper?”

“'Tain't at the fort, that ain't, Mr. Sharp, by no
manner of means,” said the ferryman, who, being a
Dutchman, was chuckling delightedly as he spoke;
“it's the Dutch, sir, that is—the Dutch, sir—sixteen
men-of-war, which are going to take the city at day-break
to-morrow mornin'—that's all.”

There are no words in any human vocabulary to
express Benhadad's astonishment and alarm, for, obtuse
as he was on many points, he was remarkably
clear-sighted in whatever pertained to his own pecuniary
interest, and he foresaw at once the whole
probable sequence of events in relation to the

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Knickerbocker manor. How great was his cause for grief
will be better understood when it is said, that, in a
formal division with his sister of their patrimony, he
had accepted the manor lands as his half, felicitating
himself not a little on having obtained the lion's share.
That no re-division could be hoped for, had been rendered
quite certain by another singular event which
had occurred a short time prior, being nothing less
than the sudden marriage of Euphemia to one Charles
Augustus Sinclair, late a Captain in the Spanish naval
service. Benhadad did not reply to the ferryman, and
was aroused from his painful reverie only by being notified
that the boat was ready. But if the boat was
ready, the traveller was not. Visions of a tremendous
bombardment—of red-hot shells flying through the
air—of a desperate encounter under the walls of the
fort, began to take possession of his mind, and inasmuch
as fighting was quite against his principles, he
resolved to return to his estate, and there await the
expected thunderbolt which was to shatter his fortunes.
If this anticipation was not a very pleasing one, it was at
least of no long continuance; for in forty-eight hours
Mr. Knickerbocker was in person on the estate, fully
reinstated in his rights, and receiving the congratulations
of his thronging tenantry.

The new government did not stop midway in its
measures. “We must give Rudolph a potato-patch,”

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said Colve to his councillors at one of their earliest sittings,
running his finger meanwhile over a number of unappropriated
townships on a map which was spread out
before him, and finally selecting one containing about ten
square miles, in the neighborhood of the Knickerbocker
manor. “That will do,” he said; “what say you,
gentlemen—has Rudolph Groesbeck deserved such a
mark of his country's gratitude?” A unanimous
voice approved the governor's liberality, and the
grant was immediately made.

It required time to appreciate the magical change
which had been so suddenly wrought in the fortunes
of the Knickerbockers, and of Rudolph. Their indigence
had been changed to affluence, their danger to
security, their distress to happiness, and no trace of
departed griefs remained, excepting that remembrance
of their existence, which serves to heighten the enjoyment
of present prosperity. Many were the subsequent
scenes of hilarity which ensued at the old
homestead; but the earliest and most prominent of
these was one which will be too easily imagined to
require any detailed description. Evert's house was
one of ample dimensions, but it was for once filled to
overflowing; for old and young were there, gray-bearded
men, and ancient matrons, blooming belles
and dashing beaux, and even wee children, to attend
the mystical ceremony by which Rudolph and Effie

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were to be united in perpetual league. It was the
season of flowers, and the bride, in accordance with
the simple tastes of the age, was adorned with a roseate
diadem, which, however much a decoration, manifestly
received more lustre than it imparted. Rudolph's
commanding figure, the joyous Jed, the venerable
Evert, with Stuyvesant and Colve and old
Dominie Megapolensis, erect and stately, were among
the conspicuous features of the assemblage. The
crowded room, the open windows thronged on the
outer side by guests who could not get in, the tier of
slaves still further removed, and peering, with sable
necks outstretched, from the tops of adjacent railings
and fences, presented altogether a picture of delight
and satisfaction, not often seen or easily forgotten.
The merry-making which followed the ceremony was
free and unrestrained, and lasted until a late hour in
the evening: the pillars of the long piazza being made
to shake by the hour to the tread of the twenty-four
couple of contra-dancers, who responded to the violent
and tugging efforts of three African fiddlers,
perched on an eminence just without the porch. As
there was nothing to mar the pleasures of the evening,
so did these prove a significant prelude to the
long after years of harmony and happiness, which
marked the lot of the newly wedded.

Jed continued his woodland sports, until diverted

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from the chase by a new variety of game, in the pursuit
of which he exhibited his usual skill and success.
In other words, he soon brought home a gentle bride;
but the friends whom adversity had united, prosperity
did not separate. In that ancient homestead, rendered
sacred by its connection with the marked events
of the past, they all resided together for many happy
years. Evert lived to an advanced age, and smoked
a thousand peaceful pipes in his favorite corner of
the stoop, slightly disturbed perhaps, at times, by the
shouts of noisy children on the green, who called him
by a new and welcome name. Upspringing like
roses about his path, these became the light of his
eyes, and the core of his heart. The morning and
the eve of life—how strongly do they contrast, and
yet how harmoniously do they blend; the innocence
of childhood, and the piety of guileless age, alike eliciting
the smiles and protection of that Infinite Beneficence
whose purity they reflect.

Governor Stuyvesant lived also to a ripe age, and,
like Evert, in the enjoyment of serene and tranquil
days, scarcely disturbed even by the subsequent cession
of the province to England by the Dutch, which
occurred at the close of the war between those
nations. He died in August, 1682, and an ancient
slab of freestone, still to be seen against the base of
St. Mark's church in the modern metropolis, indicates

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the place of his repose. There are gorgeous monuments
to his more wealthy descendants within the
edifice, but the old, gray, weather-beaten stone without,
alone proclaims the resting-place of the illustrious
founder of the family.

Lovelace was ordered to depart from the province,
and Egbert Groesbeck, bankrupt in purse and in reputation,
was among those who joined the train of the
ex-governor, and went to England. He did not scruple
however to receive a liberal present from his
brother on the eve of departure, or to suggest the
address to which any similar mark of favor might be
forwarded.

As neither Ripley nor Sharp was ever heard of
again, it is supposed that the former concluded to
throw off his allegiance to Sinclair, and take the destinies
of the Zephyr and its prisoner into his own
hands, in which event the fate of the latter may readily
be conjectured.

The means by which Captain Sinclair had succeeded
in supplanting his friend in the affections of
Euphemia were not altogether apparent, but it soon
became evident that the latter had no very strong
hold upon her volatile and jovial partner. He soon
began to manifest a singular propensity to transmute
his property of every description into bullion, and,
with the exception of a small estate which had

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fortunately been settled upon his wife, accomplished his
purpose, although of course at a great sacrifice.
Soon afterwards he received some important intelligence
from Spain, which demanded his presence in
that country for a few months, whither he accordingly
departed, taking care to carry his gold along with
him. Singularly enough, however, the Captain neglected
to return to America, and it was supposed
that he had been prevailed upon to remain abroad by
the urgent entreaties of his many distinguished friends,
the Count Sylvio not excepted.