George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10

[492] except in driving them out of the land. Weary of

Chap. XXIV.} 1781. July 13.

ceaseless turmoil, Rawdon repaired to Charleston, and, pretending ill health, sailed for England, but not till after a last act of vengeful inhumanity. Isaac Hayne, a planter in the low country whose affections were always with America, had, after the fall of Charleston, obtained a British protection. When the British lost the part of the country in which he resided and could protect him no longer, he resumed his place as an American citizen, and led a regiment of militia against the British. Taken prisoner, Balfour hesitated what to do with him; but Rawdon, who was Balfour's superior in command, had no sooner arrived in Charleston than, against the entreaties of the children of Hayne, of the women of Charleston, of the lieutenant-governor of the province, he sent him to the gallows. The execution was illegal; for

Aug. 4.

the loss of power to protect forfeited the right to enforce allegiance. It was most impolitic; for it uprooted all remaining attachment of moderate men for the English government. It roused the women of Charleston to implacable defiance. The American army demanded retaliation; but after the departure of Rawdon there remained in South Carolina no British officer who would have repeated the act of revenge. His first excuse for the execution was that same order of Cornwallis which had filled the woods of Carolina with assassins. Feeling the act as a stain upon his name, he attempted at a later day, but only after the death of Balfour, to throw on that officer the blame that belonged especially to himself. The ship in which Rawdon embarked was captured by the French