. His
aide-de-camp leaped from the window, but was likewise taken. Colonel
Barton returned with equal silence and address, and arrived safe at
Warwick with his prisoners. A sword was voted to him by Congress and
he received a colonel's commission in the regular army.

Washington hailed the capture of Prescott as a peculiarly fortunate
circumstance, furnishing him with an equivalent for General Lee. He
accordingly wrote to Sir William Howe, proposing the exchange. No
immediate reply was received to this letter, Sir William Howe being at
sea; in the meantime Prescott remained in durance.

Washington continued his anxious exertions to counteract the
operations of the enemy; forwarding artillery and ammunition to
Schuyler, with all the camp furniture that could be spared from his
own encampment and from Peekskill. A part of Nixon's brigade was all
the reinforcement he could afford in his present situation. Schuyler
had earnestly desired the assistance of an active officer well
acquainted with the country. Washington sent him Arnold. The question
of rank about which Arnold was so tenacious was yet unsettled, and
though, had his promotion been regular, he would have been superior in
command to General St. Clair, he assured Washington that on the
present occasion his claim should create no dispute.

Schuyler in the meantime, aided by Kosciuszko the Pole, who was
engineer in his department, had selected two positions on Moses Creek,
four miles below Fort Edward, where the troops which had retreated
from Ticonderoga, and part of the militia were throwing up works. To
impede the advance of the enemy he had caused trees to be felled into
Wood Creek, so as to render it unnavigable, and the roads between Fort
Edward and Fort Anne to be broken up; the cattle in that direction to
be brought away, and the forage destroyed. He had drawn off the
garrison from Fort George, and left the buildings in flames.

Washington cheered on his faithful coadjutor. His letters to Schuyler
were full of that confident hope, founded on sagacious forecast, with
which he was prone to animate his generals in times of doubt and
difficulty. "Though our affairs for some days past have worn a dark
and gloomy aspect, I yet look forward to a fortunate and happy change.
I trust General Burgoyne's army will meet sooner or later an effectual
check, and, as I suggested before, that the success he has had will
precipitate his ruin." [He pointed out that Burgoyne i