nding up, and filling a bumper. "His
Excellency General George Washington!"

"With all my heart," cry I, but the parson looks as if he did not like
the toast or the claret.

Hal never tired in speaking of his General; and it was on some such
evening of friendly converse, that he told us how he had actually been
in disgrace with this General whom he loved so fondly. Their difference
seems to have been about Monsieur le Marquis de Lafayette before
mentioned, who played such a fine part in history of late, and who hath
so suddenly disappeared out of it. His previous rank in our own service,
and his acknowledged gallantry during the war, ought to have secured
Colonel Warrington's promotion in the Continental army, where a
whipper-snapper like M. de Lafayette had but to arrive and straightway
to be complimented by Congress with the rank of Major-General. Hal,
with the freedom of an old soldier, had expressed himself somewhat
contemptuously regarding some of the appointments made by Congress, with
whom all sorts of miserable intrigues and cabals were set to work by
unscrupulous officers who were greedy of promotion. Mr. Warrington,
imitating perhaps in this the example of his now illustrious friend of
Mount Vernon, affected to make the war en gentilhomme took his pay, to
be sure, but spent it upon comforts and clothing for his men, and as for
rank, declared it was a matter of no earthly concern to him, and that he
would as soon serve as colonel as in any higher grade. No doubt he added
contemptuous remarks regarding certain General Officers of Congress
army, their origin, and the causes of their advancement: notably he
was very angry about the sudden promotion of the young French lad just
named--the Marquis, as they loved to call him--in the Republican army,
and who, by the way, was a prodigious favourite of the Chief himself.
There were not three officers in the whole Continental force (after
poor madcap Lee was taken prisoner and disgraced) who could speak the
Marquis's language, so that Hal could judge the young Major-General
more closely and familiarly than other gentlemen, including the
Commander-in-Chief himself. Mr. Washington good-naturedly rated friend
Hal for being jealous of the beardless commander of Auvergne; was
himself not a little pleased by the filial regard and profound
veneration which the enthusiastic young nobleman always showed for
him; and had, moreover, the very best politic reasons for treating the