your honour and the assembly, praying relief. And did I ever send any
alarming account, without sending also the original papers (or the
copies) which gave rise to it?

"That I have foibles, and perhaps many of them, I shall not deny. I
should esteem myself, as the world also would, vain and empty, were I
to arrogate perfection.

"Knowledge in military matters is to be acquired only by practice and
experience; and if I have erred, great allowance should be made for
want of them; unless my errors should appear to be wilful; and then, I
conceive, it would be more generous to charge me with my faults, and
to let me stand or fall according to evidence, than to stigmatize me
behind my back.

"It is uncertain in what light my services may have appeared to your
Honour: but this I know, and it is the highest consolation I am
capable of feeling, that no man that ever was employed in a public
capacity, has endeavoured to discharge the trust reposed in him with
greater honesty, and more zeal for the country's interest than I have
done; and if there is any person living, who can say with justice that
I have offered any intentional wrong to the public, I will cheerfully
submit to the most ignominious punishment that an injured people ought
to inflict. On the other hand, it is hard to have my character
arraigned, and my actions condemned, without a hearing.

"I must therefore again beg in _more plain_, and in very _earnest_
terms, to know if ---- has taken the liberty of representing my conduct
to your Honour with such ungentlemanly freedom as the letter implies.
Your condescension herein will be acknowledged a singular favour."