om of friend and of foe. To this day, the most
distinguished American and English historians are at issue respecting
the justice of his doom; and to this day, the grave inquirer into the
rise and fall of empires pauses by the way to glean some scanty memorial
of his personal adventures. As often happens, the labors of the lesser
author who pursues but a single object may encounter more success on
that score than the writer whose view embraces a prodigious range; and
many trifling details, too inconsiderable to find place in the pages of
the annals of a state, reward the inquiry that confines itself to the
elucidation of the conduct of an individual.

John Andre was born in England, probably at London,--possibly at
Southampton,--in the year 1751. His father was an honest, industrious
Switzer, who, following the example of his countrymen and his kindred,
had abandoned the rugged land of his birth, and come over to England to
see what could be made out of John Bull. The family-name appears to have
originally been St. Andre; and this was the style of the famous
dancing-master who gave to the courtiers of Charles II. their
graceful motions.

"St. Andre's feet ne'er kept more equal time,"

wrote Dryden, in his "MacFlecknoe"; and the same writer again brings him
forward in the third act of "Limberham." It must be remembered that in
those days the teacher of fencing and dancing occupied a very
respectable position; and St. Andre's career was sufficiently prosperous
to tempt a young kinsman, who felt the elements of success strong within
him, to cross the seas in his own turn, and find wealth and reputation
in those pleasant pastures which England above all other countries then
laid open to the skilful adventurer.

Nicholas St. Andre, who came to London about the close of the
seventeenth century, and who was undoubtedly nearly related to the
future Major Andre, seems to have passed through a career hardly
paralleled by that of Gil Blas himself. From the humblest beginnings,
his ready wit, his multifarious accomplishments, and his indomitable
assurance speedily carried him to the topmost wave of social prosperity.
A brief instruction in surgery gave him such a plausible appearance of
proficiency in the art as to permit his public lectures to be favorably
received, and to lead to his employment in the royal household. George
I. made him Anatomist to the Court, and, as a token of especial grace,
on one occasion, went so fa