Whilst, in the rancour of their pride, the English committed horrible
acts of licence and cruelty,--whilst discipline dragged in her train
those venal Germans who knew only how to kill, burn, and pillage, in
the same army were seen regiments of Americans, who, trampling under
foot their brethren, assisted in enslaving their wasted country. Each
canton contained a still greater number whose sole object was to
injure the friends of liberty, and give information to those of
despotism. To these inveterate Tories must be added the number of
those whom fear, private interest, or religion, rendered adverse to
war. If the Presbyterians, the children of Cromwell and Fairfax,
detested royalty, the Lutherans, who had sprung from it, were divided
among themselves: the Quakers hated slaughter, but served willingly as
guides to the royal troops. Insurrections were by no means uncommon:
near the enemy's stations, farmers often shot each other; robbers were
even encouraged. The republican chiefs were exposed to great dangers
when they travelled through the country; it was always necessary for
them to declare that they should pass the night in one house, then
take possession of another, barricade themselves in it, and only sleep
with their arms by their side. In the midst of these troubles, M. de
Lafayette was no longer considered as a stranger; never was any
adoption more complete than his own: and whilst, in the councils of
war, he trembled when he considered that his voice (at twenty years of
age) might decide the fate of two worlds, he was also initiated in
those deliberations in which, by reassuring the Whigs, intimidating
the Tories, supporting an ideal money, and redoubling their firmness
in the hour of adversity, the American chiefs conducted that
revolution through so many obstacles.

Confined to his bed for six weeks, M. de Lafayette suffered from his
wound, but still more severely from his inactivity. The good Moravian