er."

[Sidenote: Cruelties of troops.]

He then goes on to speak of the deplorable condition in which the
inhabitants had been left by the rival armies, dividing the blame with
impartial hand, and moralizing a little, as follows: "A civil war is a
dreadful thing; what with the devastation of the rebels, and that of the
English and Hessian troops, every part of the country where the scene of
the action has been looks deplorable. Furniture is broken to pieces,
good houses deserted and almost destroyed, others burnt; cattle, horses,
and poultry carried off; and the old plundered of their all. The rebels
everywhere left their sick behind, and most of them have died for want
of care."

This telling piece of testimony is introduced here not only because it
comes from an eye-witness, but from an enemy. Beneath the uniform the
man speaks out. But his omissions are still more eloquent. It was not
so much the loss of property, bad as that was, as the nameless
atrocities everywhere perpetrated by the royal troops upon the young,
the helpless, and the innocent, that makes the tale too revolting to be
told. In truth, all that part of the Jerseys held by the enemy had been
given up to indiscriminate rapine and plunder. It was in vain that the
victims pleaded the king's protection. As vainly did they appeal to the
humanity of the invaders. The brutal soldiery defied the one and laughed
at the other. Finding that the promised pardon and mercy were synonymous
with murder, arson, and rapine, such a revulsion of feeling had taken
place that the authors of these cruelties were literally sleeping on a
volcano; and where patriotism had so lately been invoked in vain, hope
of revenge was now turning every man, woman, and child into either an
open or a secret foe to the despoilers of their homes. One little breath
only was wanting to fan the revolt to a flame; one little spark to fire
the train. All eyes, therefore, were instinctively turned to the banks
of the Delaware.

IX

THE MARCH TO TRENTON

[Sidenote: Spirit of the officers.]

[Sidenote: Post at Bristol.]

Enough has been said to show that only heroic measures could now save
the American cause. Fortunately Washington was surrounded by a little
knot of officers of approved fidelity, whose spirit no reverses could
subdue. And though a calm retrospect of so many disasters, with all the
jealousies, the defections, and the terror which had followed in their
wake, might wel