At the little
brick grocery of William Parke, just beyond the Cowgill House--where I
am told he sells ardent liquors to negroes contrary to law, and so takes
the name among them of 'Kind Parke'--I found several of our free
Delaware negroes, I fear on no good errand. So I remarked, 'If William
Parke, contrary to law, has been selling thee brandy out of an eggshell,
as if he knew not the contents, I shall pay him to repeat the vile
enticement quickly, for ye who are of the world must fight this night.'"
"Goy!" said Clayton, warming up; "Quakers will set other people on,
won't they? Goy!"
"Other gunpowder arms were there procured, and we barricaded Cowgill
House so as to make it at once a decoy and a hornet's nest. I despise
war and men of war so much that I have somewhat studied their campaigns,
and I suggested, friend Clayton, that the stairway was a good tactical
defensive position--is that the vain term?--to send a volley out the
main door, and a flank fire on every door and window on the sides of
Cowgill's hall. It also commanded the back yard by a window on the
staircase. A door beneath the staircase was barricaded. There was a
festival, or feast, given that night, by absent friend Cowgill's
permission, by these Dover folks of color. I would not wonder if it was
designed or discovered by these scoundrels on thy line of states, friend
Custis. I told the men-at-arms to leave their huzzies all below in the
feasting-hall till the attack began, and then to let them escape up the
stairway, and to defend that stair like sinful men.
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