THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 8 1 



Ticonderoga, with seven regiments sent down by 

 Schuyler to Washington's assistance ; but Lee inter- 

 posed, and with more success than he had had in 

 Heath's case, diverted three of these regiments to 

 Morristown. By this time Washington had retreated 

 beyond the Delaware, and almost everybody considered 

 his campaign hopelessly ruined. It seemed as if the 

 cause of American independence was decisively over- 

 thrown, and it certainly was not Charles Lee's fault 

 that it was not so. His design in thus moving inde- 

 pendently was to operate upon the British flank from 

 Morristown, a position of which Washington himself 

 afterward illustrated the great value. The selfish 

 schemer wished to secure for himself whatever advan- 

 tage might be gained from such a movement. His 

 plan was to look on and see Washington defeated and 

 humbled, and then strike a blow on his own account. 

 If Cornwallis had prevailed upon Howe to let him col- 

 lect a flotilla of boats and push on across the river in 

 pursuit of Washington, there would have been a 

 chance offered to Lee to strike the enemy's rear before 

 the crossing had been fully effected. But Howe, per- 

 haps mindful of such a contingency, decided to wait a 

 few days in the hope of seeing the river frozen hard 

 enough to bear troops. In the meantime Lee's castle 

 in the air was overthrown by his own foolishness. On 

 the 1 3th of December, having left his army in charge 

 of Sullivan, he had for some unknown reason passed 

 the night at White's tavern in Baskingridge, about 

 four miles distant. A zealous Tory in the neighbour- 

 hood had noted the fact, and galloped off to the 

 nearest British encampment, eighteen miles distant. 

 Lieutenant-colonel Harcourt, with Captain Banastre 



