". . . the last four months has changed my looks more than as many years of repose would have done, sorrow at the death of her son has affected my health as well as my spirits." Mother "very snugly fixed" in New York for the winter; hopefully the British will think it too late in the year to attack; "it is said that Lord Hill's destination is for the Mobile and New Orleans . . . . my dear James you know not the hardships of the military life, many Boys in this place enamoured with the fame of Perry who commands the Java building here, have entered the service & ruined their health by it — and as to military life I know by the fatigue and privations that my Husband undergoes what a life of hardship it is." With her letter Montgomery enclosed a newspaper printing of Francis Scott Key's "Defence of Fort McHenry," which had already been set to music as "The Star Spangled Banner:" "I send you in the Baltre paper some beautiful verses written under the circumstances described, by a friend of Mrs Nicholson Mr Key a federalist. would they were all such federalists.— Cousin Joseph had them published, and wrote the annexed relation of the circumstances under which they were written; you recollect he was with his company in the fort, where he had two of his officers killed & many of his men maimed & wounded." Joseph H. Nicholson was in fact Key's brother-in-law; he had received Key's manuscript and was responsible for its first publication, in broadside form, on 17 September.