Note 12 — Chapter XXVI

An American officer of this name was detected within the British lines, in disguise, in search of military information. He was tried and executed, as stated in the text, as soon as the preparations could be made. It is said that he was reproached under the gallows with dishonoring the rank he held by his fate. ‘What a death for an officer to die!’ said one of his captors. ‘Gentlemen, any death is honorable when a man dies in a cause like that of America,’ was his answer. André was executed amid the tears of his enemies; Hale died unpitied and with reproaches in his ears; and yet one was the victim of ambition, and the other of devotion to his country. Posterity will do justice between them.