w a man look more wicked and more bent on killing than
you did: 'And to do Sir George justice, I think he has hated me ever
since,' says the Chief. 'Ah!' he added, 'an open enemy I can face
readily enough. 'Tis the secret foe who causes the doubt and anguish! We
have sat with more than one at my table to-day, to whom I am obliged to
show a face of civility, whose hands I must take when they are offered,
though I know they are stabbing my reputation, and are eager to pull me
down from my place. You spoke but lately of being humiliated because a
junior was set over you in command. What humiliation is yours compared
to mine, who have to play the farce of welcome to these traitors; who
have to bear the neglect of Congress, and see men who have insulted me
promoted in my own army? If I consulted my own feelings as a man, would
I continue in this command? You know whether my temper is naturally warm
or not, and whether as a private gentleman I should be likely to
suffer such slights and outrages as are put upon me daily; but in the
advancement of the sacred cause in which we are engaged, we have to
endure not only hardship and danger, but calumny and wrong, and may God
give us strength to do our duty!' And then the General showed me
the papers regarding the affair of that fellow Conway, whom Congress
promoted in spite of the intrigue, and down whose black throat John
Cadwalader sent the best ball he ever fired in his life.

"And it was here," said Hal, concluding his story, "as I looked at the
Chief talking at night in the silence of the camp, and remembered how
lonely he was, what an awful responsibility he carried, how spies and
traitors were eating out of his dish, and an enemy lay in front of him
who might at any time overpower him, that I thought, 'Sure, this is the
greatest man now in the world; and what a wretch I am to think of my
jealousies and annoyances, whilst he is walking serenely under his
immense cares!'"

"We talked but now of Wolfe," said I. "Here, indeed, is a greater than
Wolfe. To endure is greater than to dare; to tire out hostile fortune;
to be daunted by no difficulty; to keep heart when all have lost it; to
go through intrigue spotless; and to forgo even ambition when the end is
gained--who can say this is not greatness, or show the other Englishman
who has achieved so much?"

"I wonder, Sir George, you did not take Mr. Washington's side, and wear
the blue and buff yourself," grumbles Parson Blake.