remained on the field of battle,
where they lay all night upon their arms, they had failed in their
object; they had been assailed instead of being the assailants, while
the American troops had accomplished the purpose for which they had
sallied forth, had checked the advance of the enemy, frustrated their
plan of attack, and returned exulting to their camp. Their loss, in
killed and wounded, was between three and four hundred, including
several officers; that of the enemy upwards of five hundred.

Burgoyne now strengthened his position with intrenchments and
batteries, part of them across the meadows which bordered the river,
part on the brow of the heights which commanded them. The Americans
likewise extended and strengthened their line of breastworks on the
left of the camp; the right was already unassailable. The camps were
within gunshot, but with ravines and woods between them.

The situation of Burgoyne was growing more and more critical. On the
21st he heard shouts in the American camp, and in a little while their
cannon thundered a _feu de joie_. News had been received from General
Lincoln, that a detachment of New England troops under Colonel Brown
had surprised the carrying-place, mills, and French lines at
Ticonderoga, captured an armed sloop, gunboats and bateaux, made three
hundred prisoners, beside releasing one hundred American captives, and
were laying siege to Fort Independence.

Fortunately for Burgoyne, while affairs were darkening in the North, a
ray of hope dawned from the South. While the shouts from the American
camp were yet ringing in his ears, came a letter in cipher from Sir
Henry Clinton, dated the 12th of September, announcing his intention
in about ten days to attack the forts in the Highlands of the Hudson.
Burgoyne sent back the messenger the same night, and despatched,
moreover, two officers in disguise, by different routes, all bearing
messages informing Sir Henry of his perilous situation. [Arnold had
been excessively indignant at Gates withholding the reinforcements he
had asked for in the recent action, which he attributed to pique or
jealousy. Gates, indeed, in the report to Congress made no mention of
Arnold. He also withdrew from Arnold's division Morgan's rifle corps
and Dearborn's light-infantry, its main reliance. Arnold called on
Gates to remonstrate. High words passed between them. Gates in his
heat told Arnold that General Lincoln would arrive in a day or two,
and then h