Page:Lives of the presidents in words of one syllable (1903).djvu/24

 knew, and had made up their minds to get. This Ar-nold was not true to his trust. He sold his right to watch and guard our cause for a large sum of gold, and meant to give up all to the foe. To do this he must get word to the man at the head of the Eng-lish troops. A Brit-ish spy, by the name of An-dré, was sent, with a note, to Clin-ton. The spy was caught and had to go to the A-mer-i-can camp. He was put to death for what he had done, though Wash-ing-ton was sad that it must be so.

Ben-e-dict Ar-nold, the bad man who made the start in this mean work, set off in haste and fled for his life to a Brit-ish ship which took him to Eng-land. To the end of his days that man had no friends.

Next came a thing which made all the folks in A-mer-i-ca glad. With La-fay-ette, and a large force of French troops on land to help, and French ships of war to shut up the way so that the Eng-lish could not get out to sea, a big fight took place at York-town, in Vir-gin-i-a, which did not stop for more than ten days. Then Corn-wal-lis, the man in charge of the foe, gave up their arms to Wash-ing-ton.

The whole land was full of joy at the great and good news.

The war had not come to an end as soon as the folks had thought it would. It was fight, fight, inch by inch, from the time the first blood was spilt at Lex-ing-ton, in A-pril, 1775, when the men of the land "fired the shot heard round the world," till Oc-to-ber, 1781.

It took all that time for the King of Eng-land to give in. He did not want to do it then. This land then had a great and new name. It was a "Na-tion." In France, on the third of Sep-tem-ber, 1783, a "Trea-ty of Peace" was signed.