H4 Life of Count Rumford. 



each day on the war, he writes under date of November 

 14, 1780: 



" Arriving at home, William Cabot drank tea with me, S. 

 Sparhawk came in afterwards, and abode two hours; from whom 

 I heard the first account of Arnold's intentional withdrawing 

 himself and four or five thousand troops under his command 

 from Congressional service to the Royal standard at New 

 York, the failure of this scheme of treachery, and his lucky 

 escape from his enemies' hands. From him also the relation of 

 the seizure of Mr. Laurens's papers, late President of the Con- 

 gress, and now a prisoner in the Tower ; giving an account of 

 the desperate situation of their affairs, with complaints of failure 

 of their resources, and their inability to support the war any longer 

 without loans from Holland, France, or Spain. The above 

 comes from Benjamin Thompson, a native of Massachusetts, 

 (formerly an apprentice to my next-door neighbor in Salem, 

 Mr. John Appleton, an importer of British goods,) now Under- 

 secretary in the American Department." 



Curwen records next year, April 19, an unsuccessful 

 attempt to call on Mr. Thompson at his lodgings, Pall 

 Mall. On May 23 he writes : 



"On returning home, found a letter from Arthur Savage, 

 informing me of Mr. Thompson's compliments and wish to see 

 me at eleven o'clock to-morrow at his lodgings. 



"May 24 [1781]. Went early, in order to be at Mr. Benja- 

 min Thompson's in time, and being a little before, heard he was 

 not returned from Lord George Germaine's, where he always 

 breakfasts, dines, and sups, so great a favorite is he. To kill 

 half an hour, I loitered to the Park through the Palace, and on 

 second return found him at his lodgings ; he received me in a 

 friendly manner, taking me by the hand, talked with great free- 

 dom, and promised to remember and serve me in the way I 

 proposed to him [probably the securing the continuance of 

 his allowance unreduced]. Promises are easily made, and 

 genteel delusive encouragement, the staple article of trade, be- 



