Not long alter ihe distressing events—from a British standpoint—at Concord and Lexington, and while heavy reinforcements were pouring into Boston to aid the beleaguered General Gage, one ship was observed to have brought an indeed notable cargo. Aboard this lucky craft, the Cerberus, were three of His Majesty’s generals, all members (in absentia) of the House of Gommons, and all destined to play important roles in the years ahead: Major Generals Henry Clinton, William Howe, and John Bnrgoyne. A local rhymester, versed enough in the classic’s to remember the threeheaded canine of the nether world, lampooned this event with a jaunty couplet:

The most satisfying bark, if the least painful bite, belonged to the junior, Burgoyiie. There was a richness of texture, the unmistakable air of an accomplished man of the world allied to an engagingly youthful touch of bravura about the 53-year-old playwright-soldier that clearly set him apart from his more commonplace companions. Born of a family sulliciently well connected to secure him a cornetcy in the exclusive ist Dragoons, “Handsome Jack,” with his fine eyes and comely form, had certainly clone no harm to his prospects by his elopement with the eleventh Earl of Derby’s daughter, Lady Charlotte Stanley.

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