第64章 Chapter (2)

And who knows but we may shortly see it so again? I am sure we have good reason to expect it; and also to hope that God will assist us, who are only fighting to make ourselves free and happy, according to his own most blessed will. And will it not be a most sweet cordial to your spirits as long as you live, to think that, in such trying times as these, you stood up for your country, and fought and won for yourselves and children all the blessings of liberty.

"And, besides," said I, "do not the tories, who are more than half the authors of your misfortunes, possess large estates?

And have you not arms in your hands, wherewith to pay yourselves out of their ill-saved treasures?"This speech seemed to raise their spirits a good deal.

I then went to see the general, who with his hands behind him, was walking backwards and forwards in front of his tent, meditating, no doubt, on the desertion of his men; whose numbers, from more than two hundred, were now reduced to less than seventy.

"General Marion," said I, "I am sorry to tell you that our men are now so few;especially since, according to report, we shall soon want so many.""Why," replied he, "that is the very thing I have been grieving at;but it will signify nothing for us to stand here sighing and croaking;so pray go and order a muster of the men, that I may say a few words to them before they all run off and leave me."Soon as the troops were all paraded around the door of his tent, he stepped upon the trunk of a fallen pine, and in his plain but impressive manner, addressed us nearly as follows: --"Gentlemen and fellow-soldiers.

"It is not for words to express what I feel when I look around upon your diminished numbers. Yesterday I commanded 200 men;men whom I gloried in, and who I fondly thought, would have followed me through my dangers for their country. And, now, when their country most needs their services, they are nearly all gone!

And even those of you who remain, are, if report be true, quite out of heart;and talk, that you and your families must be ruined if you resist any longer!

But, my friends, if we shall be ruined for bravely resisting our tyrants, what will be done to us if we tamely lie down and submit to them?

In that event, what can we expect but to see our own eternal disgrace, and the wide-spread ruin of our country; when our bravest and best citizens shall be hung up like dogs, and their property confiscated to enrich those villains who deserted their country, and joined her enemies;when Cornwallis, Rawdon and Tarleton, after so long plundering and murdering your friends, shall, in reward of such services, be set over you as your governors and lord lieutenants, with princely salaries out of your labors; when foreign bishops and hireling clergy shall be poured upon you like hosts of consecrated locusts, consuming the tithes and fat of the land; when British princes, and nobles, and judges, shall swarm over your devoted country, thick as eagles over a new-fallen carcass; when an insatiate king, looking on your country as his plantation, and on your children as his slaves, shall take away your substance, every year, for his pomps and pleasures;and to keep you under for ever, shall fill your land with armies;and when those armies, viewing you with malignant eyes, shall constantly be insulting you as conquered rebels;and under pretence of discovering among you the seeds of another rebellion, shall be perpetually harassing and giving up to military execution the best and worthiest of your fellow-citizens?

"Now my brave brethren in arms, is there a man among you, who can bear the thought of living to see his dear country and friends in so degraded and wretched a state as this? If there be, then let that man leave me and retire to his home. I ask not his aid.

But, thanks to God, I have now no fears about you: judging by your looks, I feel that there is no such man among us. For my own part I look upon such a state of things as a thousand times worse than death.