The worthless son of one of them, who sets out on the
long drive to his father's seat in the country, spends an hour in
"yawning, picking his teeth and damning his journey" and when
once on the way drives with such fury that the route is marked by
"yelping dogs, broken-backed pigs and dismembered geese."
It was under this playwright and satirist, who had some skill as
a soldier, that the British cause now received a blow from which
it never recovered. Burgoyne had taken part in driving the
Americans from Canada in 1776 and had spent the following winter
in England using his influence to secure an independent command.
To his later undoing he succeeded. It was he, and not, as had
been expected, General Carleton, who was appointed to lead the
expedition of 1777 from Canada to the Hudson. Burgoyne was given
instructions so rigid as to be an insult to his intelligence. He
was to do one thing and only one thing, to press forward to the
Hudson and meet Howe. At the same time Lord George Germain, the
minister responsible, failed to instruct Howe to advance up the
Hudson to meet Burgoyne. Burgoyne had a genuine belief in the
wisdom of this strategy but he had no power to vary it, to meet
changing circumstances, and this was one chief factor in his
failure.
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