We can imagine what the condition of the rank and file must have been when we find that Washington himself could not procure an express from the quartermaster-general, and was obliged to send a letter to the Minister of France by the unsafe and slow medium of the post.

He was expected to carry on a war against a rich and powerful enemy, and he could not even pay a courier to carry his dispatches.
With the commander-in-chief thus straitened, the sufferings of the men grew to be intolerable, and the spirit of revolt which had been checked through the summer began again to appear.

At last, in January, 1781, it burst all the bounds.

The Pennsylvania line mutinied and threatened Congress.

Attempts on the part of the English to seduce them failed, but they remained in a state of open rebellion.