QUOTE : A little after three a.m., as a cold whispering rain fell over steep-gabled slate, husbands pulled wives close in the clammy darkness. Nursemaids rose from narrow beds to check on bundled babes; massive-headed mastiffs whined by banked heartfires as household cats insinuated between dream-running; and in their warm, summer-smelling loose boxes, arch-necked carriage horses stamped and rolled white-rimmed eyes, leaning against the barred partitions to press flank to flank. The City of New Amsterdam tossed restlessly.