of these forts was a grief to Washington, and he determined
to make an effort to recover them, for their loss endangered West
Point. He soon ordered an attack upon them by the Americans under the
command of Generals Wayne and Howe. Wayne had his quarters at Sandy
Beach, fourteen miles from Stony Point, and on the morning of July 15
all the Massachusetts light infantry was marched to that place. It was
an exceedingly sultry day, and the march--begun at noon, taking them
through narrow defiles, over rough crags, and across deep
morasses--must have been hard indeed; they moved in single file and at
eight in the evening rendezvoused a mile and a half below Stony Point.
They rested there while Wayne and several other officers reconnoitred
the enemy's works. Then they formed into column, and moved silently
forward under the guidance of a negro slave belonging to a Captain
Lamb living in the neighborhood."

"New York was a slave State at that time?" exclaimed Sydney
inquiringly.

"Yes," replied Captain Raymond; "England had forced slavery upon her
Colonies here, and it was not yet abolished. Captain Lamb was a warm
Whig, and Pompey seems to have been one also. Soon after the British
took possession of the fort, he ventured to carry strawberries there
for sale; the men of the garrison were glad to get them, and Pompey
became quite a favorite with the officers, who had no suspicion that
he was regularly reporting everything to his master.

"At length Pompey told them that his master would not allow him to
come with his fruit in the daytime, because it was now hoeing-corn
season. The officers, unwilling to lose their supply of luxuries, then
gave him their countersign regularly so that he could pass the
sentries in the evening. He had it on the night of the attack, and
gave it to the Americans, who used it as their watchword when they
scaled the ramparts. It was 'The fort's our own.'"

"And they could say it with truth," laughed Lucilla; "for the fort was
really theirs--stolen from them by the British."

"The fortress seemed almost impregnable," resumed her father; "built
upon a huge rocky bluff, an island at high water, and always
inaccessible dryshod,--except across a narrow causeway in the
rear,--it was strongly defended by outworks and a double row of
abatis. There was a deep and dangerous morass on one side, and on the
other three were the waters of the Hudson."

"And was the rock too high and steep to climb, papa?"