d him the title of
"the hero of King's Mountain." Colonel Ferguson was an excellent
marksman, and brought the art of rifle shooting to high perfection. He
invented a gun of that kind which was said to surpass anything of the
sort before known, and he was said to have outdone even the Indians in
firing and loading and hitting the mark, standing or lying, and in no
matter what position of the body. It was reported that General
Washington owed his life, at the battle of Brandywine, to Ferguson's
ignorance of his person, as he was within his reach.[700:A] He
afterwards, upon discovering the fact, remarked that he was not sorry
that he did not know him.

FOOTNOTES:

[693:A] From verses supposed to have been written about this time by St.
George Tucker:--

"Virtue and Washington in vain
To glory call this prostrate train."

* * "Each eager votary hugs his reams,
And hoards his millions in his dreams.
Ruin with giant strides approaches,
And quartermasters loll in coaches."

[693:B] The expression is from Smollet's Ode to Independence.

[694:A] Anburey mentions a Dr. Fauchee as resident at
Charlottesville--probably Foushee.

[695:A] Colonel Bland, in some verses written during this year, alludes
thus to Mr. Jefferson:--

On yonder height I see a lofty dome;[695:B]
But, hapless fate, the master's not at home.
His high aspiring soul aloft had towered,
That like a God he was by men adored.
But envy now has placed him in Jove's car
To rule the tempest of the mighty war,
That he, like Phaeton, may tumble down,
And by his fall astonish all the town.

[695:B] Monticello.

[697:A] August eighteenth.

[697:B] October ninth.

[698:A] May twelfth.

[698:B] August sixteenth.

[698:C] September first.

[699:A] October sixth.

[700:A] Dodsley's Annual Register for 1781.

CHAPTER XCV.

1780.

Arthur Lee--Deane--Franklin--Madison.

IN the year 1780 Arthur Lee returned to America after a long absence. He
was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on the 20th of December,
1740, being the youngest of five brothers, all of whom became eminent.
After passing some time at Eton he entered the University of Edinburgh,
where he took the degree of doctor of medicine about 1765. The other
students from Virginia there at the same time were Field, Blair,
Bankhead, and Gilmer--the earliest pioneers in this profession in the
colony, at a