light was yet dim, the service of the church. This being over, the men lowered the body into the grave and filled it up with earth, and cast stones and bushes over it. No guard was ordered, and no volley fired, lest, as was said, it might be heard by the enemy, which appeared to me foolish, for there was noise enough, and at any minute one hundred men in the woods would have routed the whole camp.
Thus died a man whose good and bad qualities were intimately blended. He was brave even to a fault and in regular service would have done honour to the army. His attachments were warm, his enmities were strong, and, having no disguise about him, both appeared in full force. He was generous and disinterested, but plain and blunt in his manner, even to rudeness.
Dunbar made haste to get away, and I was not less pleased to be out of an ill-contrived business.
This affair was a serious blow to the belief in the colonies as to the high value of the King's soldiers. It became like a proverb in Virginia to say a man "ran like a regular."
Mr. Franklin said to me long afterwards
