re not, either in men or arms, prepared for it. However, it
is to be hoped that, if our cause is just, as I most religiously
believe, the same Providence which has in many instances appeared for us
will still go on to afford us its aid."

Congress was in session at Philadelphia, and Washington went thither to
confer with members concerning the summer campaign, and to plead for
aid. Through his influence, Congress added twenty-three thousand militia
to the army, including a flying camp of ten thousand.

In the midst of these troubles a conspiracy of startling magnitude was
discovered. "A part of the plot being," says Sparks, "to seize General
Washington and carry him to the enemy." Rev. John Marsh of Wethersfield,
Conn., wrote and published the following account of the affair:

"About ten days before any of the conspirators were taken up, a woman
went to the general and desired a private interview. He granted it to
her, and she let him know that his life was in danger, and gave him such
an account of the conspiracy as gained his confidence. He opened the
matter to a few friends on whom he could depend. A strict watch was kept
night and day, until a favorable opportunity occurred, when the general
went to bed as usual, arose about two o'clock, told his lady that he was
going with some of the Provincial Congress to order some Tories seized,
desired she would make herself easy and go to sleep. He went off without
any of his aides-de-camp, except the captain of his life-guard; was
joined by a number of chosen men, with lanterns and proper instruments
to break open houses; and before six o'clock next morning had forty men
under guard at the City Hall, among whom was the mayor of the city,
several merchants, and five or six of his own life-guard. Upon
examination, one Forbes confessed that the plan was to assassinate the
general and as many of the superior officers as they could, and to blow
up the magazine upon the appearance of the enemy's fleet, and to go off
in boats prepared for that purpose to join the enemy."

Thomas Hickey, one of Washington's own guard, was proved to be a leader
in the plot, and he was sentenced to be hung. The sentence was executed
on the twenty-eighth day of June, in a field near Bowery Lane, in the
presence of twenty thousand people.

On the same day four of the enemy's warships dropped anchor in the bay.
The next morning there were forty ships, and they continued to arrive
until one hundred an