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"My Lord," protested Sir William Erskine, when the order
to encamp was given, "may not the enemy escape under
cover of the night?"

"Where to?" demanded Cornwallis. "This time there
will be no crossing of the Delaware, for we are too close on
their heels; and if they retreat down the river, we can fight
them when we please. A little success has undone Mr.
Washington, and the fox is at last run to cover."

While at supper, the British commander was informed by
an orderly that two civilians desired word with him, and
without leaving the table he granted an audience.

"A petticoat, eh?" he muttered, as a man and woman
entered the room; and then as the lady pushed back her
calash, he ordered: "A chair for Miss Meredith, sergeant."
The girl seated, he went on: "Sir William spoke of you to
me just as I was leaving New York, and instructed me, if you
were findable, to send you to New York. I' faith, the general
had more to say of your coming than he had of my teaching
Mr. Washington a lesson. He told me to put you under
charge of Lord Clowes without delay."

"But he was captivated," announced Mr. Drinker.

"So I learned at Princeton; therefore the matter must
await my return."

"I have come with the young lady, my Lord," spoke up Mr.
Drinker, "to ask thy indulgence in behalf of herself and her
father."

"Yes, Lord Cornwallis," said Janice, finding her tongue
and eager to use it. "We came here to see General Grant,
but he was away, and dadda had a slight attack of the gout,
from a cold he took, and then he very rashly drank too much
at Colonel Rahl's party, and that swelled his foot so that he's
lain abed ever since, till to-day, when we thought to set out
for Brunswick; but the snow having melted, our sleigh could
not travel, and every one expecting a battle wanted to get out
of town themselves, so we could get no carriage, nor even a
cart." Here Miss Meredith paused for breath with which to
go on.

"Friend Meredith," said Mr. Drinker, taking up the explanation,
"though not able to set foot to the ground, conceives
that he can travel on horseback by easy riding; and
rather than risk remaining in a town that is like to be the scene
of to-morrow's unrighteous slaughter, he hopes thee will grant
him permission and a pass to return to Brunswick."

"There will be no fight in the town to-morrow," asserted
Cornwallis; "but there may be some artillery firing before we
can carry their position, so 't is no place for non-combatants,
much less women. You can't do better than get back to
Greenwood, where later I'll arrange to fulfil Sir William's
orders. Make out a pass for two, Erskine. When do you
wish to start, Miss Meredith?"

"Dadda said we'd get away before daylight, so as to be
well out of town before the battle began."

"Wisely thought. The second brigade lies at Maidenhead
and the fourth at Princeton; and as both have orders to join
me, you'll meet them on the road. This paper, however,
will make all easy."

"Thank you," said the girl, gratefully, as she took the pass.

"Didst see Mr. Washington when he was in town?"
inquired the earl of Mr. Drinker.

"Not I," replied the Quaker; "but friend Janice had word
with him."

"You seem to play your cards to stand well with both commanders,
Miss Meredith," intimated the officer, a little
ironically. "Did the rebel general seem triumphant over his
easy victory?"

"He said naught about it to me," answered Janice.

"Within a few hours he'll learn the difference between
British regulars and half-drunk Hessians." Cornwallis glanced
out of the window to where, a quarter of a mile away, could be
seen the camp-fires of the Continental force burning brightly.
"He 'd best have done his bragging while he could."

CHAPTER XXXV
THE "STOLE AWAY"

It was barely four o'clock the following morning when,
after a breakfast by candle-light, the squire and Janice,
the former only with much assistance and many groans,
mounted Joggles and Brereton's mare. Mr. Drinker
rode with them through the village, on his way to join the
Misses Drinker, who, two days before, on the first warning of
a conflict, had been sent away to a friend's, as would Janice
have been also, had she not insisted on staying with her
father. At the crossroads, therefore, after a due examination
of their passes by the picket, adieux were made, and the
guests, with many thanks, turned north on the Princeton post-road,
while the host trotted off on the Pennington turnpike.

It was still dark when, an hour later, the riders reached
Maidenhead, to find the second brigade of the British clustered
about their camp-fires; but in the moment's delay,
while the officer of the day was scrutinising the safe-conduct,
the drums beat the reveille, and the village street was alive
with breakfast preparations as father and daughter were permitted
to resume their journey. It was a clear, cold morning,
and as the twilight slowly brightened into sunshine, the whole
landscape glistened radiantly with a heavy hoar-frost that for
the moment gleamed and shimmered as if the face of the
country had been rubbed with some phosphorescent substance,
or as if the riders were viewing it through prism glasses.

"Oh, dadda, isn't it beautiful?" exclaimed Janice, delightedly,
as they rode down the hill to the bridge over Stony
Creek.

"What? Where?" demanded that worthy, looking about
in all directions.

[Illustration: "'T is to rescue thee, Janice."]

"The fields, and the trees, and--"

"Can't ye keep your thoughts from gadding off on such
nonsense, Jan?" cavilled her father, fretfully, his gouty foot
putting him in anything but a sweet mood. "One would
think ye had never seen pasture or woodland be--Ho!"
he ejaculated, interrupting his reproof, "what 's that sound?"

The words were but spoken when the front files of a regiment
just topping the hill across the brook came in view and
descended the road at quick step to the bridge, their gay
scarlet uniforms, flying colours, and shining gun barrels adding
still more to the brilliancy.

"Halt!" was the order to the troops as they came up to
the riders, and the officer took the pass that the squire held
out to him. "What hour left you Trenton?" he demanded.

"Four o'clock."

"And heard you any firing after leaving?" asked Colonel
Mawhood, eagerly.

"Not a sound."

"I fear none the less that the fighting will be all over ere
the Seventeenth can get there, much more the Fortieth and
Fifty-fifth," he grumbled, as he returned the paper. "Attention!
Sections, break off! Forward--march!"

The order, narrowing the column, allowed the squire and
Janice to ride on and cross the bridge. On the other side of
the stream a by-road joined the turnpike, and as Janice glanced
along it, she gave a cry of surprise. "Look, dadda," she
prompted, "there are more troops!"

"Ay," acceded Mr. Meredith, "'t is the rest of the brigade
just coming in view."

"But that leads not from Princeton," observed Janice.
"'T is the roundabout way to Trenton that joins the river road
on the other side of Assanpink Creek. And, oh, dadda, look
at the uniforms! Is 't not the hunting shirt of the Continental
riflemen?"

"Gadsbodikins, if the lass is not right!" grunted the squire,
when he had got on his glasses. "What the deuce do they
here?"

An equal curiosity apparently took possession of the British
colonel, for when the Seventeenth had breasted the hill to a
point where the American advance could be seen, the regiment
was hastily halted, and in another moment, reversing
direction, returned on its route at double quick, its commander
supposing the force in sight a mere detachment
which he could capture or cut to pieces, and little recking
that Washington's whole army, save for a guard to keep their
camp-fires burning, had stolen away in the night from the
superior force of British at Trenton, with the object of attacking
the fourth brigade at Princeton.

"By heavens!" snorted the squire, in alarm. "Quicken
thy pace, Jan. We are out of the frying-pan and into the fire
with a vengeance." Then as the horses were put to a trot,
he howled with the pain the motion caused his swathed foot.
"Spur on to Princeton, Jan. The pace is more than I can
bear, and I'll turn off into this orchard for safety," he
moaned, as he indicated a slope to the right of the road.

"I'll not leave thee, dadda," protested the girl, as she
guided the mare over the let-down bars of the fence, through
which her father put Joggles, and in a moment both horses
were climbing the declivity under the bare apple-trees.

The squire's knowledge of warfare was never likely to win
him honour, for with vast circumspection he had selected the
strongest strategic position of the region; and though his back
to the British and the rising land in his front prevented him
from realising it, both commanders, with the quick decision
of trained officers, put their forces to a run, in the endeavour
to occupy the hill. The Continental riflemen, having the
advantage of light accoutrements and little baggage, were
successful; and just as the two riders reached the crest, it was
covered by green and brown shirted men.

"Get to the rear!" stormed an officer at the pair; while,
without stopping to form, the men poured in a volley at the
charging British, who, halting, returned the fire, the bullets
hurtling and whistling about the non-combatants in a way
that made the squire forget the agonies of his gout in the
danger of his position.

Ere the riflemen could reload, the Seventeenth, with fixed
bayonets, were upon them, and the two American regiments,
having no defensive weapon, broke and fled in every direction.
A mounted officer rode forward and attempted to stay the
flight of the riflemen, then fell wounded from his horse. As
he came to the ground, Janice and her father found themselves
once more on the other side of the conflict, as the
charging British swept by them; and the girl screamed as
she saw two of the soldiers rush to where the wounded man
lay, and repeatedly thrust their bayonets into him, though she
was ignorant that it was Washington's old companion in arms,
General Mercer.

As the riflemen fell back down the hill, Washington in person
headed two regiments of Pennsylvania militia, supported by a
couple of pieces of artillery from the right flank to cover the
fugitives. Although conscious by now that he had no mere
detachment to fight, Colonel Mawhood, with admirable coolness,
ordered the recall sounded, and re-forming his regiment,
led a charge against the new foe. Seeing the Seventeenth
advancing at double quick, in the face of the guns, so fearlessly
and steadily, the militia wavered, and were on the point
of deserting the battery, when Washington spurred forward,
thus placing himself between the two lines of soldiers. His
splendid and reckless courage steadied the raw militia; they
gave a cheer and levelled their muskets just as the Seventeenth
halted and did the same. Within thirty yards of the enemy,
and well in advance of his own men, Washington stood exposed
to both volleys as the two lines fired, and for a moment
he was lost to view in the smoke which, blown about
him, united in one dense cloud. Slowly the mass lifted, revealing
both general and horse unhurt, and at the sight the
Pennsylvania regiments cheered once more.

The time lost by the British in halting and firing proved
fatal to the capture of the guns. Hand's riflemen, advancing,
threw in a deadly, scattering fire of trained sharpshooters,
while two regiments under Hitchcock came forward at a run.
One moment the Seventeenth held its ground, then broke and
fled toward the road, leaving behind them two brass cannon.
For four miles the fugitives were pursued, and many prisoners
were taken.

Musketry on the right showed the day not yet won, however,
the Fifty-fifth having pressed forward upon hearing the fusillade,
and but for the check it met from a New England
brigade would have come to the aid of its friends. The flight
of the Seventeenth enabled Washington to mass his force
against the new arrival; and it was driven in upon the Fortieth,
and then both fell back into the town, taking possession of the
college building, with the evident hope of finding in its walls
protection sufficient to make a successful stand. But when
the Continental artillery was brought up and wheeled into
position, at the first shot the British abandoned the stronghold
and fled in disorder along the road leading to Brunswick, hotly
pursued by a force which Washington joined.

"It's a fine fox chase, my boys!" he shouted to the men,
in the excitement of the moment.

Brereton, who was riding within hearing, called something
to a bugler; and the man, halting in the race, put his trumpet
to his lips and blew a fanfare.

"There are others can sound the 'Stole Away,' your Excellency,"
shouted Jack, triumphantly. "That insult is paid in
kind."

The Continental soldiers were too exhausted by their long
night march and their morning fight to follow the fugitives far,
the more that the English, by throwing away their guns, knap-sacks,
and other accoutrements, and by being far less fatigued,
were easily able to outstrip their pursuers. Perceiving this, the
general ordered the bugles to sound the recall, and the men
fell back on Princeton village.

"With five hundred fresh troops, or a proper force of light
horse, we could have captured every man of them," groaned
Brereton, "and probably have seized Brunswick, with all its
stores."

Washington nodded his head in assent. "'T is idle to repine,"
he said calmly, "because the measure of our success
might have been greater. The troops have marched well and
fought well."

"What is more," declared Webb, "a twelve hours ago, the
enemy thought us in a cul-de-sac. We have not merely
escaped, but turned our flight into a conquest. How they
will grit their teeth when they find themselves outgeneralled!"

"Less a couple of hundred prisoners to boot," chimed in
Brereton, pointing at the village green, where the captives
were being collected.

"Your Excellency," reported General Greene, as Washington
came up to the college building, "we have found a store of
shoes and blankets in the college, and all of the papers of the
Lord Cornwallis and General Grant."

"Look to them, Brereton, and report to me at once if there
is anything needing instant attention," directed Washington.

Jack, tossing his reins to a soldier, followed Greene into
Nassau Hall, and was quickly running over the bundles of
papers which the British, with more prudence than prescience,
had for safety left behind. Presently he came upon a great
package of signed oaths of allegiance, which he was shoving to
one side as of no immediate importance, when the name signed
at the bottom of the uppermost one caught his eye.

"Oh, Joe, Joe!" he laughed, taking up the paper, "is
this thy much-vaunted love of freedom?" Glancing at the
second, he added, "And Esquire Hennion! Well, they deserve
it not; but I'll do the pair a harmless service all the
same, merely for old-time days," he muttered, as he folded up
the two broadsides and stuffed them into his pocket.

While the aide was thus engaged, Washington rode over to
inspect the prisoners. Here it was to discover the squire and
Janice, the former having been made a prize of by a more
zealous than sagacious militiaman. Giving directions to march
the prisoners at once under guard to Morristown, the commander
turned to the girl.

"Thou 'rt not content to give us thy good wishes, Miss
Janice," he said, motioning to the guard to let the two go free,
"but addest the aid of thy presence as well."

"And were within an ace of getting shot thereby," complained
the squire, still not entirely over his fright. "Egad,
general, we were right between the shooting at one minute,
and heard the bullets shrieking all about us."

"But so was his Excellency, dadda," protested Janice.
"Oh, General Washington," she added, "when you rode up
so close to the British, and I saw them level their guns, I was
like to have fell off my horse with fear for you."

"Ay," remarked the squire, for once unprecedentedly diplomatic.
"The lass stood her own peril as steadily as ever I
did, but she turned white as a feather when the infantry fired
at you, and, woman-like, burst into tears the moment the smoke
had lifted enough to show you still unhurt."

"And now has tears in her eyes because I was not shot, I
suppose," Washington responded, with a smiling glance at the
maiden.

"No, your Excellency," denied the girl, in turn smiling
through the tears. "But dadda is quite wrong: 't was not
anxiety for you that made me weep, but fear that they might
have killed Blueskin!"

Washington laughed at the girl's quip. "It seems my
vanity is so great that I am doomed ever to mistake the source
of your interest. Come," he added, "the last time we met I
was beholden to you for a breakfast. Let me repay the kindness
by giving you a meal. One of my family reports that the
lunch of the officers' mess of the Fortieth was just on the table
at the provost's house when our movements gave them other
occupation. 'T is fair plunder, and I bid you to share in it."

During the repast the father and daughter told how they had
come to be mixed in the conflict, and the squire grumbled
over the prospect before him.

"I've no place to go but Greenwood, and now they threat
to take my lass to New York over this harebrain scrape
she's got us all into."

"'T would be gross ingratitude," asserted Washington, "if
we let Miss Meredith suffer for her service to us, and 't is a
simple matter to save her. Get me pen, ink, and a blank
parole, Baylor."

The paper brought, Washington filled in a few words in his
flowing script, and then placed it before the girl. "Sign
here," he told her, and when it was done he took back the
document. "You are now a prisoner of war, released on
parole, Miss Janice," he explained, "and pledged not to go
more than ten miles from Greenwood without first applying to
me for permission. Furthermore, upon due notice, you are
again to render yourself my captive."

Janice, with a shy glance, which had yet the touch of impertinence
that was ingrain in her, replied, "I was that the
first time I met your Excellency, and have been so ever
since."

An end was put to the almost finished meal at this point by
the clatter of hoots, followed by the hurried entrance of
Brereton. "General St. Clair sends word, sir, that a column
of British is advanced as far as Stony Brook, and is--"
There the aide caught sight of Janice, and stopped speaking
in his surprise.

"Go on, sir!" ordered Washington, sternly.

"And is driving in our skirmishes. He has report that 't is
the first of the whole English army, which is pressing on by
forced marches."

"'T is time, then, that we were on the wing," asserted the
general, rising. "Colonel Webb, tell General St. Clair to hold
the enemy in check as long as he can. You, Baylor, direct
Colonel Forrest to plant his guns on the green, to cover the
rearguard. General Greene, let the army file off on the road
to Somerset Court-house."

The orders given, he turned to make his farewell to Janice.
"This time Lord Cornwallis did not cheat us of our meal,
though he prevents our lingering long at table. You should
know best, sir," he said to the esquire, "what course to pursue,
but I advise you to start for Greenwood without delay,
for there will be some skirmishing through the town, and
the British commander is not likely to be in the best of
moods."

"We'll be off at once," assented Mr. Meredith.

"Then Miss Janice will allow me the office of mounting
her," solicited the general, as they all went to the door. "Is
not that Colonel Brereton's mare?" he continued, as the
orderly brought up the horses.

"Yes, your Excellency," stammered Janice. "'T was by a
strange chance--"

"No doubt, no doubt--" interrupted Washington, smiling.

"Belike he wants her back," intimated the squire, glancing
anxiously at the aide, who stood, with folded arms, watching
the scene.

"I think he'll not grudge the loan, in consideration of the
rider," insinuated Washington. "The more that Congress
has just voted him a sword and horse for his conduct at
Trenton. How is it, Brereton?"

With a shrug of the shoulders Jack muttered, "'T is no
time to demand her back, got though she was by a trick,"
and walked away.

"You have not shown him the paper?" questioned Janice,
as she settled herself in the saddle.

"No, my child," replied Washington. "He returned from
Baltimore only last evening, and there has been no time since.
But rest easy, he shall see it. Keep good wishes for us, and
fare thee well."

Two hours later the British marched into Princeton. But
the Continental forces had made good their retreat, and all
that was left to their pursuers was to march on wearily to
Brunswick to save the broken regiments and the magazines
that had been lost in spite of them, had Washington possessed
but a few fresh troops. The English general had been out-manoeuvred,
his best brigade cut to pieces, and the army he
had thought to annihilate was safe among the hills of New
Jersey.

"Confound the fox!" stormed Cornwallis. "Can I never
come up with him?"

"He 's got safe off twice, my lord; the third time is proverbial,
and the odds must turn," urged Erskine.

"Pray Heaven that some day we may catch him in a cul-de-sac
from which there can be no retreat."

Janice Meredith

VOLUME II.

[Illustration: George Washington (In color)]

JANICE MEREDITH
A TALE OF THE REVOLUTION

VOLUME II

BETWIXT MILLSTONES

The reunion of the Merediths was so joyful a one
that little thought was taken of the course of public
events. Nor were they now in a position easily to
learn of them. Philemon and his troop had
hastened to rejoin at the first news of the British reverses,
the remaining farm servants had one by one taken advantage
of the anarchy of the last eight months secretly to desert, or
boldly enlist, the squire's gout prevented his going abroad,
and the quiet was too great a boon to both Mrs. Meredith and
Janice to make them wish for anything but its continuance.

If there was peace at Greenwood, it was more than could
be said for the rest of the land. The Continental success at
Princeton, small though it was in degree, worked as a leaven,
and excited a ferment throughout the State. Every Whig
whom the British successes had for a moment made faint-hearted,
every farmer whose crops or stock had been seized,
every householder on whom troops had been quartered, even
Joe Bagby and the Invincibles took guns from their hiding-places
and, forming themselves into parties, joined Washington's
army in the Jersey hills about Morristown, or, acting on
their own account, boldly engaged the British detachments
and stragglers wherever they were encountered. Withdrawn
as the Merediths might be, the principal achievements were
too important not to finally reach them, and by infinite filtration
they heard of how the Waldeckers had been attacked at
Springfield and put to flight, how the British had abandoned
Hackensack and Newark without waiting for the assaults, and
how at Elizabethtown they had been surprised and captured.
Less than a month from the time that the royal army had
practically held the Jerseys, it was reduced to the mere possession
of Brunswick, Amboy, and Paulus Hook, and every
picket or foraging party sent out from these points was almost
certain of a skirmish.

It was this state of semi-blockade which gave the Merediths
their next taste of war's alarums. Late in February a company
of foot and a half troop of horse, with a few waggons, made
their appearance on the river road, and halted opposite the
gate of Greenwood. Painful as was the squire's foot, this
sight was sufficient to make him bear the agony of putting it
to the ground, and bring him limping to the door.

"How now! For what are ye come?" he shouted at a
detachment which was already filing through the gate.

At the call, two officers who had been seemingly engaged
in a discussion, rode toward the porch, and the moment
they were within speaking distance one of them began an
explanation.

"I was just a-tellin' Captain Plunkett that we'd done a
mighty bad stroke this mornin', but that this 'ud be a worse
one, for--"

"Why, it 's Phil!" cheerfully exclaimed Mr. Meredith.
"Welcome, lad, and all the more that I feared 't was another
call the thieving Whigs were about to pay my cribs and barn.
Where have ye been, lad? But, rather, in with ye and your
friend," he said, interrupting his own question, as the other
officer approached, "and tell your errand over a bottle where
there's more warmth."

"It's such a mighty sorry errand, squire," replied Philemon,
with evident reluctance, and reddening, "that it won't take
many words ter tell. We was sent out yestere'en toward
Somerset Court-house, a-foragin', and this mornin' as we was
returnin', we was set upon by the rebels."

"Devil burn it!" muttered the captain, "what do you call
such mode of warfare? At Millstone Ford, where they attacked
us, they scattered like sheep as we deployed for a
charge. But the moment we were on the march in column,
ping, ping, ping from every bit of cover, front, flank, and rear,
and each bullet with a billet at that, no matter what the distance.
Not till we reached Middle Brook did their stinging
fire cease."