"Joshua had a handsome wife. The General, Sir William Howe, was fond of her. Joshua made no objections. He fingered the cash, the General enjoyed madam. Everybody supposing the next campaign (should the rebels even risk another) would put a final period to the rebellion, Loring was determined to make the most of his commission, and by appropriating to his own use nearly two-thirds of the rations allowed to the prisoners, he actually starved to death about 300 of the poor wretches before an exchange took place, which was not till February, 1777. And hundreds that were alive at the time were so emaciated, and enfeebled, for the want of provisions, that numbers died upon the road on their way home, and many lived but a few days after reaching their habitations." Mrs. Loring was a Miss Lloyd. Of her two sons, one became a clergyman and archdeacon of Calcutta, another was knighted and became vice-admiral in the British navy. Mrs. Loring occupied a large place in the gossip, the balladry, bawdry and pamphletry of the time, and is too picturesque an American to be lost from the sparse gallery of royal favorites permitted to a republic. Francis Hopkinson (to whom really belongs Betsy Ross's fabulous credit for designing the American flag) devoted this stanza to Howe's enchantress in the most popular and most famous poem of the period, The Battle of the Kegs: Washington had many clashes with Loring over prisoners, but his opinion of Mrs. Loring is not recorded. He was a close friend of Hopkinson's, however, and must have roared with laughter over the ballad of the Kegs. Howe, who was an ingenious strategist, always whipped Washington in battle and always failed to follow up his victory. His eagerness to return to the arms of Mrs. Loring was blamed for this. His enormous addiction to gambling was also to blame, and an English letter-writer who called him "the worst general that ever a British army was cursed with" lays at his door the ruin of hundreds of young officers at the gaming tables in America: "Our officers were practising at the dice-box, or studying the chances of picquet, when they should have been storming towns, and crushing the spirit of rebellion; and the harlot's eye glistened with wanton pleasure at the general's table when the brightness of his sword should have reflected terror on the face of the rebels. Cleopatra's banquet was in continual representation, and the American Antony at the head of each feast." 38 When a nation is at war it must adopt the strict regimen of an athlete. Diversions and luxuries that are harmless in peace are fatal in war, and personal vices assume national importance. Washington doubtless had this in mind when he called gaming pernicious and punished it heavily during the Revolution, though he practiced it at other times. While Howe was squandering his genius on a gambling mistress, Washington was sending to Virginia for the exceedingly domestic Martha to be his companion. XXIV AN INTERLUDE OF PERSONAL AFFAIRS HEN Washington left his wife at Mount Vernon W on May fourth, 1775, he rode away as a civilian, yet wore his uniform because he loved it. When he was drafted into the command of the armies he did not ask for time to go back and tell his household good-by or even to set his affairs in order. He simply moved on to Boston, sending Martha a love letter, and a promise to be back in the fall. He turned his business affairs over to his kinsman, Lund Washington, a cousin twice removed, their great-grandfathers being brothers. Lund was five years younger than George and took on the task for the few months of the war. And the war might indeed have been over in the fall if the patriots had risen as one man and fought with the divine courage of tradition. As it turned out, Lund's job lasted for six years. But for him, Washington's property might have gone to ruin.' In spite of Lund, he barely escaped a complete financial crash as a result of the utter failure of revolutionary financing. Hardly had Washington gone to Philadelphia before history began to be made in Virginia, without his help. The political giants who had brought the colony to the fore in so many of the first struggles for liberty, continued to throw off not only the financial and political, but also the moral and religious, shackles imposed on them by the monarchy and the established church of England. The history of the province cannot be followed here, but |