with no visible object of pursuit to stimulate their ardor, hunting,
as it were, the rumored apparitions of an unseen fleet.

The same machinations which were so successful in displacing the
noble-hearted Schuyler from the head of the Northern department, were
now at work to undermine the commander-in-chief, and elevate the
putative hero of Saratoga on his ruins. He was painfully aware of
them; yet in no part of the war did he more thoroughly evince that
magnanimity which was his grand characteristic, than in the last
scenes of this campaign, where he rose above the tauntings of the
press, the sneerings of the cabal, the murmurs of the public, the
suggestions of some of his friends, and the throbbing impulses of his
own courageous heart, and adhered to that Fabian policy which he
considered essential to the safety of the cause. To dare is often the
impulse of selfish ambition or harebrained valor: to forbear is at
times the proof of real greatness.

While censure and detraction had dogged Washington throughout his
harassing campaign, Gates was the constant theme of popular eulogium,
and was held up by the cabal as the only one capable of retrieving the
desperate fortunes of the South. Letters from his friends in Congress
urged him to hasten on, take his seat at the head of the Board of War,
assume the management of military affairs, and _save the country!_
Gates was not a strong-minded man. Is it a wonder, then, that his
brain should be bewildered by the fumes of incense offered up on every
side. In the midst of his triumph, however, while feasting on the
sweets of adulation, came the withering handwriting on the wall! It is
an epistle from his friend Mifflin. "My dear General," writes he, "an
extract from Conway's letter to you has been procured and sent to
head-quarters.... General Washington enclosed it to Conway without
remarks."

Nothing could surpass the trouble and confusion of mind of Gates on
the perusal of this letter. Part of his correspondence with Conway had
been sent to head-quarters. But what part? What was the purport and
extent of the alleged extracts. How had they been obtained? Who had
sent them? Mifflin's letter specified nothing; and this silence as to
particulars left an unbounded field for tormenting conjecture. In
fact, Mifflin knew nothing in particular when he wrote; nor did any of
the cabal. The laconic nature of Washington's note to Conway had
thrown them all in confusion. None knew the