THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 87 



simple to cover the case. We must remember that 

 Sir William Howe, the Whig general, had just re- 

 signed his command and gone home to defend his 

 military conduct against the fierce attacks of the king's 

 party. His successor, Sir Henry Clinton, was not only 

 a Tory, but the personal relations between the two 

 were not altogether friendly ; so that it is hardly credi- 

 ble that Clinton could have known anything about 

 Lee's cooperation with Howe ; if he had known it, 

 the secret would not have been buried for eighty years. 

 It is much more likely that, since the disastrous failure 

 of Lee's advice, he was reduced to painful insignifi- 

 cance in the British camp, and so thought it worth 

 while to try his fortune again with the Americans. 

 The past year had seen the tables completely turned. 

 The American star was now in the ascendant; most 

 people expected to see the British driven to their ships 

 before autumn ; and Lord North's commissioners were 

 on their way across the ocean, to offer terms of peace. 

 While Lee could see all this, he could not see how 

 greatly Washington's popular strength had increased 

 during the past winter, as the intrigues against him 

 had recoiled upon their authors. The days of the 

 Conway cabal were really gone by, but this was not 

 yet apparent to everybody. The ambitious schemes 

 of Gates were frustrated, and Lee might now hope 

 again to try his hand at supplanting Washington, with 

 one more rival out of the way. Indeed, there is some 

 reason for believing that the very schemers and syco- 

 phants who had been putting Gates forward were al- 

 ways ready, if occasion should offer, to drop him and 

 take up Lee instead. Doubtless, therefore, Lee came 

 back in the renewed hope of supplanting Washington. 



