It is a crucial time...
Illustration
It is a crucial time. The last days of the revolutionary war. The British have dispatched intelligence agents to infiltrate the American army. The dissemination of critical information about the plans and deployments of American positions by British intelligence is vital to their winning the war. George Washington is having an important strategy meeting over dinner with his most adept officers. Among them is Thomas Hickey, a British spy. Eating the bread of betrayal at the table with his enemy is an unwitting Washington as Hickey plans to poison him by dousing green peas with a lethal substance. Washington had dined with Hickey often and had come to rely upon him as a trusted comrade. As Washington lifts the spoon of peas to his mouth, Phoebe Francis, the daughter of black cook Samuel Francis, warns Washington of the plot. Washington throws the peas out to the chickens who eat them and fall dead. Hickey is hanged for betrayal. What might have been a last supper prompted a reawakening and quickening of Washington's resolve to win the war. -- Stewart
