ing this year 1778, and for several years after, the war was carried
on for the most part in the South, in Georgia and South Carolina, while
the British soldiers in the city made trips into the surrounding country
and laid it waste. Washington and his army in New Jersey could do little
more than watch.

In the year 1780 the American cause came very near receiving a serious
check, when an officer high in rank turned traitor. This man was
Benedict Arnold, and had been a vigorous fighter. But now he bargained
with the British to turn over to them West Point, where he was chief in
command. Major John Andre, a brilliant young officer under the British
General Clinton, was sent to make the final arrangements. Andre was
returning to New York when he was captured with the plans of West Point
concealed in his boots. He was hanged as a spy, and Arnold, escaping to
the British in New York, fought with them, despised by the Americans and
mistrusted by the English; for a traitor can never be truly liked or
respected even by those who benefit by his treachery.

The War of the Revolution went on until the fall of the year 1781, when
General Washington made a sudden move that drew his men away from the
vicinity of New York before the British army could foresee it. Then he
hurried to the South. There, at Yorktown, in Virginia, the combined
American army hemmed in, and after a battle forced to surrender, Lord
Cornwallis, the British commander in the South, and all his men.

This victory was so great that it really ended the war. Great Britain
gave up the struggle, and a treaty of peace was signed.

And now you will see how the British army left the city of New York.

CHAPTER XXX

AFTER the WAR

On a crisp, cold day, late in the fall, a tall, mild-faced man on a
spirited horse passed down the Bowery Road, followed by a long train
of soldiers whose shabby clothes and worn faces told of days of trial
and hardship. This was General George Washington with a portion of the
Continental army. They were entering New York on this same day when the
British troops were leaving it.

But although the British were leaving under the terms of the treaty of
peace, and had gone on board ships that were to take them to England,
there were many who were filled with rage at this enforced departure.
At the fort by the river-side they had knocked the cleats _off_ the
flag-pole, and had greased the pole so that no one could climb it
to put up th