Excerpt from The Spy Company: A Story of the Mexican War The summer night was falling softly upon Saratoga when that great watering place was scarce more than a village embowered in trees; when most of its present magnificent avenues were pretty turnpike roads and some only bridle paths; Saratoga when those who sought its summer retreat came to it leisurely, many of them by stage-coach, to find recreation in its pleasant country and health in the living waters of its sparkling springs; the Saratoga of 1844, before half a dozen converging railroads had made it part of our rushing, bustling, frantic, modern world; a quiet, serene picnic place only disturbed - by politics. Even on this placid evening towards the end of August, though the lights of the big dining room of the old United States Hotel illuminated the great fancy dress ball of the season, Democrats and Whigs clashed as hotly upon the big verandas and tree shaded pleasance as they did at political joint discussions and torchlight demonstrations or even in the halls of Con gress itself. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.