The street began to narrow. A series of zig-zags led down to a set of wooden stairs. He was about to start his descent when, above his own footsteps, he heard the sound of someone approaching from behind. He tensed.

“Matthew?” a voice said.

He turned. A figure moved out of the shadows and he found himself staring into the questioning face of an elderly man. It took him a moment to recognize the tall, stoop-shouldered, white-haired stranger as the visitor who’d brushed by him in the anteroom to Sir George Prevost’s office.

“You seem to have the advantage, sir,” Hawkwood said. “Do I know you?”

He waited and watched as the stranger drew closer. Taking a series of calming breaths, the old man offered Hawkwood a rueful smile. “Forgive me, I’m not as fit as I once was.”

“You’re not alone in that,” Hawkwood said.

The old man drew himself up. He took another, deeper breath. “If you’re not who I think you are, then I am about to look very foolish.”

Hawkwood stared at him. A strange feeling began to stir in his chest.

Then the old man held out his hand and said, “My name is John Johnson. You might not remember me, my boy, but I was a friend of your father …”

HISTORICAL NOTE

Sir John Johnson was a key figure in Loyalist, Quebec and Canadian history. An exceptional soldier and leader of men, his escape through the Adirondack Mountains in the spring of 1776 did take place as described. As did his raid on the Mohawk Valley in May 1780 when, with Captain Thomas Scott of the 53rd Regiment as his second-in-command, he entered the northern part of Johnstown at the head of 528 men – 344 white and 184 native auxiliaries – to rescue Loyalists who were being persecuted by the rebel congress.

It is here, at the beginning of Hawkwood’s story, that I deviated from the facts. Contrary to the events in the novel, Sir John achieved his goal – rescuing 143 souls, and escorting them, along with 13 rebel prisoners and the family plate, all the way to the Canadian border in only eleven days – without losing a single man. It was an astonishing feat of logistics, given the difficulties that stood in his way: the number of people travelling with him, the terrain and the distances involved and the fact that he was being hunted by enemy forces.

It was just one of many raids that Johnson carried out throughout the Mohawk and Schoharie Valleys, destroying crops and villages and spreading terror among the Patriot population.