to counsel congress how to provide resources for the campaign of the next year. Having transferred his baggage and stores beyond the Delaware, he faced about with such troops as were fit for service. But, on the sixth, Cornwallis was joined by Howe and nearly a full brigade of fresh troops. Washington, on his way to Princeton, met the detachment of Stirling retreating before a vastly superior force; he therefore returned with his army to Trenton, and crossed the Delaware. Who shall say what might have happened if Howe had pushed forward four thousand men in pursuit? But, resting seventeen hours at Princeton, and, on the eighth, taking seven hours to march twelve miles, he arrived at Trenton just in time to see the last of the patriots safely pass the river. His army could not follow, for Washington had destroyed or secured every boat on the Delaware and its tributaries for seventy miles.

Philadelphia was in danger. Congress published an appeal to the people, especially of Pennsylvania and the adjacent states, giving assurance of aid from foreign powers. Washington with all his general officers entreated Lee to march and join him with all possible expedition, adding: “Do come on; your arrival without delay may be the means of preserving a city." Late at night arrived an evasive answer.

Lee was impatient to gain the chief command. From the east side of the Hudson he wrote to Rush: "Let me talk vainly; I could do you much good, might I but dictate one week. Did none of the congress ever read the Roman history?" The day after the loss of Fort Lee he received one explicit order, and another peremptory one, to pass into New Jersey. To Bowdoin, who was then at the head of the government of Massachusetts, he described these orders as "absolute insanity."

Of other more elaborate instructions he sent garbled extracts to Bowdoin with the message: "In so important a crisis, even the resolves of the congress must no longer nicely weigh with us. We must save the community, in spite of the legislature. There are times when we must commit treason against the laws of the state for the salvation of the state. The present crisis demands this brave, virtuous kind of treason." A letter to Lee from Reed, who was himself irresolute and de

sponding, ran thus: "You have decision, a quality often wanted in minds otherwise valuable. Oh, General, an indecisive mind is one of the greatest misfortunes that can befall an army; how often have I lamented it this campaign!" Lee greedily inhaled the flattery of the man who professed to be the friend of Washington, and on the twenty-fourth wrote back: "My dear Reed, I lament with you that fatal indecision of mind which in war is a much greater disqualification than stupidity, or even want of personal courage." Before the end. of the month this answer, having outwardly the form of an official despatch, fell under the eye of Washington.

On the second and third of December the division of Lee passed over the Hudson; but not to join Washington: he claimed to be "a general detached to make an important diversion,” and he was bent on making his detachment larger than that of the commander-in-chief. He demanded of Heath in the Highlands the transfer of his best regiments, having first said to him: "I will and must be obeyed;" but the honest officer refused, producing his instructions. At Haverstraw, on the fourth of December, he intercepted and incorporated into his own division the three thousand men whom Schuyler had sent from the northern army to the relief of Washington. From Pompton, on the seventh, he despatched a French officer of no merit and ignorant of English to command the troops collected for the defence of Rhode Island; and in a letter to the governor of that state he sneered at Washington as destitute of the qualities which "alone constitute a general." From Morristown he announced to Richard Henry Lee and Rush, the committee of congress, that it was not his intention "to join the army with Washington." From Chatham he hurried off orders to Heath to send him three regiments just arrived from Ticonderoga, without loss of time, saying: "I am in hopes here to reconquer the Jerseys."

On the twelfth his division marched with Sullivan eight miles only to Vealtown; but Lee, with a small guard, proceeded three or four miles nearer the enemy, who were but eighteen miles off, and passed the night at White's tavern at Baskingridge. The next morning he lay in bed till eight o'clock. On rising, he wasted two hours with Wilkinson, a messenger

from Gates, in boasting of his own prowess, and cavilling at everything done by others. It was ten o'clock before he sat down to breakfast, after which he took time, in a letter to Gates, to indulge his spleen toward Washington, beginning in this wise: "My dear Gates-Entre nous, a certain great man is most damnably deficient." The paper, which he signed, was not yet folded, when Wilkinson, at the window, cried out: "Here are the British cavalry!"

The young Lieutenant-Colonel Harcourt, the commander of a scouting party of thirty dragoons, learning Lee's foolhardy choice of lodgings, surrounded the house by a sudden charge, and called out to him to come forth immediately, or the house would be set on fire. Within two minutes, he came out, pale from fear, unarmed, bare-headed, without cloak, in slippers and blanket-coat, his collar open, his shirt much soiled, and entreated the dragoons to spare his life. They seized him just as he was, and set him on Wilkinson's horse which stood. saddled at the door. One of his aids, who came out with him, was mounted behind Harcourt's servant; and, just four minutes from the time of surrounding the house, they began their return. On the way Lee recovered from his panic, and ranted violently about his having for a moment obtained the supreme command, giving many signs of a mind not perfectly right. At Princeton, he demanded to be received under the November proclamation of the Howes; and, on being reminded that he might be tried as a deserter, he flew into an extravagant rage, and railed at the faithlessness of the Americans as the cause of his mishap. Yet they retained trust in him; and even Greene still thought him "a most consummate general."

No hope remained to the United States but in Washington. His retreat of ninety miles through the Jerseys, protracted for eighteen or nineteen days, in winter, often in sight and within cannon-shot of his enemies, his rear pulling down bridges and their van building them up, had for its purpose to effect delay till midwinter and impassable roads should offer their protection. The actors, looking back upon the crowded disasters which fell on them, hardly knew by what springs of animation they had been sustained.

CHAPTER VII.

TRENTON.

DECEMBER 11-26, 1776.

THE British posts on the eastern side of the Delaware drew near to Philadelphia; rumor reported ships-of-war in the bay; the wives and children of the inhabitants were escaping with their papers and property; and the contagion of panic broke out in congress. On the eleventh of December they called on the states to appoint, each for itself, a day of fasting and humiliation; on the twelfth, after advice from Putnam and Mifflin, they voted to adjourn to Baltimore. It is on record that Samuel Adams, whom Jefferson has described as "exceeded by no man in congress for depth of purpose, zeal, and sagacity," mastered by enthusiasm and excitement which grew with adversity, vehemently opposed a removal. His speech has not been preserved, but its purport may be read in his letters of the time: "A cause so just and interesting to mankind, I trust that my dear New England will maintain at the expense of everything dear to them in life. If this city should be sur rendered, I should by no means despair. Britain will strain every nerve to subjugate America next year. Our affairs abroad wear a promising aspect, but I conjure you not to depend too much upon foreign aid. Let America exert her own strength, and He who cannot be indifferent to her righteous cause will even work miracles, if necessary, to establish her feet upon a rock."

Putnam promised in no event to burn the city which he was charged to defend to the last extremity, and would not allow any one to remain an idle spectator of the contest, "per

sons under conscientious scruples alone excepted." But the Quakers, abhorring the new form of government, at their meeting held at Philadelphia for Pennsylvania and New Jersey, refused "in person or by other assistance to join in carrying on the war;" and with fond regret they recalled to mind "the happy constitution" under which "they and others had long enjoyed peace." The flight of congress, which took place amid the jeers of tories and the maledictions of patriots, gave a stab to public credit, and fostered a general disposition to refuse continental money. At his home near the sea, John Adams was as stout of heart as ever. Though France should hold back, though Philadelphia should fall, "I," said he, "do not doubt of ultimate success."

Confident that the American troops would melt away at the approaching expiration of their engagements, Howe, on the thirteenth, prepared to return to his winter quarters in New York, leaving Donop as acting brigadier, with two Hessian brigades, the yagers, and the forty-second Highlanders, to hold the line from Trenton to Burlington. At Princeton he refused to see Lee, who was held as a deserter from the British army, and was taken under a close guard to Brunswick and afterward to New York. Cornwallis left Grant in command in New Jersey, and was hastening to embark for England. By orders committed to Donop, the inhabitants who in bands or separately should fire upon any of the army were to be hanged upon the nearest tree without further process. All provisions which exceeded the wants of an ordinary family were to be seized alike from whig or tory. Life and property were at the mercy of foreign hirelings. The attempts to restrain the Hessians were given up, under the apology that the habit of plunder prevented desertions. A British officer reports officially: "They were led to believe, before they left Hesse-Cassel, that they were to come to America to establish their private fortunes, and they have acted with that principle."

It was the opinion of Donop that Trenton should be protected on the flanks by garrisoned redoubts; but Rall, who, as a reward for his brilliant services, through the interposition of Grant obtained the separate command of that post, with fifty yagers, twenty dragoons, and the whole of his own brigade,