ire of the
enemy. He was so well supported by the same troops who, a few days
before, had saved their country at Trenton, that the British, in turn,
were compelled to give way. Their line was broken, and the two
regiments separated from each other. Colonel Mawhood, who commanded
that in front, and was, consequently, nearest the rear division of the
army, under Lord Cornwallis, retired to the main road, and continued
his march to Maidenhead. The fifty-fifth regiment, which was on the
left, being hard pressed, fled in confusion across the fields into a
back road, leading between Hillsborough and Kingston towards
Brunswick. The vicinity of the British forces at Maidenhead secured
Colonel Mawhood, and General Washington pressed forward to Princeton.
The regiment remaining in that place took post in the college, and
made a show of resistance; but some pieces of artillery being brought
up to play upon that building, it was abandoned, and the greater part
of them became prisoners. A few saved themselves by a precipitate
flight to Brunswick.

In this engagement, rather more than one hundred British were killed
in the field, and near three hundred were taken prisoners. The loss of
the Americans, in killed, was somewhat less, but in their number was
included General Mercer, a valuable officer, who had served with the
Commander-in-chief during his early campaigns in Virginia, and was
greatly esteemed by him. Colonels Haslet and Potter, Captain Neal of
the artillery, Captain Fleming, and five other valuable officers, were
also among the slain.

On the return of day-light, Lord Cornwallis discovered that the
American army had decamped in the night; and immediately conceived the
whole plan. Alarmed at the danger which threatened Brunswick, he
marched with the utmost expedition for that place, and was close in
the rear of the American army before it could leave Princeton.

The situation of General Washington was again perilous in the extreme.
His small army was exhausted with fatigue. His troops had been without
sleep, all of them one night, and some of them, two. They were without
blankets, many of them were bare-footed and otherwise thinly clad, and
were eighteen miles from his place of destination. He was closely
pursued by a superior enemy who must necessarily come up with him
before he could accomplish his designs on Brunswick. Under these
circumstances he abandoned the remaining part of his original plan,
and took the road l