THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 77 



tyrant, an abandoned parliament, and a corrupt, pusil- 

 lanimous people have formed a hellish league to rob 

 you of everything men hold most dear; is it possible 

 there should be creatures who march on two legs and 

 call themselves human, who can be so destitute of 

 sentiment, courage, and feeling, as sobbingly to protest 

 they shall consider separation from these butchers 

 and robbers as the last of misfortunes? Oh, I could 

 brain you with your ladies' fans ! " 1 We shall do well 

 to remember this fervid vehemence when we come to 

 the very different key in which the writer's sentiments 

 are pitched just twelve months later. 



While these things were going on, Clinton was 

 cruising about Albemarle Sound, but late in May Sir 

 Peter Parker's fleet arrived, with fresh troops under 

 Lord Cornwallis, and presently on the 4th of June the 

 whole armada was collected before the entrance to 

 Charleston harbour. Lee, following by land, reached 

 the city on the same day. Preparations had already 

 been made to resist the enemy, and Colonel William 

 Moultrie was constructing his famous palmetto fort on 

 Sullivan's Island. Lee blustered and found fault, as 

 usual, sneered at the palmetto stronghold, and would 

 have ordered Moultrie to abandon it ; but President 

 Rutledge persuaded him to let the sagacious colonel 

 have his way. In the battle which ensued, on the 

 28th of June, between the fort and the fleet, Moultrie 

 won a decisive and very brilliant victory. But as 

 Moultrie was as yet unknown outside of South 

 Carolina, the credit was by most people inconsiderately 

 given to Lee. In his despatch to Congress the latter 

 spoke generously of the courage and skill of his 



1 Langworthy's " Memoirs, 11 p. 382. 



