"Ran!"
"By God, yes. And our poor little Northern Army is on the run today, with thirteen thousand British on their heels.
"They drove us out o' Chambly. They took the Cedars. Montreal fell. St. John's followed. Quebec is freed. We're clean kicked out o' Canada, and marching up Lake Champlain, our rear in touch with the red-coats.
"If we stand and face about at Crown Point, we shall do more than I hope for.
"Thomas is dead, Thompson and Irving taken, Arnold and Wayne wounded, the army a skeleton, what with losses by death, wounds, disease, and in prisoners.
"Had not Arnold broke into the Montreal shops and taken food and woolen clothing, I think we had been naked now."
"Good heavens!" said I, burning with mortification, "I had not heard of such a rout!"
"Oh, it was no rout, John," said he carelessly. "Sullivan marched us out of that hell-hole in good order—whatever John Adams chooses to say about our army."
"What does John Adams say?"
"Why, he says we are disgraced, defeated, dispirited, discontented, undisciplined, diseased, eaten up with vermin."