This reply produced a general sensation, even the ladies starting, and gazing at each other.
"Red-coat run"--repeated the captain, slowly. "Go on with your history, Nick--where was this battle fought?"
"T'other Bos'on--over river--go in canoe to fight, like Injin from Canada."
"That must have been in Charlestown, Woods--you may remember Boston is on one peninsula, and Charlestown on another. Still, I do not recollect that the Americans were in the latter, Beekman--you told me nothing of that?"
"They were not so near the royal forces, certainly, when I left Albany, sir," returned the colonel. "A few direct questions to the Indian, however, would bring out the whole truth."
"We must proceed more methodically. How many Yankees were in this fight, Nick?--Calculate as we used to, in the French war."
"Reach from here to mill--t'ree, two deep, cap'in. All farmer; no sodger. Carry gun, but no carry baggonet; no carry knapsack. No wear red-coat. Look like town-meetin'; fight like devils."
"A line as long as from this to the mill, three deep, would contain about two thousand men, Beekman. Is that what you wish to say, Nick?"
"That about him--pretty near--just so."
"Well, then, there were about two thousand Yankees on this hill--how many king's troops crossed in the canoes, to go against them?"