We cannot wonder that this warmed up the Americans like a fire. It filled the English with despair. They began to think that they would never win back the colonies.
One thing the good news did was to get the French to come to the help of the Americans. Benjamin Franklin was then in Paris, and he asked the king to send ships and men and money to America. The French had no love for the British, who had taken from them all their colonies in America, so they did as Franklin wished.
There are two more things I wish to tell you in this chapter, one good and one bad. When the British in Philadelphia heard that the French were coming to help the Americans, they were afraid they might be caught in a trap. So they left in great haste and marched for New York. Washington followed and fought a battle with them, but they got away. After that Washington's army laid siege to New York, as it had formerly done to Boston.
That was the good thing. The bad thing was this. General Benedict Arnold, who had defeated St. Leger and his Indians, and who was one of the bravest of the American officers, turned traitor to his country. He had charge of West Point, a strong fort on the Hudson River, and tried to give this up to the British. But he was found out and had to flee for his life. MajorAndré, a British officer, who had been sent to talk with Arnold, was caught by three American scouts on his way back to New York. They searched him for papers, and found what they wanted hidden in his boot. Poor André was hung for a spy, but the traitor Arnold escaped. But he was hated by the Americans and despised by the British, and twenty years afterwards he died in shame and remorse.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] All the accounts agree that Colonel Stark spoke of his wife as "Molly Stark." But it has been found that his wife's name was Elizabeth; so he may have said "Betty Stark."