Nor was the public reaction confined only to the men—it raised the women of South Carolina into heroism. They gloried in being called “rebel-ladies,” refused their presence at the scenes of gaiety offered them by the conquerors of their cities, and occupied themselves instead, in visiting and relieving the sufferings and wants of the wounded soldiers, and encouraged their husbands, sons, or brothers, still to be “rebels,” and die, if it must be so, rather than submit to the British. Nor was this noble patriotism confined only to the South. Mrs. Willard assures us, eloquently, that patriotism glowed in the hearts of women throughout all parts of the country, and that they displayed great activity in collecting materials and making clothes for the soldiers. In Philadelphia, a society for this purpose was formed, at the head of which was Martha Washington, the wife of the commander-in-chief. All this was as it should be, but not more than we have a right to expect from the daughters of a parentage so worthy as was that of many an American. The earth’s best blood was in their veins. The daughters of those pilgrim-mothers who left their native land to establish purer and more Christian homes in the American wilderness, could not so belie their ancestry as to fail in the charities of womanhood. But we now come to a dark passage, which forms a strong contrast to the patriotism of the above. The utmost gloom hung over the American affairs in the North. France had once more, it is true, under the influence of La Fayette, who now returned to America, sent over a fleet and a considerable number of troops, to co-operate with the republicans; but nothing as yet had been done. So doubtful indeed did it appear, towards the autumn of 1780, whether the army could even be maintained for another campaign, that Washington was anxious, while he had yet any forces under his command, to strike some decisive blow, and he accordingly proposed to Count de Rochambeau, the French general, who lay with his troops at Newport, to make an attack on New York. In order to concert this proposed plan, Washington went to Hartford, and during his absence a scheme of treason, in the very bosom of the American camp, came to light, which fell like a thunderbolt on the country, and which has so much interesting detail connected with it, that we must be allowed to give it somewhat fully, and in doing so we will principally follow the excellent American historian Hildreth, and the Annual Register of 1781.