And lovely ladies greet our band
With kindliest welcoming,
With smiles like those of summer,
And tears like those of spring.
For them we wear these trusty arms,
And lay them down no more,
Till we have driven the Briton
Forever from our shore.
Marion in Gates's Camp.—Description of his Regiment.—Rebecca Motte.—Her House fortified and garrisoned
When Gates was pressing forward toward Camden, Marion, with about twenty men and boys, were annoying the Tories in the neighborhood of the Pedee. With his ragged command, worse than Falstaff ever saw, he appeared at the camp of Gates, and excited the ridicule of the well-clad Continentals. * Gates, too, would doubtless have thought lightly of him, if Governor Rutledge, who was in the American camp, and knew the partisan's worth, had not recommended him to the notice of that general. Gates listened to his modestly-expressed opinions respecting the campaign, but was too conceited to regard them seriously, or to offer to Marion a place in his army.