walk before finding a place to cross Long Island
Sound.

Sergeant Hempstead alone has furnished the
few details of Captain Hale's final preparations.
He had decided to assume civilian's dress, probably
that of an educated man seeking employment as
tutor among the Americans still living in New
York. Hempstead says he was dressed in a brown
suit of citizen's clothes, with a round, broad-brimmed
hat. On parting he gave Hempstead
his private papers and letters, and his silver shoebuckles,
to take care of for him.

It is, we think, not an undue inference that the
letters and private papers he left in Hempstead's
care were all to be sent to his family. These doubtless
included personal letters to them, for no man
such as we know Nathan Hale to have been would
have faced a journey from which he might never
return without some words of explanation, and
possible farewell, to those he loved at home. There
is one fact that all who believe in the sanctity of
personal confidences and possible farewells will be
glad to remember,--? that not one private word
from Nathan Hale to Alice Adams Ripley, or from
her to him, has ever been exploited to satisfy the
curiosity of those who have no right to share it.

Hempstead left Captain Hale, who, now fully

[[78]]

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v?