expedition, and wounded when that general's army
was annihilated; and sometime commander of Fort
Du Quesne, after its capture by General Forbes. He
was detailed, with a small advance party comprising
the remnants of Smallwood's Marylanders, Haslet's
Delawareans, and Fleming's Virginians, and a small
body of young men from the first families of Phila-
delphia, to the total number of three hundred, to
continue up the road along the brook until he reached
the main road, where he was to try and hold the
bridge in order to intercept fugitives from Princeton,
or check any retrograde movement of the troops
which might have advanced toward Trenton. The
little band had proceeded but a short distance on
their way, when they unexpectedly came in sight of
a column of the enemy.
It was the advance of the British, a part of Von
Donop's leading brigade, en route for Trenton to
assist Cornwallis in bagging the " old fox " according
to orders, — the Seventeenth Regiment, under Colonel
Mawhood. Mercer's troops being screened by the
wood, their character was not visible to Mawhood,
who conjectured that they must be a body of fugi-
tives from the front. Under this impression, and never
dreaming of the true situation, Mawhood promptly
deployed his regiment and moved off to Uie left to
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intercept Mercer, at the same time despatching mes-
sengers to bring up the other two regiments, the
Fortieth and Fifty-fifth, which had not yet left Prince-
ton. Both parties rushed for a little rising ground on
the edge of a cleared field, near the house of a peace-
ful Quaker named Clark. The Americans were
nearer the goal than their opponents, and reached it
first. Hastily deploying his column, Mercer sought
shelter behind a hedge fence which crowned the
eminence, and immediately opened up a destructive
fire from his riflemen, which temporarily checked the
advancing enemy. The British, excellently led, re-
turned the fire with great spirit, and with such good
effect that, after a few volleys, Mercer's horse was
wounded in the leg and his rider thrown violently to
the ground, Talbot's was killed under him, and several
of the officers and men fell, — among them the brave
Colonel Haslet, who was mortally wounded. In the
confusion thus unfortunately caused, the Americans
could hear sharp commands of the English officers,
then the rattling of steel on the gun-barrels, and the
next moment the red-coated men broke out of the
smoke and, unchecked by a scattering fire from
the Americans, gallantly rushed up at them with
fixed bayonets. There were unfortunately no bayo-
nets in this small brigade of the Continental army.
A few of the men clubbed their muskets resolutely
as the two lines met, and made a stout resistance;
but the on-coming British would not be denied, and,
as the charge was pressed home, the Americans
wavered, broke, and fell back in some disorder before
the vigorous onslaught of the veteran troops. Mer-
cer, filled with shame, strove in vain to rally his men.
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THE LION TURNS FOX
Disdaining himself to retreat, and gallantly calling
upon them to advance, he threw himself upon the
advancing British line, sword in hand, followed by his
officers, and for a brief space there was an exciting
m^l6e on the hill. A blow from the butt end of a
musket felled the general to the ground. Talbot
sprang to his side, and swept the bayonet away from
his heart by a blow of his sword delivered with
a quick movement of his powerful arm. Mercer
profited by the moment's respite to leap to his feet.
** Thank you, my lad," he said.
"Do you get to the rear and rally the men, gen-
eral," cried Talbot, firing a pistol at short range into
the midst of the crowding enemy. " I '11 hold these
men in play." But the fighting blood of the old
Scotchman was up, and for answer he struck boldly
at the man opposite him.
" Surrender, you damned rebels ! " cried an officer
near them.
" Never ! " replied Mercer, cutting down the man
with whom he was engaged, while Talbot did the like
to the one next him. With a roar of rage the British
sprang on the two men. In a trice one of the bayonets
got past Mercer's guard and grazed his arm, another
buried itself in his bosom, a third struck him in the
breast. The old man struck out weakly, dropped his
sword and fell, pierced by a dozen wounds, but still
breathing. Talbot, who was as yet unharmed, though
covered with blood and dust, his hat gone, stepped
across his body.
He might have retreated, being young and active;
but that was not the custom of his family, neither
would he abandon the body of his brave commander;
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besides, every moment of delay was precious. Surely
they would be reinforced and rallied ; he knew the
promptness of Washington too well to doubt it for
a moment; and, last of all, what was life without
Kate ? One glance he cast to the bright sky, flushed
with the first rays of the rising sun, and then he
stood on guard. The young man's eyes were burn-
ing with the intoxication of the fight, and his soul
filled with great resolve; but his sword-play was
as cool and as rapid as it had been in the Salle des
Armes at Paris, where few could be found to master
him. The little group of British paused a moment
in admiration of his courage.
"One at a time, gentlemen," he cried, smiling,
and warding oflF a vicious bayonet thrust. "Are
there none here who will cross swords with me, for
the honor of their flag? "
The young lieutenant in command of that part of
the line promptly sprang forward and engaged ; the
two blades rang fiercely together, and grated along
each other a moment later. The men stepped back.
But the brave lieutenant had met his match, and,
with set lips and iron arm, Talbot drove home his
blade in the other's heart. Ere he could recover
himself or withdraw his sword, he was beaten to
his knees by a blow from a gun-barrel ; the blood
ran down over his face.
" Surrender ! surrender ! " they cried to him, " and
we will spare your life."
For answer his hand sought his remaining pistol.
The first one of his opponents fell dead with a bullet
through his heart, and the next moment the deadly
steel of a bayonet was buried in Talbot's throat.
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THE LION TURNS FOX
"Kate — Kate!" he cried in agony, the blood
bubbling from his lips, and then another bayonet
found his gallant heart ; and he sank down on his
face, at the foot of the dying officer, his lips kissing
the soil of that country in defence of whose liberties
he had fallen.
As was customary with his family, he had died on
the field, grimly facing fearful odds to the last. The
last of his line, he had made a good ending, not
unworthy his distinguished ancestry; for none of the
proud and gallant race had ever died in the service
of a better cause, be it that of king or Parliament,
than this young soldier who had just laid down his
life for love of his country!
The slight check afforded by the interposition of
the Americans was over. The British were sweep-
ing everything before them, when Colonel Mawhood,
the cool-headed officer, who had been sitting on a
little brown pony, with a small switch in his hand,
directing the combat, became aware of a large body
of men coming up on his right flank through the
wood. With the readiness of a practised soldier,
he instantly stopped the advance of his men, wheeled
them about, brought up his guns, and prepared to
open fire. The American officers had time to mark
with admiration the skill with which the manoeuvre
was effected, and the beautiful precision with which
the men carried out their orders. Then the force, a
large body of Pennsylvania militia which Washing-
ton had despatched at the first sound of firing in the
direction of Mercer, broke out of the wood, and
advanced rapidly. The muskets of the redcoats were
quickly brought to the shoulder, and at the word of
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command the British line was suddenly tipped with
fire and then covered with smoke. Many of the
militia fell at this volley delivered at close range;
some of the fallen lay still and motionless, while
others groaned with pain; the raw troops fired
hastily into the smoke, then hesitated and stopped
uncertainly as the volley was repeated. It was
another critical moment, and the hour brought the
man.
Washington himself had most opportunely arrived
on the field in advance of the trbops, attended by
Seymour. One glance showed him Mercer's broken
retreating column and the hesitating Pennsylvania
militia! Everything was at stake. It was not a
time for strategic manoeuvres now, but for men —
nay, there were men there as good as ever fought —
but for a man then. Providentially one was at hand.
Putting spurs to his gallant white horse, he rode
down the line in front of the Pennsylvania militia,
waving his hat and cheering them on.
" An old-fashioned Virginia fox-hunt, gentlemen ! "
he cried gayly, giving the view halloo! Galloping
forward under the fire of the British battery, he called
to Mercer's shattered men. They halted and faced
about; the Seventh Virginia broke through the wood
on the flank of the British ; Hitchcock's New Eng-
landers came up on the run with fixed bayonets;
Moulder's Philadelphia battery opened fire from the
hill on the opposing guns.
The fire of a warrior had now supplanted the
coolness of a general. Dashing boldly forward,
reckless of the storm of bullets, to within thirty
yards of the British line, and smiling with stern
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THE LION TURNS FOX
pleasure in the crisis which seemed to develop and
bring out every fibre of his deep nature, he called
upon his men to come on. Recovering themselves,
they responded with the utmost gallantry. Mawhood
was surrounded and outnumbered, his victory sud-
denly changed to defeat ; but, excellent soldier that
he was, he fought on with desperate resolution, and
the conflict was exceedingly hot. Washington was
in the thick of it. Seymour, who had followed him
closely until the general broke away in the smoke
to lead the charge, lost sight of him for a moment,
enveloped as he was in the dust and smoke of the
battle. When he saw him emerge from the cloud,
waving his sword, and beheld the enemy giving way
on every side, he spurred up to him.
" Thank God ! " he said ; " your excellency is safe. "
"Away! away! my dear Seymour,'* he cried, "and
bring up the troops. The day is our own ! "
To the day of his death Seymour never lost the
splendid impression of that heroic figure, the ruddy
face streaked with smoke and dust, the eyes blazing
with the joy of battle, the excitement of the charge,
the mighty sweep of the mighty arm! Mawhood *s
men were, indeed, routed in every direction; most
of them laid down their arms. A small party only,
under that intrepid leader, succeeded in forcing its
way through the American ranks with the bayonet,
and ran at full speed toward Trenton under the
stimulus of a hot pursuit.
Meanwhile the Fifty-fifth Regiment had been vig-
orously attacked by St. Clair's brigade, and, after a
short action, those who could get away were in fulL
retreat towards New Brunswick. The last regiment,]
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the Fortieth, had not been able to get into action at
all ; a part of it fled in a panic, with the remains of
the Fifty-fifth, towards New Brunswick, hotly pursued
by Washington with the Philadelphia City Troop and
what cavalry he could muster, and the rest took
refuge in the college building in Princeton, from
which they were dislodged by artillery and com-
pelled to surrender. The British loss was about
five hundred in killed and wounded and prisoners,
the American less than one hundred ; but among the
latter were many valuable officers, — Colonels Haslet
and Potter, Major Morris, Captains Shippen, Flem-
ing, Talbot, Neal, and General Mercer.
After following the retiring and demoralized
British for a few miles, Washington determined to
abandon the pursuit. The men were exhausted by
their long and fatiguing marches, and were in no
condition to make the long march to New Bruns-
wick; most of them were still ill equipped and
entirely unfitted for the fatigue and exposure of a
further winter campaign, — even those iron men must
have rest at last. The flying British must have
informed Leslie's troops, six miles away, of the
situation ; they would soon be upon them, and
they might expect Cornwallis with his whole force
at any time. He drew off his troops, therefore, and,
leaving a strong party to break down the bridge over
Stony Brook and impede the advance of the English
as much as possible, he pushed on towards Pluckamin
and Morristown, officers and men thoroughly satis-
fied with their brilliant achievements.
Early in the morning the pickets of Cornwallis'
army discovered that something was wrong in the
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American camp ; the guard had been withdrawn, the
fires had been allowed to die away, and the place
was as still as death. A few adventurous spirits,
cautiously crossing the bridge, found that the guns
mounted in front of it were only "quakers,'*and that
the whole camp was empty, — the army had decamped
silently, and stolen away before their eyes! My
Lord Comwallis, rudely disturbed from those rosy
dreams of conquest with which a mocking spirit had
beguiled his slumber, would not credit the first
report of his astonished officers; but investigation
showed him that the " old fox " was gone, and he
would not be bagged that morning — nor on any
other morning, either! But where had he gone?
For a time the perplexed and chagrined commander
could not ascertain.
The Americans had vanished — disappeared —
leaving absolutely no trace behind them, and it
was not until he heard the heavy booming of can-
non from the northeast, borne upon the frosty air of
the cold morning about sunrise, that he divined the
brilliant plan of his wily antagonist and discovered
his whereabouts. He had been outfought, outma-
noeuvred, outflanked, and outgeneralled ! The dis-
gusted British were sent back over the familiar road
to Princeton, now in hotter haste than before. His
rear-guard menaced, perhaps overwhelmed, his stores
and supplies in danger, Comwallis pushed on for
life this time. The English officer conceived a
healthy respect for Washington at this juncture
which did not leave him thereafter.
The short distance between Trenton and Prince-
ton on the direct road was passed in a remarkably
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short time by the now thoroughly aroused and anxious
British. A little party under command of Seymour
and Kelly, which had been assiduously engaged in
breaking down the bridge over Stony Brook, was
observed and driven away by two field-pieces, which
had been halted and unlimbered on a commanding
hill, and which opened fire while the troops advanced
on a run ; but the damage had been done, and the
bridge was already impassable. After a futile at-
tempt to repair it, in which much time was lost, the
indefatigable earl sent his troops through the icy
water of the turbulent stream, which rose breast-
high upon the eager men, and the hasty pursuit was
once more resumed. A mile or so beyond the
bridge the whole army was brought to a stand by a
sudden discharge from a heavy gun, which did some
execution; it was mounted in a breastwork some
distance ahead. The army was halted, men were
sent ahead to reconnoitre, and a strong column de-
ployed to storm what was supposed to be a heavy
battery. When the storming party reached the
works, there was no one there ! A lone thirty-two-
pounder, too unwieldy to accompany the rapid march
of the Americans, had been left behind, and Philip
Wilton had volunteered to remain, after Seymour's
party had passed, and further delay the British by
firing it at their army as soon as they came in range.
These delays had given Washington so much of a
start that Cornwallis, despairing of ever overtaking
him, finally gave up the pursuit, and pushed on in
great anxiety to New Brunswick, to save, if possible,
his magazines, which he had the satisfaction in the
end of finding intact.
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THE LION TURNS FOX
To complete this brief risumi of one of the re-
markable campaigns of history, Washington strongly
fortified himself on Cornwallis* flank at Morristown,
menacing each of the three depots held by the British
outside New York; Putnam advanced from Philadel-
phia to Trenton, with the militia; and Heath moved
down to the highlands of the Hudson. The country
people of New Jersey rose and cut off scattered
detachments of the British in every direction, until
the whole of the field was eventually abandoned by
them, except Amboy, Newark, and New Brunswick.
The world witnessed the singular spectacle of a
large, well-appointed army of veteran soldiery, under
able leaders, shut up in practically one spot, New
York and a few near-by villages, and held there
inexorably by a phantom army which never was more
than half the size of that it held in check! The
results of the six months' campaign were to be seen
in the possession of the city of New York by the
British army. That army, which had won, practi-
cally, all the battles in which it had engaged, which
had followed the Americans through six months of
disastrous defeat and retreat, and h^d overrun two
colonies, now had nothing to show for all its efforts
but the ground upon which it stood ! And this was
the result of the genius, the courage, the audacity
of one man, — George Washington ! The world was
astounded, and he took an assured place thencefor-
ward among the first soldiers of that or any age.
Even the English themselves could not withhold
their admiration. The gallant and brave Cornwallis,
a soldier of no mean ability himself, and well able
to estimate what could be done with a small and
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feeble force, never forgot his surprise at the Assun*
pink ; and when he congratulated Washington, at the
surrender of Yorktown years after, upon the brilliant
combination which had resulted in the capture of
the army, he added these words: "But, after all,
your excellency's achievements in the Jerseys were
such that nothing could surpass them ! " And the
witty and wise old cynic, Mr. Horace Walpole,
with his usual discrimination, wrote to a friend. Sir
Horace Mann, when he heard of the affair at Tren-
ton, the night march to Princeton, and the successful
attack there: "Washingon, the dictator, has shown
himself both a Fabius and a Camillus. His march
through our lines is allowed to have been a prodigy
of generalship!"
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CHAPTER XXVIII
The Bntish Play " Taps**
THE day after the battle Washington sent his
nephew, Major Lewis, under protection of a
flag of truce, to attend upon the wounded General
Mercer; the exigency of his pursuit of the flying
British and their subsequent pursuit of him having
precluded him from giving to his old friend that
personal attention which would have so accorded
with his kindly heart and the long affection in which
he had held the old Scotchman. Seymour received
permission to accompany Lewis, in order to ascertain
if possible what had become of Talbot.
The men of Mercer's command reported that they
had seen the two officers dismounted and fighting
bravely, after having refused to retreat. The two
young officers were very melancholy as they rode
along the familiar road. Lewis belonged to a Vir-
ginia regiment, and had known both Mercer and
Talbot well, and in fact all the officers who had been
killed. The officers of that little army were like a
band of brothers, and after every battle there was
a general mourning for the loss of many friends.
The casualties among the officers in the sharp en-
gagement had been unusually severe, and entirely
disproportioned to the total loss; the bulk of the
loss had fallen upon Mercer's brigade.
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They found the general in Clark's farmhouse,
near the field of battle, lingering in great pain, and
slowly dying from a number of ferocious bayonet
wounds. He was attended by his aid, Major Arm-
strong, and the celebrated Dr. Benjamin Rush came
especially from Philadelphia to give the dying hero
the benefit of his skill and services. He had been
treated with the greatest respect by the enemy, for
Cornwallis was always quick to recognize and respect
a gallant soldier. The kindly Quakers had spared
neither time nor trouble to lighten his dying hours,
and the women of the household nursed him with
gentle and assiduous care. He passed away ten days
after the battle, leaving to his descendants the untar-
nished name of a gallant soldier and gentleman, who
never faltered in the pursuit of his high ideals of
duty. Brief as had been his career as a general in
the Revolution, his memory is still cherished by a
grateful posterity, as one of the first heroes of that
mighty struggle for liberty.
Details of the British were already marching toward
the field of action to engage in the melancholy work
of burying the dead, when Seymour, under Major
Armstrong's guidance, went over the ground in a
search for Talbot. He had no difficulty in finding
the place where his friend had fallen. The field had
not been disturbed by any one. A bloody frozen
mass of ice and snow had shown where Mercer had
fallen, and across the place where his feet had been
lay the body of Talbot. In front of him lay the
lieutenant with whom he had fought, the sword still
buried in his breast; farther away were the two men
that the general and he had cut down in the first
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THE BRITISH PLAY "TAPS'*
onslaught, and at his feet was the corpse of the
man he had last shot, his stiffened hands still tightly
clasping his gun. Around on the field were the
bodies of many others who had fallen. Some of the
Americans had been literally pinned to the earth by
the fierce bayonet thrusts they had received in the
-charge; some of the British had been frightfully
mangled and mashed by blows from the clubbed
rifles of the Americans before they had retreated.
Off to the right a long line of motionless bodies
marked where the Pennsylvania militia had advanced
and halted ; there in the centre, lying in heaps, were
the reminders of the fiercest spot of the little conflict,
where Moulder's battery had been served with such
good effect; here was the place where Washington
had led the charge.
In one brief quarter of an hour nearly three hundred
men had given up their lives, on this little farm, and
there they lay attesting in mute silence their fidelity
to their principles, warm red coat and tattered blue
coat side by side, peace between them at last ; indif-
ferent each to the severities of nature or the passions
of men ; unheeding alike the ambitions of kings, the
obstinacy of parliaments, or the desire of liberty on
the part of peoples. Some were lying calmly, as il
their last moments had been as peaceful as when
little children they laid themselves down to sleep;
others twisted and contorted with looks of horror
and anguish fixed upon their mournful faces, which
bespoke agonies attending the departure of life like
to the travail pains with which it had been ushered
into existence. Seymour with a sad heart stooped
and turned over the body of his friend, lifting his
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face once more to that heaven he had gazed upon so
bravely a few hours since — for it was morning again,
but oh, how different ! The face was covered with
blood frpm the wound in the forehead, by which he
had been beaten down. Sadly, tenderly, gratefully,
remembering an hour when Talbot had knelt by his
side and performed a similar service, he endeavored
to wipe the lurid stains from off his marble brow.
Then a thought came to him. Taking from his '
breast Katharine's handkerchief, which had never
left him, he moistened it in the snow, and finding an
unstained place where her dainty hand had embroi-
dered her initials " K. W.," he carefully wiped clean
the white face of his dead friend. There was a little
smile upon Talbot's lips, and a look of peace and
calm upon his face, which Seymour had not seen
him wear since the sinking of the frigate. His