82 CHARLES LEE 



Tarleton and a party of thirty-eight horse, immediately 

 started forth in quest of such high game. At day- 

 break young Major Wilkinson arrived at the inn, with 

 a message from Gates, and found Lee in bed. The 

 general jumped up, thrust his feet into slippers, threw 

 on an old flannel gown over his nightclothes, and pro- 

 ceeded to write a letter to Gates, setting forth his own 

 exalted merits and Washington's matchless stupidity. 

 He had hardly signed and folded it when Wilkinson 

 at the window screamed, " The British ! the British ! " 

 In the twinkling of an eye the house was surrounded 

 and the blustering letter-writer dragged from his bed- 

 room. Several of these soldiers had served with Lee 

 in Portugal and witnessed his gallantry at Villa Velha. 

 They were now surprised and disgusted at seeing him 

 fall on his knees in abject terror, raving like a mad- 

 man and begging Colonel Harcourt to spare his life. 

 " Had he behaved with proper spirit," says Captain 

 Harris, in his journal, " I should have pitied him." 

 No time was wasted. They picked him up, bare- 

 headed and half-dressed, mounted him on Wilkinson's 

 horse, tied him hand and foot, and led him off, with 

 taunts and mirthful jeers. Of course, they said, he 

 must not be surprised if General Howe were to treat 

 him as a deserter, because he was one. The miserable 

 creature muttered and cursed, and let fall one remark 

 which they did not quite comprehend. " Just as I had 

 got the supreme command," said he, 1 and presently 

 added, " The game is up, it is all up." So they carried 

 him off to New Brunswick, while his troops, thus 

 opportunely relieved of such a commander, were 

 promptly marched by Sullivan to Washington's assist- 



1 Moore, p. 63. 



