“At a little distance inland,” spoke one of the party, also a member of the Congress, “we can be assured of safety. For even our present commanders will scarcely allow the enemy to penetrate that far.”
“Washington,” said Mr. Hancock, “has not failed altogether. He has given us victories. Remember, sir, with the means at his hand he cannot win all the time. It is too much to require of any general.”
“But action is not too much to require of a general; it is not too much to ask the commander of an army that he have some enterprise; that he take the initiative occasionally, that he do not always wait until the enemy advances upon him before he makes a show of fighting.”
“Right! Right!” came a number of voices. “Quite right!”
But another member, and apparently a supporter of Washington, here spoke out.
“I think,” said he, “you have not properly considered what Mr. Hancock meant when he mentioned ‘the means at his hand.’” The speaker tapped the table edge with the tip of one finger and proceeded: “When one considers the slender supply of soldiers which present themselves for service, one might wonder very properly where an army sufficiently powerful to cope with England is coming from. And even the small force which our general gathers only remains with him a short time. The term of enlistment is so short that scarcely has a regiment reached a fair state of discipline than it disbands—and in this constant recruiting and training, the personnel of the army never reaches any but a most indifferent state. And, then, the money with which the force is to be maintained!” here the member looked about him and smiled. “What must keep Washington going for weeks would not cover the requirements of Howe for days. The supplies are seldom of sufficient quantity to fill the needs of our soldiers; the men go barefoot in the ranks; the able men lack the arms to fight with, and the sick men have not the medicine to make them well.”
At this there arose a chorus of approval and protest; the gathered members and their friends entered into the case with spirit and heat, and in the clamor that followed Ben heard little more. Having had nothing to eat since early morning, the lad, for the first time, began to feel a trifle faint; until this the excitement had sustained him, but the need of food was now strongly brought to his mind. So seating himself in a quiet nook near to a window at the front of the house he ordered a dish of eggs with bacon and well browned bread and other comforting things. The window was raised a few inches.
When these were placed before him, he fell to with relish and will, paying little attention to the high talk going on all about him.
Outside the inn door were several benches where patrons of the place were accustomed to sit in pleasant weather, and as Ben gazed idly out through the window at his elbow he found himself looking at the back of one of these, which was so placed; and over the top of it he saw the crown of a hat.
“Some sensible person who quietly takes the air in spite of the cold weather,” said Ben. “All this clatter and complaining is not worth listening to, he thinks, and so he will have none of it.”