10  LIFE    OP   NATHANAEL    GREENE.  [177T-

erations  on  the  Delaware,  and  hoping  still  to  pro-
tract the  campaign  until  the  ice  should  come  and
help  him  close  the  river  to  the  English.  He  had
already  begun  to  look  upon  Conway  with  distrust,
and  was  not  in  the  least  disposed  to  conceal  his
opinion  of  him.  Still  he  let  a  night  pass  before  he
acted,  and  then  wrote  to  him  with  stern  and  chill-
ing concision:  —

"  Sir,  —  A  letter  which  I  received  last  night  contained
the  following  paragraph.  —

'"  In  a  letter  from  General  Conway  to  General  Gates  he
says  —  "  Heaven  lias  been  determined  to  save  your  country,
or  a  weak  General  and  had  counsellors  woidd  have  ruined

it: "

"  I  am  Sir,  your  humble  servant.
"  Geokge  Washington."  ^

That  Gates  had  long  been  estranged  from  him
he  already  knew ;  but  so  far  was  he  from  suspect-
ing him  of  a  base  intrigue,  that  he  looked  upon
Wilkinson's  communication  as  a  kind  office  of  his
former  friend  to  put  him  upon  his  guard  against
"  a  secret  enemy,  or  in  other  words,  a  dangerous
incendiary."  ^

Conway  was  not  equal  to  the  part  which  he  had
undertaken.  Nature  had  made  him  an  intriguer,
but  had  denied  him  the  caution  and  self-control  of
a  successful  conspirator.  Plausible,  insinuating,
with  the  military  bearing  which  long  service
gives,  and  somewhat  of  that  ingratiating  air  and
tone  which  men  acquire  by  constantly  looking  to
favor  for  promotion,  he  easily  made  in  his  first  ad-

1  Sparks,  Writings  of  Washington,  ^  Washington  to  Gates,  Sparks,
vol.  V.  p.  139.  Writings  of  Washington,  vol.v.  ji.  493.
