the highest respect for him. At home, in France, he had been very rich, and ranked high among the nobility. He was also married to a beautiful young wife; but in spite of his wealth and high rank and his pretty young wife, he determined to cross the ocean and fight for the Americans. He did so, and told them that he was ready to go into the ranks as a private soldier, and would not take any pay; but they saw what a good officer he would make, and would not allow that. He was made major-general, in spite of his being a boy almost, and soon showed people that he had as much sense and courage as the oldest generals. Washington had a high opinion of him, and this you will easily see, as Lafayette was now sent to take command of an army of four thousand men, and meet the old British generals in Virginia.

He soon let people see that, if he was a mere boy, he knew his business, and was the man for the place. He got to Richmond before General Phillips, and drove him

back to Petersburg, to which place he followed him, and attacked the British.

Poor Phillips was now taken very ill.

a fever, and it grew worse and worse.

He had caught His head-quarters

were at "Bollingbrook," a house in the town belonging to

a Mrs. Bolling; and as Bollingbrook was on a hill, it was exposed to the fire of the American cannon. The balls crashed through the house, for Lafayette did not know that the British general was lying ill there, and poor Phillips was heard to groan out from his bed,

"Can't they let me die in peace!"

None of the balls injured him, however; his fever ended his life. He soon afterward died, and his men buried him in the graveyard around "Old Blandford" church, which is still standing in ruins, covered with green ivy. They fired a salute over the grave of their general; and that was the last of "the proudest man of the proudest nation on earth," as he was called by Thomas Jefferson.

III.

It was now the month of May, 1781. Lord Cornwallis had arrived with his army from the South, and Lafayette was obliged to retreat from Petersburg up James River again, toward Richmond. Here he stopped not far from Wilton," an old house some miles below the city, and began to watch his enemy.

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If you will now think for a moment how matters stood, you will see that the contest between the two generals was very unequal. Lord Cornwallis was an experienced soldier of forty two or three years of age, and had a welldisciplined army of regular soldiers; while Lafayette had far fewer men, and nearly three-fourths of them were untrained militia. Another thing which seemed to be against the Americans was Lafayette's age. It seemed unreasonable to suppose that a youth of twenty-three could fight successfully against a man of forty-three, who was acknowledged to be a good soldier, and had a victorious army at his orders; and Lord Cornwallis took this view of the subject. When he heard that the Americans were only

commanded by Lafayette, he laughed at the intelligence, and said,

"The boy cannot escape me!"

But the boy, as he was called, had a better head than Lord Cornwallis thought he had. No doubt the English general supposed that Lafayette was brave and reckless, as many young men are, and would be ready at any time

to fight, which was just what he wished. He knew that Lafayette's men were not disciplined soldiers, only untrained country people; and as the English cavalry rode strong horses and were hard fighters, he expected to ride over the American militia, and soon make an end of them. The boy Lafayette, however, had not the least idea of standing still and waiting to fight Cornwallis. He was brave enough, and nothing would have pleased him better

than a good bloody battle, in which he might win distinction; but he knew that he ought not to think of such a thing. Washington had sent him to take charge of things in Virginia, and if he fought the English and was defeated, it would be a terrible blow to the American cause. So Lafayette kept his eyes on every movement of the British; and when they came up the river, as they soon did, to attack him, he retreated slowly before them toward the Rappahannock.

For this time, at least, you see, the boy had escaped Lord Cornwallis. This probably mortified the English general, and he saw that his youthful adversary was a better and cooler soldier than he supposed. He resolved, however, to lay waste Virginia, and capture, if he could, the members of the Legislature, then in session at Charlottesville; so he marched up the country for that purpose.

In front of him went Colonel Tarleton, the young cavalry general who had laid waste the Carolinas with fire. and sword. Tarleton was as brave as possible, but cruel, boastful, and quick-tempered. He pretended to have a great contempt for the Americans, and told an American lady once that Colonel William Washington was an “illiterate fellow, hardly able to write his name.' Now Colonel Washington had just defeated Tarleton in a cavalry fight, and the lady replied,

"You ought to know better, for you bear on your person proof that he knows very well how to make his mark!” -by which she meant to allude to the way uneducated people have of making a cross-mark when they cannot write.

At this Tarleton grew angry, and exclaimed, with a

sneer,

"I would be happy to see Colonel Washington!"

"If you had looked behind you at the Cowpens, you

would have enjoyed that pleasure!" replied the lady, referring to the battle in which Tarleton had been defeated.

This made him furious, and, without thinking, probably, he laid his hand on his sword, when General Leslie, of the English army, who was present, and very angry at his doing so, exclaimed, addressing the lady,

Say what you please, Mrs. Ashe. Colonel Tarleton knows better than to insult a lady in my presence!"

Tarleton now marched with his troopers, in front of Lord Cornwallis, toward the mountains, committing all sorts of depredations wherever he went. He plundered many of the houses, carried off all the horses which were fit to ride, and when they were too young he ordered their throats to be cut, in order to prevent the Americans from riding them. Some fine colts, which he found at a place called Elk Hill, belonging to Thomas Jefferson, were treated in this manner, as the British had a particular spite against him for doing so much to bring on the Revolution; and other acts were committed by Colonel Tarleton which were very cruel. He burned all the mills for grinding flour or meal, and destroyed the barns containing the grain to make bread. This, he pretended, was only to prevent the bread from being sent to the American soldiers; but it was very convenient to make that excuse. The effect of it was to nearly starve the women and children, who did no fighting; and no side ever really. prospers or comes to good in the end when the "cry of the widow and the fatherless," as the Bible says, goes up to Heaven against them.

Cornwallis did not succeed in catching the "legislators" at Charlottesville. A man on horseback galloped in and told them the British were coming; so they hurried away, and made their escape. Some cavalrymen were then sent to capture Thomas Jefferson at "Monticello,"