had always been a special favourite.1 Lee's showy qualities, and his dramatic history, had caught the imagination of the writing world; and, when he was announced to be under lock and key, there were joy and triumph in London as though a battle had been won. The metropolitan newspapers, in a phrase which to Lee's own taste must have seemed exceedingly fine, congratulated Sir William Howe on having taken the Palladium of America. One journal related how the prudent advice of our distinguished prisoner had saved the Continental army from being cut to pieces on the Westchester peninsula. Another, when fortune had at length smiled upon the Americans, discovered that it was General Lee who had reconnoitred the Hessian position at Trenton in the disguise of a peasant, and had devised the plan of attack which an ignorant world attributed to Washington. In America itself, Charles Lee had already been detected and judged by a discriminating few; 2 but the great mass of his fellowcountrymen still believed in him as implicitly as ever. His mishap, coming on the top of their other disasters, bewildered and disheartened them; and they insisted, with an importunity which the governing authorities were compelled to heed, that as early as possible, and at any cost, he should be redeemed from captivity, and placed once more in exalted command. Their anxiety on his behalf was sharpened by a report that he was to be court-martialled as a deserter from the British army, because the resignation of his position as a half-pay officer had not yet been officially accepted by the War

1 "This is to give notice that Thursday night will be held as a day of rejoicin in commemoration of the takin of General Lee, when there will be a sermint preached, and other public demonstrations of joy; after which there will be a nox roasted whole, and every mark of festivity and bell-ringing imaginable, with a ball and cock-fighting at night in the Assembly-room at the Black Lyone." Notice by James Clinch, Parish Clerk and Cryer of Tring in Buckinghamshire; February 13, 1777.

2 "There is something so eccentric in the man's temper, and such a vacancy of principle, that it is impossible for all his talents, which have been much enlarged upon, to support a reputation." Ambrose Serle to Lord Dartmouth; August 1776.

Office in London. He was said to have been placed in close confinement, and deprived of all materials for writing; which in his case would most certainly have been the refinement of cruelty. Whatever might be Washington's inward reflections, they were draped beneath a decent veil of conventional, and apparently quite sincere, regret. In,a private letter to his brother he mentioned Lee's incarceration as an additional misfortune for the public cause, the more vexatious as it was by the General's own folly and imprudence, and without a view to effect any good, that he had fallen into hostile hands.1

Washington before long, to his grievous loss, got Charles Lee back once again; but he was quit of him for the time being, and of that precious time not a shred was wasted. The next fortnight was a season of immense activity in the American lines. A spark of hope soon appeared in cheerful minds; and in more sombre dispositions there was a fixed intention of dying, if death must be faced, elsewhere than on the gallows, or amid the horrors and rigours of the New York jails. The Commander-in-Chief now at last enjoyed an assurance, - the utmost boon which a strong man claims from destiny, that, however bad the situation might have become, it henceforward depended upon himself alone to make the best of it; for Congress, when adjourning to Baltimore, had resolved that "General Washington be possessed of full power to order and direct all things relative to the department and to the operations of war." That access of authority in the right quarter was welcomed by the American army. Washington, in his relations with others, had always evinced the unselfishness of a good comrade, and the self-abnegation of a true leader; - those qualities which cannot fail to secure the willing obedience of all honest and earnest men. "I knew," wrote Sherman to Grant, "that, wherever I was, if I got into a tight place you would help me out of it alive.' That was a compliment

1 Washington to John Augustine Washington; December 18, 1776.

which Washington seldom, or never, failed to deserve. Eight or nine months previously, at the opening of a formidable campaign on the result of which his fame and career were staked, he had despatched ten regiments, of his very best, to the assistance of General Sullivan, then in jeopardy on the northern frontier; and now his own turn had come to appeal for aid from all his colleagues who were not so immediately and urgently threatened as himself. Sullivan had faults; but his warm Irish nature contained no particle of disloyalty or ingratitude. On learning what had happened at Baskingridge tavern, he took prompt and resolute hold of the command which had so suddenly fallen vacant. Having assembled Lee's division upon parade, he rode jauntily along the front of the lines in order to show the troops that they still had a competent leader to direct them; and, with his own voice, he gave them the word to start on their journey to the place where they were sorely wanted. He made a sweeping circuit to the westward, which took him well outside all risk of contact with the British outposts; but he marched four times as quickly as the measure of speed with which his predecessor had of late been contented. On the fifteenth of December Sullivan crossed the Delaware at Easton, a point forty miles above Trenton; and on the twentieth, in a heavy snowstorm, he handed over his troops to the Commander-in-Chief, and reported them as fit and keen for duty, although "much out of sorts, and much in want of everything." 1

A few days after Sullivan had passed through Easton,

1 On the seventeenth of December Doctor Shippen wrote to Richard Henry Lee, from Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, a letter which is preserved in the American Archives. "I have not heard of any clothes and old wine. I fear the varlets have them as secure as poor General Lee. Oh! What a sneaking way of being kidnapped! I cannot bear to think of it. I saw all his troops, about four thousand, this morning, marching from Easton in good spirits, and much pleased with their general."

David How, the diarist of Bunker's Hill and Boston siege, was in Lee's army; and his humble narrative indicates the vastly increased energy which Sullivan infused into the movements of that force.

he was followed across the Delaware by four other battalions which General Schuyler had detached from the garrison of Ticonderoga as soon as Sir Guy Carleton's back was fairly turned. Anthony Wayne, sickening for a fight, had eagerly volunteered to conduct these reinforcements in person. Schuyler, however, could not spare him from his post; and this second contingent of the Northern army was brought into the camp on the Delaware by Benedict Arnold. Washington, before November ended, had directed General Mifflin to visit the capital of Pennsylvania, and raise what force he could from that province. It was an admirable selection, inasmuch as Mifflin had a singular gift for arousing enthusiasm, and the sense of obligation, in the hearts and consciences of other men. He was very

successful with the city militia, who turned out in a most spirited manner, and rallied round the drooping standard of their country fifteen hundred strong.1 Mifflin received that reward which is the most acceptable to a zealous man who has done a good stroke of public work. He was at once given something more to accomplish; and having secured so large a muster from the town, he was ordered off again, then and there, to try his hand on the rural districts. Nor was Arnold detained on the banks of the Delaware; for Washington was too good an economist of motive power in war to keep at his own elbow, in subordinate employment, a soldier of such commanding vigour and dauntless initiative. The coast population of Connecticut and Rhode Island lived under the perpetual menace of Governor Tryon's vindictive forays. Arnold was sent there with

"Dec. 15. This morning, at Day Brake, we set off, and at 10 o'clock at Night we got to Philips Borough, then crossed Dullerway River and went to East Town in Pennsylvania.

"16.

We have ben geting our Baggage a Cross, and geting waggons for the March this day.

"17. This morning we set out And marched 12 miles to Bethlem and staid in the woods there."

1 Washington to Governor Trumbull; Trenton Falls, December 12,

a roving commission to protect the eastern sea-board from incendiarism and rapine; and, in the successful prosecution of that service, he soon had two horses shot under him, and only saved his own life by his coolness. and dexterity in a personal encounter.1

Washington had no occasion to withdraw men of ability from distant quarters and important duties; for his cantonments swarmed with excellent officers. He could not desire more alert and enterprising generals than Greene and Stirling, or braver colonels than Stark of New Hampshire, and Haslet of Delaware. Two special departments of the army were destined to exercise a decisive influence on the events of the next few weeks; and in both of those departments Washington was eminently well provided. His field batteries were in charge of Colonel Knox, who in the previous winter had brought the great train of heavy ordnance from Lake Champlain to the American trenches outside Boston. Knox was chief of the artillery all the while that hostilities lasted; and his practical acquaintance with the use of cannon in siege-work, and in battle, greatly enhanced his efficiency as an administrator. The personal authority which he exerted over his own branch of the service was henceforward firmly established by the skill and dash with which his guns were manœuvred during the operations now impending.2 The other implement of war which Washington had in perfection may be described as his pontoon-corps; although it was designated on the roll of the American army as the Fourteenth Continental Foot. It was composed of the

1 After the action was over, some thrifty New England farmers took the skin off one of the animals, and found in it no less than nine bulletholes. Arnold killed with his pistol a soldier who offered to bayonet him as he lay entangled in his stirrups on the ground.

2 Washington described Knox as a very valuable officer, of great military reading, sound judgment, and clear conceptions; who, combating almost innumerable difficulties, had placed the national artillery upon a footing that did him honour. Those were the terms in which the Commander-in-Chief answered a proposal, emanating from the politicians, to supersede Knox by a Frenchman. Washington to the President of Congress, May 31, 1777; to Richard Henry Lee, June 1, 1777.