The other idea which had grown in his mind during the weary siege was that the Tories were thoroughly dangerous and deserved scant mercy.

In his second letter to Gage he refers to them, with the frankness which characterized him when he felt strongly, as "execrable parricides," and he made ready to treat them with the utmost severity at New York and elsewhere.

When Washington was aroused there was a stern and relentless side to his character, in keeping with the force and strength which were his chief qualities.

His attitude on this point seems harsh now when the old Tories no longer look very dreadful and we can appreciate the sincerity of conviction which no doubt controlled most of them.

But they were dangerous then, and Washington, with his honest hatred of all that seemed to him to partake of meanness or treason, proposed to put them down and render them harmless, being well convinced, after his clear-sighted fashion, that war was not peace, and that mildness to domestic foes was sadly misplaced.
His errand to New England was now done and well done.