“My poor blacks!” he cries. “The plantation was to them a home, not a place of bondage. Now they are torn away, to die of pestilence or under the lash, in the cane fields of Jamaica. The price of their poor bodies is to swell the pockets of our noble English slave-trader. This may be Lord Dunmore’s notion of civilized war. For all that I shall one day exact a reckoning.” Then, resting his hand on old Duncan’s shoulder: “However, we have seen worse campaigns, old friend! We’ll do well yet! I’ve still one fortune--my sword; still one prospect--the prospect of laying alongside the enemy.” CHAPTER X--THE COUNSEL OF CADWALADER Philadelphia is experiencing a cool June, and in a sober, Quakerish way shows grateful for it. The windows of General Washington’s apartments, looking out into Chestnut Street, are raised to let in the weather and the urbane sun, not too hot, not too cool, casts a slanting glance into the room, as though moved of a solar curiosity concerning the mighty one who inhabits them. The sun, doubtless, goes his way fully satisfied; General Washington himself is there, in casual talk with the Marquis de Lafayette. There is a marked difference between the General and the Marquis; the former tall, powerful, indomitable--the type American; the latter nervous, optimistic, full of romantic heroisms--the type French. The General is speaking; his manner a model of the courteous and the suave. For the young Marquis is a peer of France, the head of a party, and may be held as carrying at his heels a third of French sentiment and French influence. It is not what he brings, but what he leaves behind him, that makes the young Marquis important. The talk between the General and the Marquis is running on Captain Paul Jones. “It surprises me,” the General is saying, “it surprises me, my dear Marquis, to learn that you know Captain Jones.” “We meet--Captaine Jones and I,” responds Lafayette, in a choppy, fervent fashion of English, that carries something more than a mere flavor of Paris, “we meet, my dear General, in Alexandria by the Potomac, when I come North from the Carolina, where I disbark. Captaine Jones he assist in Alexandria to find horses to bring me here.” “And you believe, as does he, that a best use that can be made of him is to give him a ship, and send him to Europe?” “Certaine, General, certaine! Give him a good ship, and let him hawk at England with it. It should be a quick, smart ship, that they may not catch him. Give him such a vessel, General, and he will keep five hundred English boats at home to guard the British coasts.” “You think, Marquis, that he would make a good impression in France?” “The best, General; the best! Captaine Jones has--what you call?--the aplomb, yes, and the grace, the charm, the dash to captivate the fancy of my countrymen--ever brave, the French, they love a brave man like Captaine Jones! More, General, he speaks the French language, and that is most important.”