ing the war debt.
This being at length adjusted, no part of our citizens pay
their public demands with more punctuality (except their
muster fines, which they still refuse to pay)."

_Loudoun's Revolutionary Hero._

John Champe, the tall and saturnine sergeant-major of Lee's celebrated
partisan legion, was a resident of Loudoun County. Readers of Lee's
"Memoirs of the War" will recall the account of Champe's pretended
desertion from the Continental armies. This perilous adventure was
undertaken for the threefold purpose of capturing the traitor Arnold,
saving the life of the unfortunate Andre, and establishing the
innocence of General Gates, who had been charged with complicity in
Arnold's nefarious intrigue. His investigations secured the complete
vindication of Gates; but, failing in his other attempts, he drifted
with the Red Coats to North Carolina, where he deserted their ranks
and rejoined the American forces under General Greene.

That officer provided him with a good horse and money for his journey,
and sent him to General Washington. The commander-in-chief
"munificently anticipated every desire of the sergeant, and presented
him with a discharge from further service, lest he might, in the
vicissitudes of war, fall into the enemy's hands; when, if recognized,
he was sure to die on a gibbet." His connection with the army thus
abruptly, though honorably, severed, with no little regret we are to
suppose, he straightway repaired to his home near Leesburg.

In after years, when General Washington was called by President Adams
to the command of the army organized to defend the country from French
hostility, he inquired for Champe, with the avowed purpose of placing
him at the head of a company of infantry. Lieutenant-Colonel Lee,
through whom the inquiry had been made, dispatched a courier to
Loudoun County in search of Champe. There he learned that the intrepid
soldier and daring adventurer had removed to Kentucky, where he soon
afterward died.

Some interesting anecdotes concerning Champe are related in a portion
of Captain Cameron's private journal, published in the British United
Service Journal. Champe was assigned to his company, a part of
Arnold's British legion, upon his arrival in New York.

_Army Recommendations._

The following list of militia officers were "recommended by the
gentlemen justices of the county Court for Loudoun County, Virginia,
to the Governor for appointments fr