"Where are the guards?" cried out Lee, in his surprise and horror. "Why don't they fire?"
It was a cold morning, and the guards had stacked their arms, and passed around to the south side of the house to sun themselves. They scarcely observed the enemy's presence until they heard the demand to surrender.
"If General Lee does not surrender in five minutes I will set fire to the house!"
At the same time the guards were chased in different directions. The demand for Lee to surrender was repeated, and he did surrender. Hastily he was put upon Wilkinson's horse, which stood at the door, and within three hours the enemy were exulting over him at Brunswick.
"No one to blame but himself," remarked Heath.
"Good enough for him," said many Americans.
General Sullivan was now in command, and he joined the commander-in-chief as soon as possible.
In Wilkinson's memoir it is said that Lee delayed so strangely in order to intercept the enemy in pursuit of Washington; and it is added:
"If General Lee had anticipated General Washington in cutting the cordon of the enemy between New York and the Delaware, the commander-in-chief would probably have been superseded. In this case Lee would have succeeded him."