“Donner und blitz!” exclaimed the officer, “shall I tell you again! Out with you! And be quick! Such as you may needed be before we are far gone on our journey.”
So out the two darted, dodging the lash, and took up places beside the sleighs, still making a pretense of protesting; and then away they went toward Trenton. The snow fell thickly and steadily; the road grew more and more difficult; at length, at daybreak, they sighted the town; and an hour later they were unloading the stores.
This once finished, the two young men had little difficulty in slipping away; and then began their work of observing the enemy’s position, numbers and general frame of mind. Some days passed—days of hardship and hard usage. With their rough dress, their unkempt heads of hair and grimy faces and hands, they were the butts of the brutal mercenaries that filled the town. They were forced to do all sorts of menial and laborious work; but as this permitted them to gain entrance at points where information was to be had, they fell in with the demands of the Hessians readily enough.
To the British and the Hessians, the American army was a dispirited and broken crew of ragamuffins. They knew how to run and dodge, that was all. At Trenton, all across the Jerseys and at New York, careless confidence was supreme. Howe was quartered at Manhattan for the winter; his troops were negligently stretched from Brunswick to the Delaware. Three regiments of Hessians under Colonel Rahl occupied Trenton and the towns near by; and the general conduct of these filled the two spies with satisfaction.
That iron discipline that has ever marked the German army, and which had been the particular characteristic of the Hessians since landing in America, had now relaxed. They held Washington in contempt. When one of the veteran officers suggested the erection of earthworks, Colonel Rahl laughed uproariously.
“Earthworks for those rats across the river! Ach! you are joking!” was what he said. “In a little time there will be ice where there now is water; then we will cross over and at them with the bayonet.”
This attitude of their commander had been taken up by the men; they gave little thought to the enemy; being comfortable and having more than enough food was of vastly greater interest.
Cornwallis had secured leave and was at New York about to take ship for England; Grant, who was in charge of the noble earl’s division, thought almost as meanly of the colonists as did Rahl.
All these things became known to the two eager-eyed young men, and more. They had been in the town perhaps a week, when one afternoon Brewster said:
“There is nothing more of value to be learned. Suppose we try to get across the river to-night.”