[151] Kosciusko brought a letter from Franklin to Washington. “What do you seek here;” inquired the commander-in-chief. “To fight for American independence,” was the reply. “What can you do?” said Washington. “Try me,” was the simple response. There was something in the bearing of the man which won the confidence of Washington. He received him as an aide-de-camp. In the hour of trial, he was never found wanting. [152] “Lafayette from the first attached himself to Washington with an affectionate reverence which could not be mistaken; and soon won his way into a heart which, with all its apparent coldness, was naturally confiding and required sympathy and friendship.”--Irving’s _Life of Washington_, vol. i. p. 375. [153] Irving’s _Life of Washington_, vol. i., p. 396. [154] General Burgoyne was a natural son of Lord Bingley. He was of active mind, and ready wit, and as a man of fashion, in all convivial scenes, stood preëminent. Gambling was then the common vice of the British aristocracy. But Junius accuses Burgoyne of cheating at cards. Both Washington and Napoleon endeavored to drive the foul practice of gambling from their armies. But for this vice, the brave and able General Arnold would probably now be enrolled among the most prominent of American patriots. [155] “Lieutenant Jones is said to have been completely broken in spirit by the shock of her death. Procuring her scalp, with its long silken tresses, he brooded over it in anguish, and preserved it as a sad, but precious relic. Disgusted with the service, he threw up his commission and retired to Canada; never marrying, but living to be an old man, taciturn and melancholy and haunted by painful recollections.” Irving’s _Life of Washington_, vol. i., p. 378. [156] “Old neighbors met in deadly feud; former intimacy gave bitterness to present hate; the bodies of combatants were afterward found, on the field of battle, grappled in death, with the hand still grasping the knife plunged in a neighbor’s heart. “The very savages seemed inspired with unusual ferocity, by the confusion and deadly struggle around them, and the sight of their prime warriors and favorite chiefs shot down. In their blind fury they attacked the white men indiscriminately, friend or foe. So that in this chance medley fight many of Sir John’s greens were slain by his own Indian allies.” Irving’s _Life of Washington_, vol. i. p. 380. [157] The British officers did not very highly esteem their German allies. “The very hat and sword of one of them,” it was said, “weighed nearly as much as the whole equipment of a British soldier. The worst British regiment in the service would march two miles to their one.”