xcept the _en-passant_ visits made
to it on my marches to and from the siege of Yorktown, I made
considerable additions to my dwellinghouse, and alterations in my
offices and gardens; but the dilapidation occasioned by time, and
those neglects which are coextensive with the absence of
proprietors, have occupied as much of my time within the last
twelve months, in repairing them, as at any former period in the
same space; and it is a matter of sore regret, when I cast my eyes
toward Belvoir, which I often do, to reflect that the former
inhabitants of it, with whom we lived in such harmony and
friendship, no longer reside there, and that the ruins can only be
viewed as the memento of former pleasures."

But, at the very time when he wrote this letter, the clouds of
difficulty between the United States and France were thickening; a storm
of war was evidently brewing, and the mutterings of the thunder were
becoming more and more audible. In that hour of gloom, when the billows
were beating heavily upon the ship of state, and the hurricane began to
howl, his countrymen, remembering the faith, and fortitude, and courage,
and skill, of their venerated pilot for eight years of commotion, turned
anxious eyes and more anxious hearts toward Mount Vernon, wishing to
call him from his retirement to face once more the enemies of their
country; yet tenderly hesitating, because they loved him too well to
disturb unnecessarily the needed repose he was then enjoying. A crisis
came; dangers thickened on every side, and the united voices of his
countrymen again called Washington into public life.

FOOTNOTES:

[121] Sparks's Life and Writings of Washington, xi. 197, note.

[122] MS. letter quoted by Irving, v. 276.

[123] Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington, by George
Washington Parke Custis, page 41. Washington wrote many other letters to
his sprightly foster-child, but they have been lost or destroyed. These
serve to show how his comprehensive mind had moments of thought and
action to bestow on all connected with him, and how deeply his
affections were interested in the family of his wife, who were cared for
as if they were his own. They were written at a time when the cares of
state, as president of the republic, were pressing heavily upon him.

[124] Life of Washington, v. 279.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

PROSPERITY OF THE UNITED STATES--TROUBLES WITH FRANCE