FORAGING
Sorely afraid though I was to go out of the cabin lest I find myself a prisoner on the charge of being a spy, no danger however great could have prevented me from following little Frenchie when he thus led the way.
I was so timorous at that moment as to be irritated, and it would have done me a world of good could I have taken the little lad by the shoulders and shaken him severely, because of thus venturing forth when he might have remained in hiding a few hours longer without suffering overly much from lack of food.
Once in the open air, however, I the same as forgot that I was faint-hearted, because of the scene which was presented. Looking northward we could see closely surrounding us, hardly more than a cannon-shot away, our people who had come to capture Cornwallis and his men, and in so doing were preparing a way for our escape, if so be we lived long enough to take advantage of the opportunity which they were counting on offering.
It was a sight well calculated to warm even the most timorous heart, that vast army pressing forward as if certain of victory, and holding the enemy on this peninsula from whence he could not escape even by water, for at Lynn Haven bay lay the French ships ready to intercept any flight.
We of Virginia had remained so long under the heel of the invader, with only now and then a glimpse of small detachments of our soldiers, that it seemed for the moment almost incredible that there could be so many men ready to sacrifice their lives in the effort to free the colonies from the yoke of oppression which bore so heavily upon them.
Looking Gloucester way, by which I mean gazing across the encampment of those who held our village of York in a wavering grasp, we could see that the red-coats had not only withdrawn from the outermost works; but appeared to be massed together close within the limits of the village as if for mutual protection, and little Pierre, ever quick to see, and keen to understand what he saw, said to me in a tone of triumph as he laid his hand on my shoulder:
"Look yonder; see the red-coats huddling together like a lot of rats in a trap, and verily they are trapped now, for so long as the French vessels remain inside the Capes, so long are they shut in here at the mercy of those brave fellows who have drawn the net around them!"
Then it was that I began to question if Cornwallis was indeed in such close quarters? In the river lay, as I have already said, the Guadaloupe and the Charon, and in addition were a number of other large vessels, the names of which I do not remember.
I asked myself whether, by making a brave attempt, they might not force their way past the French fleet, and thus escape by the sea?