General Arnold was in command at West Point. He was one of the bravest of soldiers, but a ruined gambler. Napoleon I. declared that he would never appoint any gambler to any post of responsibility. Arnold was overwhelmed with these so-called debts of honor. He saw no hope for his country. He could turn traitor, and barter West Point for almost boundless quantities of British gold. The gambler became a traitor. The treason was detected. The traitor escaped, but young Andrè, who allowed himself to act the part of a spy in this foul deed, perished upon the scaffold. He was very young. He was surrounded by influences which perverted his judgment and deadened his conscience. Consequently, great sympathy was felt for him, and many tears were shed over his untimely end. Britain proudly proclaimed that with her invincible fleet she ruled supreme over the wild waste of waters. The whole ocean she regarded as her undisputed domain. Lord Cornwallis was sent with a powerful army to overrun North and South Carolina. He had a numerous fleet to co-operate with him. The vigilant eye of Washington was fixed everywhere upon the foe, striving to ward off blows, and to harass the enemy in his movements. Thus the dreary summer of 1780 lingered away, over our war-scathed, woe-stricken land. There were many bloody conflicts, but no decisive battles. Still Washington was victorious; for he thwarted all the herculean endeavors of the British to enslave our land. In the opening spring of the year 1781, the British turned their main energies of devastation and ruin against the South. Richmond, in Virginia, was laid in ashes. With their armed vessels they ravaged the shores of the Chesapeake and the Potomac. They landed at Mount Vernon, and would have applied the torch to every building, and trampled down all the harvests, had not the manager of the estate ransomed the property by bringing in a large quantity of supplies. When Washington heard of this he was much displeased. He wrote to his agent: “It would have been a less painful circumstance to me to have heard that in consequence of your non-compliance with their request, they had burned my house and laid the plantation in ruins. You ought to have considered yourself as my representative, and should have reflected on the bad example of communicating with the enemy, and of making a voluntary offer of refreshments to them with a view to prevent the conflagration.” Still the prospects of the country were dark. The army dwindled away to three thousand men. There was no money in the treasury. The paper money issued by Congress had become quite valueless. The British, exasperated by defeats, and humiliated in seeing their fleets and armies held at bay so long by a foe so feeble, were summoning their mightiest energies to close the war as with a clap of thunder.