t pretexts of delay were urged; what
piteous excuses were put forward that this fleet arrived too late; that
that regiment mistook its orders; that these cannon-balls would not fit
those guns; and so to the end of the chapter! Here was a general who
beat us with no shot at times, and no powder, and no money; and he never
thought of a convention; his courage never capitulated! Through all the
doubt and darkness, the danger and long tempest of the war, I think it
was only the American leader's indomitable soul that remained entirely
steady.

Of course our Charleston expedition was made the most of, and pronounced
a prodigious victory by the enemy, who had learnt (from their parents,
perhaps) to cry victory if a corporal's guard were surprised, as loud
as if we had won a pitched battle. Mr. Lee rushed back to New York, the
conqueror of conquerors, trumpeting his glory, and by no man received
with more eager delight than by the Commander-in-Chief of the American
Army. It was my dear Lee and my dear General between them, then; and it
hath always touched me in the history of our early Revolution to note
that simple confidence and admiration with which the General-in-Chief
was wont to regard officers under him, who had happened previously to
serve with the King's army. So the Mexicans of old looked and wondered
when they first saw an armed Spanish horseman! And this mad, flashy
braggart (and another Continental general, whose name and whose luck
afterwards were sufficiently notorious) you may be sure took advantage
of the modesty of the Commander-in-Chief, and advised, and blustered,
and sneered, and disobeyed orders; daily presenting fresh obstacles
(as if he had not enough otherwise!) in the path over which only Mr.
Washington's astonishing endurance could have enabled him to march.

Whilst we were away on our South Carolina expedition, the famous Fourth
of July had taken place, and we and the thirteen United States were
parted for ever. My own native state of Virginia had also distinguished
itself by announcing that all men are equally free; that all power is
vested in the people, who have an inalienable right to alter, reform,
or abolish their form of government at pleasure, and that the idea of
an hereditary first magistrate is unnatural and absurd! Our General
presented me with this document fresh from Williamsburg, as we were
sailing northward by the Virginia capes, and, amidst not a little
amusement and laughter, poin