friends, than for England and strangers!' Many did as they said. Released from their parole, considering themselves at liberty to take arms anew, and determined to venture all to serve their cause, they repaired by circuitous and unfrequented ways into North Carolina, which was still occupied by the troops of Congress. Others continued to remain in the country, and in the condition of prisoners of war, deferring to take their resolution till the British officers should actually summon them to enter the field. The greater part, submitting to circumstances, could not resolve to abandon their property, and withdraw into distant provinces as some of their fellow-citizens had done. In dread of the persecutions of the English, and even of their own countrymen, and desirous to win favor with their new masters, they had recourse to dissimulation. They preferred to

change their condition, and from prisoners of war to become British subjects. This resolution appeared to them the more expedient, as a report was then in circulation, perhaps purposely forged, that the Congress were come to the determination no longer to dispute with the English the possession of the southern provinces. This rumor was directly opposite to the truth; for in the sitting of the twentyfifth of June, the Congress had declared with much solemnity that they purposed to make every possible exertion for their recovery. But the prisoners of Carolina knew nothing of what passed without, and from day to day they became more confirmed in the idea that their country would remain under British domination. Thus, between choice and compulsion, the multitude resumed the bonds of submission. But the English could have wished to have all under their yoke; they saw with pain that within as well as without the province, there remained some individuals devoted to the party of Congress. Their resentment dictated the most extraordinary measures against the property and families of those who had emigrated, and of those who had remained prisoners of war. The possessions of the first were sequestrated and ravaged; their families were jealously watched and subjected, as rebels, to a thousand vexations. The second were often separated from their hearths, and confined in remote and unhealthy places. These rigors constrained some to retract, and bend the neck under the new slavery; others to offer themselves as good and loyal subjects of the king. Among them were found individuals who had manifested the most ardor for the cause of liberty, and who had even filled the first offices, under the popular government. They generally colored their conversion with saying, that they had never aspired to independence, and that they abhorred the alliance of France. Thus men will rather stain themselves with falsehood and perjury, than live in misfortune and poverty! Such was the conduct of the inhabitants of the country; but those of the city, having by the terms of capitulation the right to remain in their habitations, were not comprehended in the proclama

tion of the third of June. It was requisite, therefore, to employ other means to induce them to stoop to allegiance. The English and more zealous loyalists manœuvred in such a manner, that more than two hundred citizens of Charleston subscribed and presented to the British generals an address, by which they congratulated them upon their victories. This step had been concerted. It was answered them, that they should enjoy the protection of the state and all the privileges of British subjects, if they would sign a declaration of their allegiance and readiness to support the royal government. They obeyed; and their example had many imitators. Hence arose a distinction between subjects and prisoners. The first were protected, honored and encouraged; the second were regarded with contempt, persecuted and harassed in their persons and property. Their estates in the country were loaded with taxes, and even ravaged. Within the city they were refused access to the tribunals, if they had occasion to bring suits against their debtors; while on the other hand they were abandoned to all the prosecutions of their creditors. Thus forced to pay, they were not permitted to receive. They were not suffered to go out of the city without a pass, which was often refused them without motive, and they were even threatened with imprisonment unless they took the oath of allegiance. Their effects were given up to the pillage of the soldiery; their negroes were taken from them; they had no means of redress, but in yielding to what was exacted of them; while the claims of subjects were admitted without question. The artisans were allowed to labor, but not to enforce payment for their work, if their customers chose to refuse it. The Jews had been permitted to purchase many valuable goods of the British traders who had followed the army; but unless they became subjects, they were not allowed to sell them. In brief, threats, fraud, and force, were industriously exercised to urge the inhabitants to violate their plighted faith, and resume their ancient chains. The greater part had recourse to dissimulation, and by becoming subjects, were made partakers of British protection; others, more firm, or more virtuous, refused to bend. But they soon saw an unbridled soldiery sharing out their spoils; some were thrown into pestilential dungeons; others, less unfortunate or more prudent, condemned themselves to a voluntary exile.

Amidst the general desolation, the women of Carolina exhibited an example of more than masculine fortitude. They displayed so ardent, so rare a love of country, that scarcely could there be found in ancient or modern history an instance more worthy to excite surprise and admiration. Far from being offended at the name of rebel ladies, they esteemed it a title of distinction, and glory. Instead of showing themselves in assemblies, the seat of joy and brilliant pleasures, they repaired on board ships, they descended into dungeons, where their husbands, children and friends were in confinement;

'Summon

they carried them consolations and encouragements. your magnanimity,' they said, ' yield not to the fury of tyrants; hesitate not to prefer prisons to infamy, death to servitude. America has fixed her eyes on her beloved defenders; you will reap, doubt it not, the fruit of your sufferings; they will produce liberty, that peront of all blessings; they will shelter her forever from the assaults of British banditti. You are the martyrs of a cause the most grateful to heaven, and sacred for men.' By such words these generous women mitigated the miseries of the unhappy prisoners. They would never appear at the balls or routs that were given by the victors; those who consented to attend them were instantly despised, and dropped by all the others. The moment an American officer arrived at Charleston as prisoner of war, they sought him out, and loaded him with attention and civilities. They often assembled in the most retired parts of their houses, to deplore without restraint the misfortunes of their country. Many of them imparted their noble spirit to their hesitating and wavering husbands; they determined them to prefer a rigorous exile to their interest and to the sweets of life. Exasperated at their constancy, the English condemned the most zealous to banishment and confiscation. In bidding a last farewell to their fathers, their children, their brothers, their husbands, these heroines, far from betraying the least mark of weakness, which in men might have been excused, exhorted them to arm themselves with intrepidity. They conjured them not to allow fortune to vanquish them, nor to suffer the love they bore their families to render them unmindful of all they cwed their country. When comprehended, soon after, in the general decree of banishment issued against the partisans of liberty, they abandoned with the same firmness their natal soil. A supernatural alacrity seemed to animate them when they accompanied their husbands into distant countries, and even when immured with them in the fetid ships, into which they were inhumanly crowded. Reduced to the most frightful indigence, they were seen to beg bread for themselves and families. Among those who were nurtured in the lap of opulence, many passed suddenly from the most delicate and the most elegant style of living to the rudest toils, and to the humblest services. But humiliation could not triumph over their resolution and cheerfulness; their example was a support to their companions in misfortune. To this heroism of the women of Carolina, it is principally to be imputed, that the love, and even the name of liberty, were not totally extinguished in the southern provinces. The English hence began to be sensible, that their triumph was still far from secure. For, in every affair of public interest, the general opinion never manifests itself with more energy than when women take part in it with all the life of their imagination. Less powerful as well as less stable than that of men when calm, it is far more vehement and pertinacious when roused and inflamed.

Such was the spectacle presented at that time in South Carolina; on the one hand, an open resistance to the will of the conqueror, or a feigned submission; on the other, measures that continually operated an effect directly contrary to that which their authors expected from them. Meanwhile, the heat of the season, the dubious state of the province itself, and the necessity of deferring the campaign until the harvest was over, occasioned an almost general suspension of arms. It was not possible for the English to think of the conquest of North Carolina before the last of August or the beginning of September. Lord Cornwallis resolved to canton his troops in such a manner, that they should be in readiness to support the loyalists, to repress the discontented, and to undertake the invasion of that province as soon as the proper season should arrive. He was particularly careful to collect provision and munitions of war. His principal magazines were established at Cambden, a large village situated on the banks of the river Wateree, and upon the road which leads into North Carolina.

He feared lest the loyalists of that province, stimulated by excess of zeal, should break out before the time, which might lead to their destruction. His emissaries continually exhorted them to await the time of harvest in tranquillity, and to content themselves with preparing subsistence for the royal troops, who would advance to their succour towards the month of September. These prudent counsels had not the effect to prevent the loyalists of Tryon county from rising at the instigation of colonel Moore. But instantly crushed by a corps of republicans, under the command of general Rutherford, they paid dearly for the contempt with which they had presumed to treat admonitions dictated by foresight. Eight hundred loyalists, however, under the conduct of colonel Bryan, made good their junction with the royal troops. But while the British generals were making their dispositions to profit of the favorable season to attack North Carolina, in order to open themselves a passage into the heart of Virginia, the Congress exerted all diligence to put themselves in a situation to recover South Carolina. Their efforts, as we shall see, were not without success. Thus the flames of war, for the moment almost extinguished, were on the point of being rekindled with more violence than ever.

Before entering upon the recital of the events of the bloody campaign that ensued, it is necessary to describe what passed in the West Indies between two powerful and equally spirited rivals. Already a very obstinate action had taken place between the chevalier de la Motte Piquet and commodore Cornwallis, in the waters of La Grange, to the east of Cape Francois. The first had four ships, two of which of seventy-four guns, the Annibal and the Diademe. The other had only three, the heaviest of which was the Lion, of sixty-four guns. But this engagement was merely a prelude to the

battles that followed shortly after. About the last of March, the count de Guichen had arrived in the West Indies with such considerable reenforcements, that the French fleet there amounted to twentyfive sail of the line. Resolved to profit of their superiority by sea as well as by land, the French embarked a strong body of troops, under the conduct of the marquis de Bouille, and presented themselves with twenty-two ships of the line before the island of St. Lucia. Their intention was to carry it by assault. But general Vaughan, who commanded on shore, had neglected no measure of defence; and admiral Hyde Parker, who had repaired thither from the coasts of America, had so advantageously posted sixteen sail of the line at Gros Islet, that the French commanders abandoned their project, and returned to Martinico. A few days after, admiral Rodney arrived at St. Lucia with reenforcements from Europe; his junction with Parker placed at his command twenty-two sail of the line. Full of confidence in his strength, the English admiral sailed immediately for Fort Royal bay in Martinico, in order to challenge his enemy to battle. But the count de Guichen, who was not disposed to engage a decisive action, except when he should think it expedient, did not go out of the port. Rodney having left some swift sailing frigates to watch the motions of the French, and to give notice, in case they should sail, returned with the remainder of his fleet to St. Lucia. The count de Guichen did not remain long inactive. He put to sea, in the night of the thirteenth of April, with twenty-two sail of the line, and four thousand land troops, prepared to undertake any operation that should offer some hope of success. Rodney was soon advised of it, and sailed in quest of him; his fleet consisted of twenty ships of the line, and the Centurion of fifty guns. He commanded the centre himself, rear-admiral Hyde Parker the van, and rear-admiral Rowley the rear division. The French were standing through the channel of Dominica, intending afterwards to stretch off to windward of Martinico. Their van was under the conduct of the chevalier de Sade, the main body was led by the commander-in-chief, the count de Guichen, and the rear by the count de Grasse. The two armaments came in sight of each other towards evening, on the sixteenth of April. The French, whose ships were encumbered with soldiers, and who found themselves under the wind, endeavored to avoid an engagement. But the English bore down upon them. The count de Guichen profited of the night to manœuvre so as not to be obliged to join battle; Rodney, on the contrary, in order to render it inevitable. On the succeeding morning, the two fleets executed various evolutions with admirable skill; and, a little before one o'clock, the French rear was brought to action by the British van. For it is to be observed, that in tacking to take an inverse order of battle, the French van was become rear. Meanwhile, Rodney arrived with his division upon the French