Richardson's presence of mind and calm courage were in requisition, and proved the salvation of the hunted patriot. Seeing the British soldiers about to come in, she pretended to be intently busy about something in the front doorway and stood there retarding their entrance. The least appearance of agitation or fear, the least change of color, might have betrayed all by exciting suspicion, but with a self-control as rare as admirable she hushed even the wild beating of her heart, and continued to stand in the way till her husband had time to retire through the back door into the swamp near at hand.
Later Colonel Richardson left his retreat in the woods to go to the aid of General Marion, and together with a handful of men they made several successful sorties on the enemy. The British were not long in discovering that the Colonel had joined the force of Marion, and their conduct toward his wife was at once changed. One and all professed a profound respect for her brave and worthy husband, whose services they were desirous of securing. They endeavored to obtain her influence to prevail on him to join the Royal Army by promise of wealth and honorable promotion. The high-spirited wife treated all such offers with the contempt they deserved and refused to be made an instrument in their hands for the accomplishment of their purpose. She sent constant messages to her husband in his exile assuring him that she and the children were well, and provided with an abundance of everything necessary for their comfort. Thus with heroic artfulness did she conceal the privations and want she was suffering, lest her husband's solicitude for her and his family might tempt him to waver from strict obedience to the dictates of honor and patriotism.
When peace returned to shed its blessings over the land, Mrs. Richardson continued to reside in the same house with her family. Tarleton and his troopers had wasted the plantation and destroyed everything movable about the dwelling, but the buildings had been spared, and Colonel Richardson, who had been promoted for his meritorious service in the field, cheerfully resumed the occupation of a planter. His circumstances were much reduced by the chance of war, but a competence remained, which he and his wife enjoyed in tranquillity and happiness for many years.
Mrs. Richardson died in 1834 at the advanced age of ninety-three. She was remarkable throughout life for the calm judgment, fortitude and strength of mind, which had sustained her in the trials she suffered during the war, and protected her from injury and insult when surrounded by a lawless soldiery.
ELIZABETH FERGUSSON.
Elevated by her talents and attainments to a position of great influence and an intimacy with the great men of her time, Elizabeth Fergusson's life appears to have been darkened by sadness and the cloud of a charge of having attempted by bribery to corrupt a general of the Continental Army. And yet when she died, at sixty-three years of age, there was a wide circle of adherents who believed in her independence and integrity of character. She was born in 1739 and was the daughter of Doctor Thomas Graeme, living in a palatial home in Philadelphia afterward known as the Carpenter Mansion. When she was quite young her mother's death
