Lafayette, on his way to board the _Alliance_, rode into the town of Fishkill-on-the-Hudson, and there fell ill of fever. He had been entertained by people all the way from Philadelphia to the camp on the Hudson, and these constant receptions, combined with chilly and wet weather, brought on malaria. The Marquis was very sick; Washington rode daily from his camp eight miles away to inquire about Lafayette’s condition, and insisted on his own physician taking charge of the patient. And when the young Frenchman recovered the commander-in-chief sent his physician on to Boston with him, and wrote him, “I am persuaded, my dear marquis, that there is no need of fresh proofs to convince you either of my affection for you personally or of the high opinion I entertain of your military talents and merit.” The strongest affection bound these two men, so different in many respects, so alike in their love of liberty and honor. On board his ship in Boston Harbor Lafayette added a postscript to a letter to Washington. “The sails are just going to be hoisted, my dear general,” he said, “and I have but time to take my last leave of you.... Farewell. I hope your French friend will ever be dear to you; I hope I shall soon see you again, and tell you myself with what emotion I now leave the coast you inhabit and with what affection and respect I am forever, my dear general, your respectful and sincere friend, Lafayette.” On January 11, 1779, the _Alliance_ sailed for France, having had so much difficulty in making up its crew that a number of English prisoners and deserters had been pressed into service as sailors. This makeshift crew came very near to proving disastrous for the Marquis. An English law offered to pay the full value of any American ship to the crew that would bring it into an English port, and there were considerably more English prisoners and deserters in the crew of the _Alliance_ than there were American and French sailors. The _Alliance_ was approaching the French coast, having just weathered a storm, when a sailor ran into the cabin where the officers were sitting. He said that the prisoners and deserters who had been pressed into service had planned a mutiny, and that, taking him for an Irishman, they had offered him the command in case of success. A lookout was to give the signal “Sail ho!” and as the officers came on deck in a group they were to be shot down by cannon loaded with grape-shot and the ship sailed into an English port, where the mutineers would divide the profits. The loyal American sailor said that the signal would be given in about an hour. Immediately the officers seized their swords, and, rushing on deck, called the Americans and Frenchmen together. The thirty-three mutineers, taken by surprise, were captured and clapped into irons, and the rest of the crew sailed the _Alliance_ into the French harbor of Brest a week later.