chagrin, envy, or ambition, are
endeavoring to lessen you in the minds of the people, and taking
underhand methods to traduce your character," etc.

Generals Gates, Mifflin, and Conway were engaged in this plot; but their
timely and complete exposure redounded to the honor of Washington.

The duel which General Hamilton fought with General Conway, in which the
latter was severely wounded, grew out of this affair. Hamilton could not
endure the presence of an officer who was secretly plotting against his
chief.

In the month of February Mrs. Washington joined her husband at Valley
Forge, to share his winter quarters with him, as she had done at
Cambridge and Morristown. She wrote to a friend:

"The general's apartment is very small; he has had a log cabin built to
dine in, which has made our quarters much more tolerable than they were
at first.

"The commander-in-chief shared the privations of the camp with his men.
His cabin was like theirs."

The presence of Mrs. Washington at Valley Forge was a blessing to the
army. She occupied her time fully in caring for the sick, sewing and
mending for the "boys," and making herself generally useful.

Again the commander-in-chief interceded with Congress for more liberal
pay for his soldiers. Alluding to the sufferings of his soldiers, he
wrote:

"To see men without clothes to cover their nakedness, without blankets
to lie on, without shoes (for the want of which their marches might be
traced by the blood from their feet), and almost as often without
provisions as with them, marching through the frost and snow, and at
Christmas taking up their winter quarters within a day's march of the
enemy, without a house or hut to cover them till it could be built,
and submitting without a murmur, is a proof of patience and obedience
which, in my opinion, cannot be paralleled."

It was during this memorable winter at Valley Forge that a man by the
name of Potts was strolling through the woods, when he heard the sound
of a human voice. Cautiously approaching the spot whence the voice
proceeded, what was his surprise to discover Washington on his knees
engaged in earnest prayer for his country. On returning home, Potts
called to his wife, "Sarah, Sarah, all is well. George Washington will
triumph!"

"What is the matter now, Isaac? Thee seems moved," Mrs. Potts replied.
(They were Quakers.)

"I have this day seen what I never expected to see," Mr. Potts
continued. "Thee knows that