expedition to
Virginia, with the brutal incidents which history relates
concerning it. It will suffice to say that Champe formed
part of it, all his efforts to desert proving fruitless. It
may safely be said that no bullet from his musket reached
the American ranks, but he was forced to brave death from
the hands of those with whom alone he was in sympathy.

Not until Arnold's corps had joined Cornwallis at Petersburg
did its unwilling recruit succeed in escaping. Taking to the
mountains he made his way into North Carolina, and was not
long in finding himself among friends. His old corps was in
that State, taking part in the pursuit of Lord Rawdon. It
had just passed the Congaree in this pursuit when, greatly
to the surprise of his old comrades, the deserter appeared
in their ranks. Their surprise was redoubled when they saw
Major Lee receive him with the utmost cordiality. A few
minutes sufficed to change their surprise to admiration.
There was no longer occasion for secrecy. Champe's story was
told, and was received with the utmost enthusiasm by his old
comrades. So this was the man they had pursued so closely,
this man who had been seeking to put the arch-traitor within
their hands! John Champe they declared, was a comrade to be
proud of, and his promotion to a higher rank was the plain
duty of the military authorities.

Washington knew too well, however, what would be the fate of
his late agent, if taken by the enemy, to subject him to
this peril. He would have been immediately hanged. Champe
was, therefore, discharged from the service, after having
been richly rewarded by the commander-in-chief. When
Washington, seventeen years afterwards, was preparing
against a threatened war with the French, he sent to Lee for
information about Champe, whom he desired to make a captain
of infantry. He was too late. The gallant sergeant-major had
joined a higher corps. He had enlisted in the grand army of
the dead.

MARION, THE SWAMP-FOX.

Our story takes us back to the summer of 1780, a summer of
war, suffering, and outrage in the States of the South.
General Gates, at the head of the army of the South, was
marching towards Camden, South Carolina, filled with
inflated hopes of meeting and defeating Cornwallis. How this
hopeful general was himself defeated, and how, in
consequence, the whole country south of Virginia fell under
British control, history relates; we are not here concerned
with it.

Gates's arm