soldiers, giving orders, but at last he was obliged to retreat; and not until he had lost upwards of 600 men.

Washington received the news when he was at dinner in Philadelphia. He was told that an officer desired to speak with him immediately; and, apoíogising to the company, he went into the hall to speak to him. When he returned, he said nothing of the news he had been told, but was heard to mutter as he sat down again, “I knew it would be so." He went through the evening with his usual calmness. At ten o'clock the company dispersed, Mrs. Washington quitted the room, and the President and Mr. Lear were left alone. Washington walked up and down the room for a few minutes, then threw himself on the sofa, and burst forth in an agitated voice: "It's all over-St. Clair's defeated -routed. The officers nearly all killed, the men by wholesale: the rout complete; too shocking to think of, and a surprise into the bargain!" He got up from the sofa, walked about again, and then began to speak even more vehemently.

"Here, on this very spot, I took leave of him. 'You have your instructions from the Secretary of War,' said I. 'I had a strict eye to them, and will add but one word: Beware of a surprise! You know how the Indians fight us. Beware of a surprise!' He went off with that my last

warning thrown into his ears. And yet to suffer that army to be cut to pieces, hacked, butchered, tomahawked by a surprise; the very thing I guarded him against! O God!" he exclaimed, throwing up his hands, "he's worse than a murderer! How can he answer it to his country? The blood of the slain is upon him-the curse of widows and orphans-the curse of Heaven!"

Mr. Lear was silent and awe-struck with this torrent of

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passionate words. Washington suddenly seemed to remember himself. He sat down again, as if half-ashamed of his anger; then, in a quieter voice, he said, "This must not go beyond this room;" and added, "General St. Clair shall have justice. I looked hastily through the despatches, saw the whole disaster, but not all the particulars. I will receive him without displeasure; I will hear him without prejudice. He shall have full justice."

CHAPTER XXII.

THE term of four years for which Washington had been elected President was now drawing to an end, and he earnestly protested against being re-elected. He told his friends that "he felt himself growing old, that his health was shaken, and his memory, always bad, was growing worse." But his objections to take office again were overruled by those who had proved his value in administering the affairs of the State; and he was unanimously re-elected, and had the oath administered to him on March 4th, 1793.

It was well that his calm and controlling judgment was still the property of the nation, or America and England might again have been plunged in war.

The news from France was very disastrous. La Fayette, who had been so active in the commencement of the Revolution, would not go to the extremes which the people demanded; he was earnest for reform, but he had no desire for the Reign of Terror. When that began-when the Tuileries was attacked, and the unfortunate king and queen were obliged to fly-La Fayette was arraigned by the Jacobins, on the plea that he had helped their flight; and he endeavoured to make his escape from France, but was captured in Austria, and became a prisoner. Washington instantly wrote to the marchioness, placing a large sum of money from his private purse at her disposal. "This sum is," he says, “I am certain, the least I am indebted for the services rendered me by the Marquis de La Fayette, of which I have never

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yet received the account. I could add much; but it is best, perhaps, that I should say little on this subject. Your goodness will supply my deficiency." The brave marchioness, with her two daughters, joined her husband in his Austrian prison at Olmutz; and their son, George Washington La Fayette, came out to America, to throw himself on the protection of his father's friend.

Soon followed the news of the execution of the unfortunate Louis XVI., who was truly mourned by Washington, for he had been a most faithful and generous ally to America in the time of her need.

In April intelligence was received in America that France had declared war against England. What was America to do now? Enthusiastic men wished at once to. espouse the cause of the French Republic, only too ready to find new grounds of quarrel with the English enemy so lately driven from their own shores.

Washington, who was at Mount Vernon, received news that American vessels were fitting out to go to the assistance of France; and he instantly wrote to Mr. Jefferson, the Secretary of State, a man who had spent many years in Paris, and was well acquainted with all French matters, and imbued with a French republican spirit: "War having actually commenced between France and Great Britain, it behoves the Government of this country to use every means in its power to prevent the citizens thereof from embroiling us with either of those powers, by endeavouring to maintain a strict neutrality."

He hurried to Philadelphia, and held a Cabinet Council, in which it was determined that a proclamation should be issued by the President, forbidding the citizens of the United States to take part in any hostilities on the seas;

and warning them against carrying to the belligerents any articles deemed contraband according to the modern usages of nations; and forbidding all acts and proceedings inconsistent with the duties of a friendly nation towards those at war."

Washington knew that in taking these measures he was doing an unpopular thing, and that it would be said of him that it was a secret sympathy with England and with monarchism which guided his conduct; but he was more ready to be misunderstood than to endanger his country; and he knew that America's Department of War was not strong enough as yet to be effective, and also that the debts which she already owed were sufficient encumbrance for her new Treasury, without incurring fresh ones.

In his farewell address to his country, he justifies his policy of holding neutrality in the words: "After deliberate examination with the aid of the best lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty and interest to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it with moderation, perseverance, and firmness. . . . With me a predominant motive has been to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interruption to that degree of strength and consistency which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes."

A bustling Frenchman, calling himself Citizen Genet, the Minister of the French Republic, came over to America and stirred up the feeling which Washington was doing his best to allay. He tried to get vessels fitted out as