f the Lieut.-Colonel, upon the like errand. We arrived at the lines
about dark, and were ordered to leave our packs in a copse wood, under
a guard, and go into the lines without them; what was the cause of
this piece of _wise_ policy I never knew; but I knew the effects of
it, which was, that I never saw my knapsack from that day to this; nor
did any of the rest of our party, unless they came across them by
accident in our retreat. We "manned the lines" and lay quite
unmolested during the whole night. We had a chain of sentinels quite
up the river for four or five miles in length. At an interval of every
half hour, they passed the watch-word to each other--"All is well." I
heard the British on board their shipping answer, "We will alter your
tune before tomorrow night"--and they were as good as their word for
once. It was quite a dark night, and at daybreak, the first thing that
saluted our eyes, was all the four ships at anchor, with springs upon
their cables, and within musket shot of us. The Phoenix, lying a
little quartering, and her stern toward me, I could read her name as
distinctly as though I had been directly under the stern--. As soon as
it was fairly light, we saw their boats coming out of a creek or cove,
on the Long Island side of the water, filled with British soldiers.
When they came to the edge of the tide, they formed their boats in
line. They continued to augment these forces from the Island until
they appeared like a large clover field in full bloom.... We lay very
quiet in our ditch, waiting their motions, till the sun was an hour or
two high. We heard a cannonade at the city, but our attention was
drawn to our own guests. But they being a little dilatory in their
operations, I stepped into an old warehouse which, stood close by me,
with the door open, inviting me in, and sat down upon a stool; the
floor was strewed with papers which had in some former period been
used in the concerns of the house, but were then lying in woful
confusion. I was very demurely perusing these papers, when, all of a
sudden, there came such a peal of thunder from the British shipping,
that I thought my head would go with the sound. I made a frog's leap
for the ditch, and lay as still as I possibly could, and began to
consider which part of my carcass was to go first. The British played
their parts well; indeed, they had nothing to hinder them. We kept the
lines till they were almost levelled upon us, when our officers seein