_2nd Off_. Yes. If I am not mistaken, it was the paper we were speaking of.

_1st Off_. Ay, ay,--I thought as much.

_2nd Off_. General Arnold, I am surprised you should do these honest men
the injustice to suppose that such an impudent, flimsy, bombastic tirade
as that same proclamation of Burgoyne's, should have a feather's weight
with any mother's son of them.

_Arnold_. A feather's, ay a feather's, just so; but when the scales are
turning, a feather counts too, and that is the predicament just now of
more minds than you think for, Colonel Leslie. A pretty dark horizon
around us just now, Sir,--another regiment goes off to-morrow, I hear.
Hey?

_Leslie_. Why, no. At least we hope not. We think we shall be able to
keep them yet, unless--that paper might work some mischief with them
perhaps, and it would be rather a fatal affair too, I mean in the way of
example.--These Green Mountain Boys----

_Arnold_. Colonel Leslie, Colonel Leslie, this army is melting away like
a snow-wreath. There's no denying it. Your General misses it. The news
of one brave battle would send the good blood to the fingers' ends from
ten thousand chilled hearts; no matter how fearful the odds; the better,
the better,--no matter how large the loss;--for every slain soldier, a
hundred better would stand on the field;----

_Leslie_. But then----

_Arnold_. By all that's holy, Sir, if I were head here, the red blood