UL 185

XI. A DESPERATE VENTURE 205

XII. SAUL'S OPPORTUNITY 223

XIII. THE SIEGE 240

XIV. AN UGLY SITUATION 258

XV. FORAGING 276

XVI. PREPARATIONS FOR FLIGHT 294

XVII. OUR BLUNDER 310

XVIII. TRAPPED 329

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

"IT WAS A SIGHT WELL CALCULATED TO STIR THE BLOOD OF A
BOY FROM VIRGINIA" (_Page 227_) _Frontispiece_

"THAT WE MIGHT PEER BETWEEN THE LEAVES" 26

"HE ... TOUCHED HIS HAT IN REGULAR MILITARY SALUTE" 76

"I SPRANG FORWARD" 90

"WITHOUT THE SLIGHTEST WARNING I FOUND MYSELF IN THE
CLUTCHES OF A MAN" 119

"HALT, OR I'LL FIRE!" 138

THE RELEASE OF SAUL OGDEN 233

"A GENERAL DISCHARGE ... WAS COMMENCED BY THE AMERICANS" 289

THE MINUTE BOYS OF YORK TOWN

CHAPTER I

TWO YOUNG VIRGINIANS

When Uncle 'Rasmus loses his temper because of some prank which we lads
of James Town may have played upon him, he always says that no good can
ever come of that in which "chillun an' women are mixed."

It had never entered my mind that there was in such a remark any cause
for anger on my part, until that day when Saul Ogden repeated it,
shaking his head dolefully as Uncle 'Rasmus always did, and speaking in
the negro dialect so faithfully that one, not seeing him, might well
have supposed his skin was black.

Of course you remember the engagement at Spencer's Ordinary, which place
is the same as if I had said Spencer's Tavern, on the 26th of June in
the year of Grace 1781, when Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe of the Queen's
Rangers, and Lieutenant-Colonel Tarleton with his Legion of Horse, began
to "prance" around here, as Uncle 'Rasmus would put it, and we
Virginians were disturbed in more ways than one.

There were a number of our people who would have been loyal to the king
if Governor Dunmore had not written himself down such a consummate ass,
and many even at this time whose sympathies were all with the struggling
colonists, but who yet hoped matters could be settled without loss of
honor to ei