CHAPTER XXVIII
IN WHICH ARNOLD AND HENRY THORNHILL ARRIVE IN THE HIGHLANDS
Margaret and her mother returned to England with David Hartley soonafter Colonel Irons had left France. The British Commissioner had notbeen able to move the philosopher. Later, from London, he had sent aletter to Franklin seeking to induce America to desert her new ally.Franklin had answered:
"I would think the destruction of our whole country and the extirpationof our people preferable to the infamy of abandoning our allies. Wemay lose all but we shall act in good faith."
Here again was a new note in the history of diplomatic intercourse.
Colonel Irons' letter to Margaret Hare, with the greater part of whichthe reader is familiar, was forwarded by Franklin to his friendJonathan Shipley, Bishop of St. Asaph, and by him delivered. Anotherletter, no less vital to the full completion of the task of these pageswas found in the faded packet. It is from General Sir Benjamin Hare tohis wife in London and is dated at New York, January 10, 1780. This isa part of the letter:
"I have a small house near the barracks with our friend Colonel Wareand the best of negro slaves and every comfort. It is now a loyalcity, secure from attack, and, but for the soldiers, one might think ita provincial English town. This war may last for years and as the seais, for a time, quite safe, I have resolved to ask you and Margaret totake passage on one of the first troop ships sailing for New York,after this reaches you. Our friend Sir Roger and his regiments will besailing in March as I am apprised by a recent letter. I am, by thispost, requesting him to offer you suitable accommodations and to giveyou all possible assistance. The war would be over now if Washingtonwould only fight. His caution is maddening. His army is in adesperate plight, but he will not come out and meet us in the open. Hecontinues to lean upon the strength of the hills. But there areindications that he will be abandoned by his own army."
Those "indications" were the letters of one John Anderson, whodescribed himself as a prominent officer in the American army. Theletters were written to Sir Henry Clinton. They asked for a command inthe British army and hinted at the advantage to be derived from facts,of prime importance, in the writer's possession.
Margaret and her mother sailed with Sir Roger Waite and his regimentson the tenth of March and arrived in New York on the twenty-sixth ofApril. _Rivington's Gazette_ of the twenty-eighth of that monthdescribes an elaborate dinner given by Major John Andre,Adjutant-General of the British Army, at the City Hotel to General SirBenjamin Hare and Lady Hare and their daughter Margaret. Indeed theconditions in New York differed from those in the camp of Washington asthe day differs from the night.
A Committee of Congress had just finished a visit to Washington'sHighland camp. They reported that the army had received no pay in fivemonths; that it often went "sundry successive days without meat"; thatit had scarcely six days' provisions ahead; that no forage wasavailable; that the medical department had neither sugar, tea,chocolate, wine nor spirits.
The month of May, 1780, gave Washington about the worst pinch in hiscareer. It was the pinch of hunger. Supplies had not arrived. Faminehad entered the camp and begun to threaten its life. Soldiers can getalong without pay but they must have food. Mutiny broke out among therecruits.
In the midst of this trouble, Lafayette, the handsome French Marquis,then twenty-three years old, arrived on his white horse, after a winterin Paris, bringing word that a fleet and army from France were headingacross the sea. This news revived the drooping spirit of the army.Soon boats began to arrive from down the river with food from the east.The crisis passed. In the north a quiet summer followed. The Frenchfleet with six thousand men under Rochambeau arrived at Newport, Julytenth, and were immediately blockaded by the British as was a likeexpedition fitting out at Brest. So Washington could only hold to hisplan of prudent waiting.