"The wound wasn't much more than a scratch, and the surgeon has already tied it up. You may look for provender for the horse if you have a mind to. The best place would be nearabout where General Dickinson is."
Enoch's horse did not receive a particularly hearty meal on this evening, owing to the lack of grain; but he was well groomed, and not until that work had been done to his own satisfaction did Enoch rejoin his comrades.
Then, lying at full length on the ground, they discussed the stirring events of the day, and it was during this conversation that Greene asked:
"Did you see that Irish woman when her husband was killed during the artillery duel—at the time the Royal Light-horse charged so furiously?"
"I didn't know there was a woman on the field!" Enoch exclaimed.
"There was, and her husband was one of our gunners. She assisted him during the hot cannonade by bringing water from the spring near by, and when he was killed at his post, there being no one to take his place, the piece was ordered to be removed; but she insisted on working it, and twice within an hour I saw her using the rammer as energetically as any man among them. The soldiers were cheering for 'Mary'—that is her name, I suppose—and she deserves more than thanks for this day's work."
Then each in turn related some incident which he had seen or participated in, until, despite the groans of the wounded, who were being tended by the surgeons at a temporary hospital near by, the three Philadelphia boys fell asleep, and when morning came were aroused by the tidings that Clinton had put his weary troops in motion at midnight, and stolen away.
The British soldiers whom General Lee declared the Americans could not stand against had been fairly beaten by men decidedly their inferiors in discipline and soldierly training.
It was simply the purpose of this story to relate the adventures of the three Philadelphia boys during the events which led up to the battle of Monmouth, and with the triumphant ending of that engagement the purpose of this imperfectly told tale has been accomplished.