who intrigued in the Congress to displace him. Despite every bitter experience of that dark and anxious season, he had when spring came an army stronger and fitter for service than it had been when he took it into winter quarters. The lengthened term of service had given him at last an army which might be drilled, and foreign officers,—notably the capable Steuben,—had taught him how to drill it. [Illustration: BARON DE STEUBEN] General Howe’s winter passed easily and merrily enough in Philadelphia. The place was full of people of means and influence who hoped as heartily as Mr. Galloway did for the success of the British arms. Some of the leading Quakers of the town, whose influence was all for an accommodation of the quarrel with the mother country, had been arrested the previous summer (1777) and sent south by the patriot leaders; but many more were left who were of their mind, and General Howe met something like a welcome when he came in the autumn. The fashionable young women of the town were delighted to look their best and to use their charms to the utmost at all the balls and social gatherings that marked the gay winter of his stay, and their parents were not displeased to see them shine there. But for the soldiers’ coats one would have thought that peace had come again. But the minds of the ministers in England were not so much at ease. In February, 1778, Lord North introduced and pressed through Parliament conciliatory measures of the most radical sort, practically retracing every misjudged step taken with regard to the colonies since 1763; and commissioners of peace were sent to America with almost plenipotentiary powers of accommodation. But that very month a formal treaty of alliance was signed between France and the United States; by the time the peace commissioners reached Philadelphia, England had a war with France on her hands as well as a war with the colonies; there was no rejoicing in the camp at Valley Forge over the news of Lord North’s unexpected turn of purpose, but there was very keen rejoicing when news of the French alliance came. The Congress would not treat with the commissioners. Conciliation had come too late; for the colonies the aspect of the war was too hopeful. When the commissioners reached Philadelphia they found General Clinton about to abandon it. Sir Henry Clinton had succeeded General Howe in chief command in May. His orders were to evacuate Philadelphia and concentrate his forces once more at New York. The town was as full of excitement and dismay at the prospect as it had been but a little more than a year ago at news of the British approach. When the army began to move, three thousand loyalists abandoned the town with it, going with the stores by sea, while Sir Henry took his fifteen thousand men overland through the Jerseys again. [Illustration: FACSIMILE OF PLAY BILL]