the French fleet which was on its way to attack Jamaica.
But an unfortunate incident happened to be exasperating
Loyalists and revolutionists at this very time. Some
revolutionists had killed a Loyalist named Philip White,
apparently out of pure hate. Some Loyalists, under Captain
Lippincott, then seized and hanged Joshua Huddy, a captain
in the Congress militia, out of sheer revenge. A paper
left pinned on Huddy's breast bore the inscription: 'Up
goes Huddy for Philip White.' Washington then demanded
that Lippincott should be delivered up; and, on Carleton's
refusal, chose a British prisoner by lot instead. The
lot fell on a young Lieutenant Asgill of the Guards,
whose mother appealed to the king and queen of France
and to their powerful minister, Vergennes. The American
Congress wanted blood for blood, which would have led to
an endless vendetta. But Vergennes pointed out that
Asgill, a youth of nineteen, was as much a prisoner of
the king of France as of the Continental Congress. At
this the Congress gnashed its teeth, but had to give way.

While the Asgill affair was still running its course,
and embittering Loyalists and rebels more than ever,
Carleton was suddenly informed that the government had
decided to grant complete independence. This was more
than he could stand; and he at once asked to be recalled.
He had been all for honourable reconciliation from the
first. He had been particularly kind to his American
prisoners in Canada and had purposely refrained from
annihilating the American army after the battle of Three
Rivers. But he was not prepared for independence. Nor
had he been sent out with this ostensible object in view.
His official instructions were to inform the Americans
that 'the most liberal sentiments had taken root in the
nation, and that the narrow policy of monopoly was totally
extinguished.' Now he was called upon to surrender without
having tried either his arms or his diplomacy. With
British sea-power beginning to reassert its age-long
superiority over all possible rivals, with practically
all constitutional points of dispute conceded to the
revolutionists, and with the certain knowledge that by
no means the majority of all Americans were absolute
anti-British out-and-outers, he thought it no time to
dismember the Empire. His Intelligence Department had
been busily collecting information which seems surprising
enough as we read it over to-day, but which was based on
the solid facts o