to remain in command
after this feat, and to complete his glories of Long Island and Breed's
Hill, at Philadelphia! A friend, to be sure, crossed in the night to say
the enemy's army was being ferried over, but he fell upon a picket of
Germans: they could not understand him: their commander was boozing or
asleep. In the morning, when the spy was brought to some one who could
comprehend the American language, the whole Continental force had
crossed the East River, and the empire over thirteen colonies had
slipped away.

The opinions I had about our chief were by no means uncommon in the
army; though, perhaps, wisely kept secret by gentlemen under Mr. Howe's
immediate command. Am I more unlucky than other folks, I wonder? or why
are my imprudent sayings carried about more than my neighbours'? My rage
that such a use was made of such a victory was no greater than that of
scores of gentlemen with the army. Why must my name forsooth be given up
to the Commander-in-Chief as that of the most guilty of the
grumblers? Personally, General Howe was perfectly brave, amiable, and
good-humoured.

"So, Sir George," says he, "you find fault with me, as a military
man, because there was a fog after the battle on Long Island, and your
friends, the Continentals, gave me the slip! Surely we took and killed
enough of them; but there is no satisfying you gentlemen amateurs!" and
he turned his back on me, and shrugged his shoulders, and talked to some
one else. Amateur I might be, and he the most amiable of men; but if
King George had said to him, "Never more be officer of mine," yonder
agreeable and pleasant Cassio would most certainly have had his desert.

I soon found how our Chief had come in possession of his information
regarding myself. My admirable cousin, Mr. William Esmond--who of course
had forsaken New York and his post, when all the Royal authorities fled
out of the place, and Washington occupied it,--returned along with our
troops and fleets; and, being a gentleman of good birth and name, and
well acquainted with the city, made himself agreeable to the newcomers
of the Royal army, the young bloods, merry fellows, and macaronis, by
introducing them to play-tables, taverns, and yet worse places, with
which the worthy gentleman continued to be familiar in the New World
as in the Old. Coelum non animum. However Will had changed his air, or
whithersoever he transported his carcase, he carried a rascal in his
skin.

I had heard