Page:A French Volunteer of the War of Independence.djvu/84

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A FRENCH VOLUNTEER


Near Gates was Arnold, as brave as he was treacherous; he was lamed for life by a bullet he had received at Saratoga whilst sharing the dangers and glories of General Gates. A few months before he was a distinguished officer in the army, General Arnold was nothing more than a horse-dealer. General Lee, however, was a soldier before the War of Independence. General Sullivan was a lawyer, and when peace was declared he returned, not to his plough but to his office. Colonel Hamilton, the friend of Washington, when the war was over, also became a lawyer, and pleaded at Philadelphia. General Stark was the proprietor of a large and well-managed estate. Brave General Knox, who commanded the artillery, had, before the war, kept a book-store. Under him served Duplessis-Mauduit, a brave young officer, only twenty-six years old, and of whom I shall often have occasion to speak in these pages;—he afterwards perished at Saint-Domingo, vilely murdered by his own soldiers.

I also saw arrive at the mill which