CHAPTER XVII.

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IN November the French Marquis de Chastellux paid a visit to Washington's camp. He has left a very full account of his reception there, and the impression which the great American leader made upon him. "The goodness and benevolence which characterise him," he says, are felt by all around; but the confidence he inspires is never familiar— it springs from a profound esteem for his virtues, and a great opinion of his talents. It is interesting to see him in the midst of the general officers of his army. General in a republic, he has not the imposing state of a marshal of France, who gives the order; hero in a republic, he excites a different sort of respect, which seems to originate in this sole idea, that the welfare of each individual is attached to his person. Brave, without temerity; laborious, without ambition; noble, without pride; virtuous, without severity: he seems always to stop short of that limit where the virtues, assuming colours more vivid, but more changeable and dubious, might be taken for defects."

The winter was now coming on, and the French remained at Newport. Washington made his headquarters at New Windsor, on the Hudson River, and stationed troops at Morristown, Pompton, West Point, and Albany.

In December there was a mutiny amongst the men quartered at Morristown. General Wayne, who commanded them, was not much surprised at it; "poorly clothed, badly ted, and worse paid," he says, some of them not having

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received a paper dollar for near twelve months; exposed to winter's piercing cold, to drifting snows, and chilling blasts, with no protection but old worn-out coats, tattered linen overalls, and but one blanket between three men." Added to this hard living, they were refused their discharge, when the time of their service was over. On New Year's-day they revolted. "General Wayne endeavoured to pacify them; they were no longer to be pacified by words. He cocked his pistols; in an instant their bayonets were at his breast. 'We love, we respect you,' cried they; 'but you are a dead man if you fire. Do not mistake us, we are not going to the enemy; were they now to come out, you would see us fight under your orders with as much readiness as ever.'" Wayne sent news of the mutiny to Washington, and the news soon spread farther. It reached Sir Henry Clinton, who took advantage of it to promise free pardon from the king to all mutineers who would join the Royal cause. But the mutineers said that they declined to be "Arnolds;" the emissaries of Sir Henry were hanged, and the President of Congress came himself to the dissatisfied soldiers, entered into their grievances, and gave them redress. So this gathering cloud was dispersed; and another of the same sort which arose amongst the Jersey troops, Washington put down with a high hand.

The chief interest of the war seemed now to lie in the South. Sir Henry Clinton, knowing that Washington's intention was, as soon as possible, to make an attack on New York, endeavoured to distract him from this scheme by sending a force into Virginia. This force he put under the command of the traitor Arnold, who had been made brigadier-general in the British army, and had received a sum of upwards of £6,000 as the price of his villany.

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When some one said of him to Washington that "he must be suffering the torments of a mental hell!" Washington answered, "He wants feeling. From some traits of his character, which have lately come to my knowledge, he seems to have been so hackneyed in villainy, and so lost to all sense of honour and shame, that while his faculties will enable him to continue his sordid pursuits there will be no time for remorse." "What would they do with me if they took me?" asked Arnold of an American prisoner. And the answer was, "They would cut off the leg wounded in the service of your country, and bury it with the honours of war; the rest of you they would hang."

To meet Arnold's force, Washington sent La Fayette with 1,200 men to Virginia, in March. The French ships also, having got free from the blockade in Newport harbour, by the help of a storm which drove away the British fleet, sailed for the shore of Virginia, in order to be able to help La Fayette; but this expedition accomplished nothing of any note.

Meanwhile, in the south, Lord Cornwallis having received large reinforcements from Sir Henry Clinton, had been "carrying on a most active winter campaign." But he had no inconsiderable foe to meet, in the army which was reviving under the leadership of General Greene.

The first event of the campaign cheered Greene. Lord Cornwallis had detached Colonel Tarleton, with 1,000 men, horse and foot, to pursue and rout the American division of light troops, under General Morgan. On the 7th of January, 1781, Tarleton came up with the enemy, at a place called the Cowpens. He impetuously led his troops on to an attack, though his men were much exhausted. "He succeeded in throwing into confusion the first and second lines of the Americans; but they quickly rallied, and became

assailants in their turn. The wayworn English were altogether overpowered. Tarleton and the cavalry made their escape from the field, but the infantry were all either slain or taken prisoners, the number of these being 500. The action at the Cowpens gave lustre to the American arms. It surprised and mortified, but did not dispirit, Lord Cornwallis."

The next action took place near Guildford Court House. It was fought on the 15th of March, and was well contested; but at length the Americans-consisting, in part, of raw militia- were utterly defeated, and driven from the field, leaving behind their artillery and upwards of 300 dead.

Lord Cornwallis, after this victory, stationed himself with his men at Wilmington; while Greene resolved to fall back upon South Carolina, where Lord Rawdon remained at Camden, with troops for the defence of Charleston. Lord Cornwallis, after three weeks' rest at Wilmington, marched into Virginia, and joined Arnold.

Meanwhile Washington had remained at New Windsor, and news came to him, from the Count de Barras, who had just landed at Boston, that the French admiral, Count de Grasse, with twenty ships, having on board reinforcements of land troops, had sailed from the West Indies, and might be expected in July or August.

Washington had hoped, with the Count de Rochambeau, to have made a successful attack on New York, but found it too well guarded, and so drew up his forces at Dobbs' Ferry, on the Hudson River, to await the arrival of his allies. The French were drawn up close to him. "It was

a lovely country for a summer encampment; breezy hills, commanding wide prospects; umbrageous valleys, watered by bright pastoral streams-the Broux, the Spraine, and the

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Neperan-and abounding with never-failing springs. The French encampment made a gallant display along the Greenburgh Hills. Some of the officers-young men of rank, to whom this was all a service of romance—took a pride in decorating their tents, and forming little gardens in their vicinity. We have a charming position, among the rocks and under magnificent tulip trees,' writes one of them, the Count Dumas. General Washington was an object of their enthusiasm. He visited the tents they had so gaily embellished; for, with all his gravity, he was fond of the company of young men. They were apprised of his coming, and set out on camp-tables plans of the battle of Trenton, of West Point, and other scenes connected with the war. The greatest harmony prevailed between the armies." Washington used his leisure time in eagerly petitioning Congress for more men. "Unable to advance with prudence beyond my present position," he writes, "while, perhaps, in the general opinion, my force is equal to the commencement of operations against New York, my conduct must appear, if not blamable, highly mysterious, at least. The fulfilment of my engagements must depend upon the degree of vigour with which the executives of the several States exercise the powers with which they have been vested, and enforce the laws lately passed for filling up and supplying the army."

Stirring news arrived at the end of July, which wrought a material change in Washington's plans. The French frigate Concorde arrived at Newport, bringing despatches from Admiral the Count de Grasse, saying that he was to leave the West Indies early in August, that he had nearly thirty ships with him having troops on board, and that he was sailing for the Chesapeake.