George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10

[500] men. When Ledyard had surrendered, the British

Chap. XXV.} 1781.

officer in command ran him through with his sword, and refused quarter to the garrison. Seventy-three of them were killed, and more than thirty wounded; about forty were carried off as prisoners. With this expedition, Arnold disappears from history.

Cornwallis now found himself where he had so ardently desired to be,—in Virginia, at the head of seven thousand effective men, with not a third of that number to oppose him by land, and with undisputed command of the water.

The statesmen of Virginia, in the extremity of their peril, were divided in opinion. ‘Wanting a rudder in the storm,’ said Richard Henry Lee, ‘the good ship must inevitably be cast away;’ and he proposed to send for General Washington immediately, and invest him with ‘dictatorial powers.’ But Jefferson, on the other hand, reasoned: ‘The thought alone of creating a dictator is treason against the people; is treason against mankind in general, giving to their oppressors a proof of the imbecility of republican government in times of pressing danger. The government, instead of being braced and invigorated for greater exertions under difficulties, would be thrown back.’ As governor of Virginia, speaking for its people and representing their dis-

May 28.

tresses, he wrote to Washington: ‘Could you lend us your personal aid? It is evident, from the universal voice, that the presence of their beloved countryman would restore full confidence, and render them equal to whatever is not impossible. Should you repair to your native state, the difficulty would then be how to keep men out of the ’