The enemy-six thousand strong- had crossed the Hudson, on a very rainy night, under the command of Lord Cornwallis, and landed at a place called Closter Dock, five or six miles above Fort Lee, and under that line of lofty and perpendicular cliffs known as the Palisades.

Washington arrived at the fort in three-quarters of an hour. Being told that the enemy were extending themselves across the country, he at once saw that they intended to form a line from the Hudson to the Hackensack, and hem the whole garrison in between the two rivers. Nothing would save it but a prompt retreat to secure the bridge over the Hackensack. No time was to be lost. The troops sent out to check the enemy were recalled. The retreat commenced in all haste. There was a want of horses and wagons; a great quantity of baggage, stores, and provisions, therefore, was abandoned. So was all the artillery excepting two twelve-pounders. Even the tents were left standing, and campkettles on the fire. At Hackensack the army did not exceed three thousand men, dispirited by ill success, and the loss of tents and baggage. They were without entrenching tools, in a flat country, where there were no natural fastnesses. Again, to avoid the danger of being inclosed between two rivers, a second move was necessary. Leaving three regiments to guard the passes of the Hackensack, and serve as covering parties, Washington again decamped, and threw himself on the west bank of the Passaic, in the neighborhood of Newark.

His army, small as it was, would soon be less. The term of enlistment of many of the soldiers was nearly expired; and it was not probable that, disheartened as they were by defeats and losses, exposed to inclement weather, and unaccustomed to military hardships, they would longer forego the comforts of their homes, to drag out the residue of a ruinous campaign. In addition, too, to the superiority of the force that was following him, the rivers gave the enemy facilities, by means of their shipping, to throw troops in his rear. The situation of the little army was daily becoming more perilous. In a council of war, several of the members urged a move to Morristown, to form a junction with troops expected

from the Northern army. Washington, however, still cherished the idea of making a stand at Brunswick on the Raritan, or, at all events, of disputing the passage of the Delaware; and in this intrepid resolution he was warmly seconded by Greene. Breaking up his camp once more, therefore, he continued his retreat towards New Brunswick; but so close was Cornwallis upon him, that his advance entered one end of Newark, just as the American rear-guard had left the other.

From Brunswick, Washington wrote on the 29th to William Livingston, governor of the Jerseys, requesting him to have all boats and river craft, for seventy miles along the Delaware, removed to the western bank out of the reach of the enemy, and put under guard. He was disappointed in his hope of making a stand on the banks of the Raritan. All the force he could muster at Brunswick, including the New Jersey militia, did not exceed four thousand men. Colonel Reed had failed in procuring aid from the New Jersey legislature. That body, shifting from place to place, was on the eve of dissolution. The term of the Maryland and New Jersey troops in the flying camp had expired. General Mercer endeavored to detain them, representing the disgrace of turning their backs upon the cause when the enemy was at hand: his remonstrances were fruitless. As to the Pennsylvania levies, they deserted in such numbers, that guards were stationed on the roads and ferries to intercept them.

Ever since the retreat from the Hudson began, Washington had sent letters almost daily to Lee at Northcastle, ordering him to come with all possible speed to join him with the force left under his command, which now amounted to more than half of the army. But Lee had now made up his mind to use the loss of Fort Washington for his own advantage. He wished to see Washington ruined in order that he might himself obtain the chief command. So he wickedly disobeyed orders, and stayed at Northcastle until he thought Washington's case was quite hopeless. Meanwhile he was busily employed in writing treacherous letters to prominent men, in the hope of poisoning their minds against Washington. His motives were not fully understood at the time; but papers of his

subsequently discovered have shown that he was an unmitigated scoundrel, -a traitor more base in character than Benedict Arnold, and not less dangerous.

Washington lingered at Brunswick until the 1st of December, in the vain hope of being reinforced. The enemy, in the meantime, advanced through the country, impressing wagons and horses, and collecting cattle and sheep, as if for a distant march. At length their vanguard appeared on the opposite side of the Raritan. Washington immediately broke down the end of the bridge next the village, and after nightfall resumed his retreat. At Princeton he left twelve hundred men under Lord Stirling, to cover the country, and watch the motions of the enemy. The harassed army reached Trenton on the 2d of December, and Washington immediately proceeded to remove his baggage and stores across the Delaware.

Lord Howe and his brother sought to profit by the general dismay and despondency. A proclamation, dated 30th of November, commanded all persons in arms against His Majesty's government to disband and return home, and all Congresses to desist from treasonable acts: offering a free pardon to all who should comply within fifty days. Many who had been prominent in the cause hastened to take advantage of this proclamation. Those who had most property to lose were the first to submit. The middle ranks remained generally steadfast.

In this dark day of peril to the cause and to himself, Washington remained firm and undaunted. In casting about for some stronghold where he might make a desperate stand for the liberties of his country, his thoughts reverted to the mountain regions of his early campaigns. General Mercer was at hand, who had shared his perils among these mountains, and his presence may have contributed to bring them to his mind. "What think you," said Washington; "if we should retreat to the back parts of Pennsylvania, would the Pennsylvanians support us?"

"If the lower counties give up, the back counties will do the same," was the discouraging reply.

"We must then retire to Augusta County in Virginia," said

Washington. "Numbers will repair to us for safety, and we will try a predatory war. If overpowered, we must cross the Alleghanies."

Such was the indomitable spirit, rising under difficulties, and buoyant in the darkest moment, that kept our tempest-tost cause from foundering.

Lee taken Prisoner. Notwithstanding the repeated and pressing orders and entreaties of the commander-in-chief, it was not until the 4th of December that Lee crossed the Hudson and began a laggard march, though aware of the imminent peril of Washington and his army. In the meantime, Washington had profited by a delay of the enemy at Brunswick, and removed most of the stores and baggage of the army across the Delaware; and being reinforced by fifteen hundred Pennsylvania militia, prepared to face about, and march back to Princeton with such of his troops as were fit for service, there to be governed by circumstances, and the movements of General Lee. Accordingly, on the 5th of December he sent about twelve hundred men in the advance, to reinforce Lord Stirling, and the next day set off himself with the residue. But Lee had no idea of conforming to a general plan; he had an independent plan of his own, and was at that moment at Pompton, indulging speculations on military greatness, and the lamentable want of it in his American contemporaries. In a letter from that place to Governor Cooke of Rhode Island, he imparts his notions on the subject. "Theory joined to practice, or a heaven-born genius, can alone constitute a general. As to the latter, God Almighty indulges the modern world very rarely with the spectacle; and I do not know, from what I have seen, that he has been more profuse of this ethereal spirit to the Americans, than to other nations."

While Lee was thus loitering and speculating, Cornwallis, knowing how far he was in the rear, and how weak was the situation of Washington's army, made a forced march from Brunswick and was within two miles of Princeton. Stirling, to avoid being surrounded, immediately set out for Trenton. Washington, too, receiving intelligence of these movements, hastened back to that