ss that he considered him well qualified for the
office of adjutant or brigadier-general. Colonel Conway pushed for
that of brigadier-general. It had been conferred some time before by
Congress on two French officers, De Fermois and Deborre, who, he had
observed, had been inferior to him in the French service, and it would
be mortifying now to hold rank below them. Conway accordingly received
the rank of brigadier-general, of which he subsequently proved himself
unworthy. He was boastful and presumptuous, and became noted for his
intrigues and for a despicable cabal against the commander-in-chief,
which went by his name, and of which we shall have to speak hereafter.

A candidate of a different stamp had presented himself in the
preceding year, the gallant, generous-spirited, Thaddeus Kosciuszko.
He was a Pole, of an ancient and noble family of Lithuania, and had
been educated for the profession of arms at the military school at
Warsaw, and subsequently in France. Disappointed in a love affair with
a beautiful lady of rank with whom he had attempted to elope, he had
emigrated to this country, and came provided with a letter of
introduction from Dr. Franklin to Washington.

"What do you seek here?" inquired the commander-in-chief. "To fight
for American independence." "What can you do?" "Try me."

Washington was pleased with the curt yet comprehensive reply and with
his chivalrous air and spirit, and at once received him into his
family as an aide-de-camp. Congress shortly afterwards appointed him
an engineer, with the rank of colonel. He proved a valuable officer
throughout the Revolution, and won an honorable and lasting name in
our country.

Questions of rank among his generals were, as we have repeatedly
shown, perpetual sources of perplexity to Washington, and too often
caused by what the sarcastic Lee termed "the stumblings of Congress;"
such was the case at present. In recent army promotions, Congress had
advanced Stirling, Mifflin, St. Clair, Stephen and Lincoln to the rank
of major-general, while Arnold, their senior in service, and
distinguished by so many brilliant exploits, was passed over and left
to remain a brigadier. Washington was surprised at not seeing his name
on the list, but supposing it might have been omitted through mistake,
he wrote to Arnold, who was at Providence in Rhode Island, advising
him not to take any hasty step in consequence, but to allow time for
recollection, promising his own e