an’, with the stale in one hand an’ a whip in t’ other, lead me up to the tax collector to pay fer his fun.  I’d ruther fight him.  Some o’ you has fam’lies.  Don’t worry ’bout ’em.  They’ll be took care of.  I got some confidence in the Lord myself.  Couldn’t ‘a’ lived without it.  Look a’ me.  I’m so ragged that I got patches o’ sunburn on my back an’ belly.  I’m what ye might call a speckled man.  My feet ‘a’ been bled.  My body looks like an ol’ tree that has been clawed by a bear an’ bit by woodpeckers.  I’ve stuck my poker into the fire o’ hell.  I’ve been singed an’ frost bit an’ half starved an’ ripped by bullets, an’ all the pay I want is liberty an’ it ain’t due yit.  I’ve done so little I’m ‘shamed o’ myself.  Money!  Lord God o’ Israel!  If any man has come here fer to make money let him stan’ up while we all pray fer his soul.  These ’ere United States is your hum an’ my hum an’ erway down the trail afore us they’s millions ‘pon millions o’ folks comin’ an’ we want ’em to be free.  We’re a-fightin’ fer ’em an’ fer ourselves.  If ye don’t fight ye’ll git nothin’ but taxes to pay the cost o’ lickin’ ye.  It’ll cost a hundred times more to be licked than it’ll cost to win.  Ye won’t find any o’ the ol’ boys o’ Washington squealin’ erbout pay.  We’re lookin’ fer brothers an’ not pigs.  Git down on yer knees with me, every one o’ ye, while the Chaplain asks God A’mighty to take us all into His army.”

The words of Solomon put the new men in better spirit and there was little complaining after that.  They called that speech “The Binkussing of the Recruits.”  Solomon was the soul of the old guard.

CHAPTER XXVIII

IN WHICH ARNOLD AND HENRY THORNHILL ARRIVE IN THE HIGHLANDS

Margaret and her mother returned to England with David Hartley soon after Colonel Irons had left France.  The British Commissioner had not been able to move the philosopher.  Later, from London, he had sent a letter to Franklin seeking to induce America to desert her new ally.  Franklin had answered: 

“I would think the destruction of our whole country and the extirpation of our people preferable to the infamy of abandoning our allies.  We may lose all but we shall act in good faith.”

Here again was a new note in the history of diplomatic intercourse.

Colonel Irons’ letter to Margaret Hare, with the greater part of which the reader is familiar, was forwarded by Franklin to his friend Jonathan Shipley, Bishop of St. Asaph, and by him delivered.  Another letter, no less vital to the full completion of the task of these pages was found in the faded packet.  It is from General Sir Benjamin Hare to his wife in London and is dated at New York, January 10, 1780.  This is a part of the letter: