ver: we determined it was a glorious
day for the commencement of the expedition.

It did not take place for some days after, and I leave out, purposely,
all descriptions of my Penelope parting from her Hector, going forth on
this expedition. In the first place, Hector is perfectly well (though
a little gouty), nor has any rascal of a Pyrrhus made a prize of his
widow: and in times of war and commotion, are not such scenes of woe and
terror, and parting, occurring every hour? I can see the gentle face yet
over the bulwark, as we descend the ship's side into the boats, and the
smile of the infant on her arm. What old stories, to be sure! Captain
Miles, having no natural taste for poetry, you have forgot the verses,
no doubt, in Mr. Pope's Homer, in which you are described as parting
with your heroic father; but your mother often read them to you as
a boy, and keeps the gorget I wore on that day somewhere amongst her
dressing-boxes now.

My second venture at fighting was no more lucky than my first. We came
back to our ships that evening thoroughly beaten. The madcap Lee, whom
Clinton had faced at Boston, now met him at Charleston. Lee, and the
gallant garrison there, made a brilliant and most successful resistance.
The fort on Sullivan's Island, which we attacked, was a nut we could not
crack. The fire of all our frigates was not strong enough to pound its
shell; the passage by which we moved up to the assault of the place was
not fordable, as those officers found--Sir Henry at the head of them,
who was always the first to charge--who attempted to wade it. Death by
shot, by drowning, by catching my death of cold, I had braved before I
returned to my wife; and our frigate being aground for a time and got
off with difficulty, was agreeably cannonaded by the enemy until she got
off her bank.

A small incident in the midst of this unlucky struggle was the occasion
of a subsequent intimacy which arose between me and Sir Harry Clinton,
and bound me to that most gallant officer during the Period in which
it was my fortune to follow the war. Of his qualifications as a leader
there may be many opinions: I fear to say, regarding a man I heartily
respect and admire, there ought only to be one. Of his personal bearing
and his courage there can be no doubt; he was always eager to show it;
and whether at the final charge on Breed's Hill, when at the head of
the rallied troops he carried the Continental lines, or here before
Sullivan