EXECUTION OF COLONEL HAYNE

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recapture him, and Colonel Hayne fell into their hands. Lord Rawdon was then commandant at Charleston, and he ordered him "knocked into irons," when a mock trial, called by Rawdon a court of inquiry, sentenced him to be hung. All heard the sentence with horror except he upon whom it was pronounced. Numbers of the British and loyalists, with Governor Bull at their head, petitioned Lord Rawdon in his behalf. All the ladies of Charleston, loyal and Whig, joined in a most touching appeal to the iron hearts of Rawdon and Balfour; but to no purpose. His little children, who had lately lost. their mother, were introduced, and fell at the tyrant's knees, praying him to pity their motherless situation, and give them back their only remaining parent; but in vain.

The victim alone appeared prepared for the failure of the many exertions thus made by friends and foes. He spent the last days of his life in endeavouring to fortify his son, a lad of thirteen, for the coming catastrophe. On the day before its occurrence, he said to him, "To-morrow, I set out for immortality. You will accompany me to the place of my execution, and when I am dead, take and bury me by the side of your mother." The youth here fell on his father's neck, exclaiming, "O my father! my father! I will die with you." But the father's hands were loaded with irons, and he could not return his son's embrace.* On the next morning, August 10th, 1781, he was led forth to be murdered, in the bloom of life, a victim to the cowardice and tyranny of his country's invaders.

*Horry's Life of Marion.

CAMPAIGN OF 1781.-CONCLUDED.

ANIFOLD as were the privations of the American soldiers in the Northern States, to which arena we must again conduct the reader, those patriotic men endured them with admirable fortitude, and amidst every temptation adhered to the cause of their country. Besides

the want of clothing suited to the season, the troops in the various garrisons were nearly all in danger of starvation.

CONTINENTAL CURRENCY STOPPED.

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The fact that the army was kept together under the circumstances, is almost incredible, when we consider that many times there were not enough provisions in store for the troops to enable them to subsist three days. Officers were sent out in all directions, with orders to seize provisions wherever they could be found; and the only return they made was to give the owner, in each instance, a certificate of the quantity and quality of the provisions that were taken from him. For a time these certificates were valued by the people as an evidence of obligation on the part of the public; but they soon became so common as to be considered worthless. West Point, Fort Schuyler, and the other posts on the North river, were more than once on the point of being abandoned by their starving garrisons. Fortunately, however, a small supply of provisions would occasionally arrive, and the men would then willingly go back to their duty. The sum of eight thousand dollars, which had been sent to the commander-inchief by the State of Massachusetts for the payment of her troops, was taken by him and applied to refund the quartermaster's department.

In 1781, the continental currency ceased altogether to circulate; but this event, long hoped for by the enemies and dreaded by the friends of American liberty, failed to produce the effects which had been expected to result from it. The leaders in Congress had long foreseen that this must at last happen; and they had exerted themselves to the utmost to prevent the consequences. They were not disappointed. A beneficial trade with the West Indian Islands, brought much gold into the country, and the French army in Rhode Island was well provided with gold and silver. Lieutenant-Colonel John Laurens went as special minister to France to procure a loan from that government. He succeeded in obtaining a loan from the King of France of six millions of livres; and ten millions more were borrowed in the Netherlands, for the use of the United States, the King of France becoming security for the repayment of the loan. The financial concerns were put under the direction of Robert Morris, who reduced

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OPERATIONS IN VIRGINIA.

them to a state of order, and by the skilful use of the gold now introduced into the country, aided by the bank which that able financier had established in the preceding year, Congress were enabled to maintain their army in a condition fit for service.

Meanwhile, the enemy was not idle. Many censures had been passed upon Sir Henry Clinton for having kept his large army in New York, whilst, it was alleged, that by distributing his troops properly he might have made serious impression upon several of the states at the same time. We have already noticed the attack upon the shores of the Chesapeake by General Leslie, in the latter part of 1780. Soon after his departure for Charleston, another party from New York sailed up that bay, under the direction of Arnold. He commanded about sixteen hundred men, and a considerable number of armed vessels. He landed at Westover, and soon afterwards entered the city of Richmond, destroying large quantities of salt, rum, tobacco, and other stores. From thence he went to Portsmouth, from whence, as a centre, small parties were sent all over the country, doing immense damage in the destruction of public and private property, and committing such havoc as induced General Washington to despatch the Marquis de la Fayette thither with twelve hundred men. The French commander in Rhode Island, being informed of the operations of Arnold, eagerly set out for the Chesapeake, with the hope of cutting off his escape.

The capture of the arch-traitor, as Arnold was styled, had been a cherished object with the Americans. Two methods of getting possession of his person had been suggested; one, that a few daring individuals should carry him off by making a sudden incursion into his camp; the other that he should be blockaded by an overwhelming force, by sea and land, so closely as to prevent the possibility of his escape. A furious storm which scattered the British fleet, and severely damaged a part of it, gave the French, who had long been blockaded in Newport, a temporary naval superiority. Washington now endeavoured to profit by this circumstance, and wrote to Rochambeau and Destouches, representing to them the

necessity of sending the whole fleet and a thousand land troops, to co-operate with La Fayette. But Destouches had already resolved to send but one sixty-four gun ship and two frigates, under command of M. de Tilly. This force sailed. for the Chesapeake on the 9th of February; but, as Washington had predicted, M. de Tilly found Arnold so well. posted as to defy attack. The French admiral therefore was contented with showing himself in the bay, and then proceeded to return to Newport. On the voyage thither he fell in with and captured the Romulus, a fifty gun ship, bound