Free The Queen's Lover by Francine Du Plessix Gray

island; we occupy it peacefully, and with the best order, in a very healthy camp…. The strictest discipline is maintained; our men take nothing from the inhabitants without paying them ready money; we have not yet had a single complaint against the troops. Such discipline is admirable and astonishes the inhabitants, who are accustomed to the pillage of the English and even of their own troops.
    …You know Frenchmen, my dear father, and what passes as courtiers, well enough to judge of the despair of our young men of that class, who see themselves obliged to pass the winter tranquilly in Newport far from their mistresses and the pleasures of Paris; no suppers, no theaters, no balls; they are in despair.
    The general [Rochambeau] went to the mainland a week ago. I was the only aide-de-camp who accompanied him. We stayed two days and saw one of the finest regions in the world—well cultivated, inhabitants prosperous, but without luxury or display; their clothes are simple, but good, and their morals have not yet been spoiled by the luxury of Europeans.

    M Y BROTHER SENSED THAT America was a country that would be very happy if it could enjoy a long peace, and if the political parties that now divided it did not make it suffer the fate of Poland and so many other republics.
    Newport, September 14, 1780
    I have no interesting or very good news to send you. There are some that are very grievous to us: the defeat of the American General Gates by Lord Cornwallis in South Carolina on the 10th of August. An American, with whom I talked this morning, told me…that much of the militia under General Gates went over to the English at the beginning of the action. If that is true, what reliance can be placed on such troops? A man is much to be pitied for having to command them.
    Newport, October 16, 1780
    My dear Father, I am certain this letter will reach you…. It goes by a frigate that M. de Rochambeau is sending to Europe.
    I went with M. de Rochambeau, about two weeks ago, to Hartford, which is forty leagues from here…. An interview was to take place with General Washington. M. de Rochambeau sent me in advance to announce his arrival, and I had time to see that illustrious, not to say unique, man of our era. His noble and majestic, yet gentle and honest, face agrees perfectly with his moral qualities; he has the air of a hero; he is very aloof, speaks little, but is polite and civil. An air of sadness pervades his whole countenance, and makes him all the more interesting….
    It was on his way back from Hartford that General Washington heard of Benedict Arnold’s treachery. The latter was one of his best generals; he had suffered two gunshot wounds and his conduct hadalways been excellent. General Clinton had bribed Arnold to deliver up West Point, which he commanded….
    [When] General Washington had arrived at West Point from Hartford he had sent his aides-de-camp to General Arnold to say that he would dine with him…. The aides-de-camp had found Arnold at breakfast with his wife. A moment after they had sat down someone had come and whispered into Arnold’s ear; upon which Arnold rose, spoke in a low voice to his wife, and went out. The words were “Good-bye forever.” Mrs. Arnold fainted. The aides-de-camp succored her without knowing what was happening; but a while later a courier arrived carrying the news of Arnold’s treachery. The traitor was pursued….
    If Arnold’s plan had prevailed and the British had succeeded in seizing West Point, Axel commented, they would have been masters of the whole Hudson River; they could have prevented all communication and junction of the French forces with those of the Americans. And Washington, who was camped between West Point and New York, would have been caught between two fires and would certainly have been destroyed before the French could have assisted him. It might have been all over for America, the French themselves would have suffered the shame of coming here to be mere