duty, and warranted by the occasion." He informed him that he should have an opportunity of justifying himself from the charges "of a breach of orders; of misbehavior before the enemy in not attacking them as he had been directed; and in making an unnecessary, disorderly, and shameful retreat." "You cannot afford me greater pleasure," was Lee's reply, " than in giving me the opportunity of showing to America the sufficiency of her respective servants. I trust that temporary power of office, and the tinsel dignity attending it, will not be able, by all the mists they can raise, to obfuscate the bright rays of truth." He was on the same day arrested, the charge of disrespect to the commander-in-chief being added to the others; and a court-martial was convened to meet on the fourth of July.

In the spirit of these letters he wrote to Robert Morris, in Congress, the day before his trial: "A hellish plan was formed (and I may say, at least, not discouraged by head-quarters) to destroy for ever my honor and reputation. I shall not trouble you at present with the details of the action, but by all that's sacred, General Washington had scarcely any more to do in it than to strip the dead. The general has the madness to charge me with making a shameful retreat. I never retreated in fact (for till I joined him it was not a retreat, but a necessary, and I may say in my own defence, masterly manœuvre). I say I never retreated, but by his positive. orders, who ridiculously sent me out of the field when the victory was assured. Such is my recompense for having sacrificed my friends, my connections, and perhaps my fortune; for having twice extricated this man and his whole army out of perdition; and now having given him the only victory he ever tasted." Parts of this letter he requested him to read to Richard Henry Lee, to Duer, and "others you think prudent."

The court, over which Stirling presided,* began its session on the fourth of July, and adjourned on the twelfth of August, after several interruptions, having found him guilty of all the charges, omitting the term "shameful." Lee was suspended from command for twelve months, a sentence which, with a divided vote,† was confirmed by Congress.

The trial was published by order of Congress. A vindication by Lee was also published, followed by an article which he enclosed to Gates, assailing Washington and defending Conway.

An answer was contemplated by Laurens, who wrote to Hamilton:

"You have seen, and by this time considered, General Lee's infamous publication. I have collected some hints for an answer; but I do not think, either that I can rely upon my own knowledge of facts and style to answer him fully, or that it would be prudent to undertake it without counsel. An affair of this kind ought to be passed over in total silence, or answered in a masterly manner.

"The ancient secretary is the Recueil of modern history and anecdotes, and will give them to us with candor, elegance, and perspicuity. The pen of Junius is in your hand; and I think you will, without difficulty, expose in his defence, letters, and last production, such a tissue of falsehood and inconsistency, as will satisfy the world, and put him forever to silence.

*Besides, were four generals and eight colonels.

December 5th, 1778.-The votes in Congress were as follows::Negatives-Messrs. Whipple, N. H.; S. Adams, Lovell, Mass.; Carmichael, Maryland; M. Smith, Virginia; Harnett, N. C.; Langworthy, Georgia-7.

Affirmative.-Messrs. Frost, N. H.; Holten, Mass.; Collins, Rhode Island; Sherman, Ellsworth, Connecticut; Scudder, New Jersey; Searle, Pennsylvauia; Henry, Maryland; F. L Lee, Virginia; Penn, Williams, N. C.; Laurens, Drayton, S. C.—13.

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"I think the affair will be definitively decided in Congress this day. He has found means to league himself with the old faction, and to gain a great many partisans.

Adieu, my dear boy, I shall set out for camp to-morrow."

This purpose was abandoned. Washington had maintained a dignified silence, and it was not becoming that a public vindication should emanate from his military family.

The biting sarcasms and insulting deportment of Lee at the trial, nevertheless, rankled in the breast of Laurens; and soon after the investigation by Congress closed, a challenge was delivered by Hamilton to Lee in his friend's behalf. A duel followed, in which Lee was slightly wounded. He subsequently disavowed the language imputed to him.

Neither Lee nor his friends were silent. Rush writes to Gates: "The influence of a party drove me from public life. I see Lee and Mifflin separated from the throng that occupy the summit of the mountain. See, my good friend, how they beckon to you to retire into the background of the picture with them, before you are thrust from your rank, and degraded in your character, by the slander and persecutions which have ruined them. You have conquered an army, and saved your country. The war is nearly over, so that you cannot retrieve your ill fortune, nor atone for your crimes by losing a province or wasting an army hereafter. Nothing but a resignation can save your reputation, or restore you again to the favor of the public."

Lee, in terms of disrespect to Washington unfit to be quoted, also urged Gates to resign. Ere the period of his own sentence had expired, upon a rumor that his commission was to be revoked, he wrote a hurried offensive note

to Congress, and was forthwith dismissed the service. In decorous terms he sought to soften the offence, disavowing a desire to be restored. Degraded and soured, his views changed. "The New England men excepted, the rest of the Americans," he wrote, "though they fancy and call themselves republicans, have not a single republican qualification or idea. They have always a God of the day, whose infallibility is not to be disputed: to him all the people must bow down and sing Hosannas." Ere the war ended General: Lee sickened and died, a sad instance of genius, and courage, and character sacrificed to selfish ambition and capricious vanity.*

This year terminated the life of a very different person, James Otis, the early, eloquent, enlightened, disinterested, intrepid advocate of the liberty of his country. His zeal in her behalf had shaken his reason, and as he was standing at his door looking into the heavens, a bolt of lightning struck him; a fate, which, in other days, would have been felt to have consecrated the victim.

*NOTE.-"Treason of General Charles Lee."

CHAPTER XVII.

WASHINGTON, because of their recent fatigues and the intense heat, proceeded with his army to Brunswick, and thence to Paramus in the Jerseys, on his way to the Hud son. At this place he received the thanks of Congress, which were acknowledged, in his name, by Hamilton. Here also, on the thirteenth of July, advices came of the arrival of a French fleet upon the coast.

France was now looking to ocean triumphs, flattered by the promise of her immense military marine at Brest and Toulon, the former comprising a fleet of forty-five ships of the line, thirty-seven frigates, and eighteen lighter vessels; while at Toulon were twenty-seven high deckers, eighteen frigates, and a large number of corvettes and smaller barks. The officers were nobles of the first rank, wearing their scarlet uniforms and aiguillettes resplendent with gold, with whom, next in command, were associated officers of the blue-rude, hardy men, familiar with the sea. Under the same white flag also sailed, members of the great families of Provence, Brittany, Guienne and Languedoc-Barras, Saint Laurent, Bonneval, pupils of the royal school of the marine. The whole thus composed, formed an indigested, ill-governed mass, whom neither the perils of the sea, nor mid-battle, nor the