About midnight
The water was beginning to find its way over this cake , as it usually did on all those that lay low , and which even stopped in their progress ; but this did not offer any serious obstacles to persons who were so prompt Safe themselves , our friends remained to see if we could not be induced to join them ; and the call we heard , was from Guert , who had actually re-crossed to the island , in the hope of meeting us , and directing us to a place of safety . Guert never said anything to me on the subject , himself ; but I subsequently gathered from Mary Wallace 's accounts , that the young man did not rejoin her without a good deal of hazard and difficulty , and after a long and fruitless search for his companions . Finding it useless to remain any longer on the river-side , Guert and his companion held their way towards Albany . About midnight they reached the ferry , opposite to the town ; having walked quite six miles , filled with uneasiness on account of those who had been left behind . Guert was a man of decision , and he wisely determined it would be better to proceed , than to attempt waking up the inmates of any of the houses he passed . The river was now substantially free from ice , though running with great velocity . But , Guert was an expert oarsman ; and , finding a skiff , he persuaded Mary Wallace to enter it ; actually succeeding , by means of the eddies , in landing her within ten feet of the very spot where the hand-sled had deposited him and myself , only a few days before .