86 CHARLES LEE 



was marching to his doom. This supreme blunder 

 on the part of Howe was ruinous to the British cause. 

 It led directly to the surrender of Burgoyne, and thus 

 to the French alliance and indirectly to Yorktown. 

 The blunder was no doubt largely due to Lee's wild 

 advice, but we owe him small thanks for it. It is im- 

 possible to read his paper and not see that in his stu- 

 pendous conceit he regarded himself as the palladium 

 of the American cause. His capture he regarded as 

 the final overthrow of that cause. What was left of it 

 could be of no use to anybody, and he had better 

 secure good terms for himself by helping to stamp it 

 out as quickly as possible. 



If anything had been known about these treacherous 

 shifts on the part of Lee, he certainly never would have 

 been taken back into the American service. As noth- 

 ing whatever was known about the matter, he was 

 exchanged for General Richard Prescott early in May, 

 1778, and joined Washington's army at Valley Forge. 

 What a frightful situation for the Americans : to have, 

 for the second officer in their army, the man whom the 

 chances of war might at any moment invest with the 

 chief command, such a man as this who had so lately 

 been plotting their destruction ! What would Wash- 

 ington, what would Congress, have thought, had the 

 truth in its blackness been so much as dreamed of? 

 But why, we may ask, did the intriguer come back ? 

 Why did he think it worth his while to pose once more 

 in the attitude of an American ? Could it have been 

 with the intention of playing into the hands of the en- 

 emy ? and could the British commander, knowing this 

 purpose, have thus gladly acquiesced in his return? It 

 is hard to say, but probably this explanation is too 



