They had not reached the location when a courier came dashing up to them.
"The British are in the camp, sir!" he exclaimed to Washington.
"Then we have other business to attend to than reconnoitering," quickly and coolly replied the general, putting spurs to his horse and returning to camp.
"The pickets are driven in, but our army is in order of battle," Adjutant-General Reed informed him, as he reached headquarters.
"Gentlemen, return to your respective posts, and do the best you can," the general responded, without the least excitement.
By this time the British army was discovered upon the high ground beyond the village, advancing in two columns, "in all the pomp and circumstance of war." General Heath wrote afterwards:
"It was a brilliant but formidable sight. The sun shone bright, their arms glittered, and perhaps troops never were shown to more advantage."
A brief but hard-fought battle followed, in which there was a loss of about four hundred men on each side.
The enemy waited for reinforcements, and Washington improved the time to fall back to Northcastle, five miles, where, in the rocky fastness, he could defy the whole British army. To add to his advantages, the day on which the British commander decided upon an attack, after the arrival of reinforcements, a violent rain set in, and continued through the day, rendering an attack impossible, so that the Americans had still more time to strengthen their position.