“Well,” said Ben, and there was an odd foreboding in his tone, “this morning, at one of the windows of Princeton College, while the British were escaping, I thought I saw his face.”
CHAPTER VI
TELLS HOW BEN COOPER ENCOUNTERED THE MAN
WITH THE YELLOW SMILE
Before retiring on the night before, Lord Cornwallis had looked at the lines of American camp-fires and listened to the sound of the mattocks and spades at the east end of the bridge.
“In the morning,” said my lord, using the language of the English huntsman, “I will bag the fox.”
At daylight, however, the thunder of cannon from the direction of Princeton awoke him from his sleep; once without he saw the dying watch-fires and deserted camp of the Americans.
“They are gone,” said his general, Grant, in a tone which was one of mixed wonder and rage. “They have escaped us.”
Again came the roar of guns from along the Princeton road.
“Harken to that,” said Cornwallis, bitterly. “They have probably not only escaped us, but are making a rush upon Brunswick to capture our stores.”
With the celerity of trained soldiers, the British veterans got under way, and at top speed, with their officers urging them on, they marched toward Princeton. The Pennsylvania militia had ceased their pursuit and were engaged in destroying the bridge at Stony Brook; it was partly down when the cannon of Cornwallis drove them away; then, unable to pass by way of the bridge, the British, horse, foot and artillery, plunged into the cold water and gained the other side.
But the delay at the bridge permitted the Americans to draw a long and safe distance away; and seeing that there was no hope of overtaking them, Cornwallis pushed on to Brunswick, thankful at least that his stores were safe.