The Christmas revel of the Hessians had held far into morning hours; and though the ladies so prudently retired, it was not to sleep, as it proved, for the uproar put that out of the question. At last, however, the merry-making ceased by degrees, as man after man staggered off to his quarters, or succumbing to drink, merely took a horizontal position in the room of the festivity, and quiet, quickly succeeded by slumber, descended upon the household.

To the women it seemed as if the turmoil had but just ended, ere it began anew. The first alarm was a thundering on the front door, so violent that the intent seemed to be to break it down rather than to gain admission from the inside. Then came a rush of heavy boots pounding upstairs, followed by a renewal of the ponderous blows on every door, accompanied now by the stentorian shouting of hasty sentences in German.

As if the din were not sufficient, Miss Drinker, in her fright at the assault directed against the barrier to which she had pinned her own reliance of safety, promptly gave vent to a series of shrieks, intermixed, when breath failed, with gasping predictions to the girls as to the fate that awaited them, scaring the maidens most direfully. Their terror was not lessened by the growing volume of shouts outside the house, and by the rub-a-dub-dub of the drums, and the tantara of the bugles, as the “To arms” was sounded along the village street. Barely had they heard Rahl and the other officers go plunging downstairs, when the scattering crack of muskets began to be heard, swelling quickly into volleys and then into the unmistakable platoon firing, which bespoke an attack in force. Finally, and as a last touch to their alarm, came the roar of artillery, as Forrest’s and Knox’s batteries opened fire.

The whole conflict took not over thirty-five minutes, but to the three bedfellows it seemed to last for hours. The silence that then fell so suddenly proved even more awful, however, and became quickly so insupportable that Janice was for getting out of bed to learn its cause, a project that Miss Drinker prohibited. “I know not what is transpiring,” she avowed, “but whatever the disturbance, our danger is yet to come.”

The event verified her opinion, for presently heavy and hurried footsteps of many men sounded below stairs, terminating the brief silence. With little delay the tramp of boots came upstairs, and a loud rap on the door drew a stifled cry from the spinster as she buried her head under the bedclothes, and made the two girls clutch each other with fright.

“Open!” called a commanding voice. “Open, I say!” it repeated, as no answer came. “Batter it in, then!” and at the order the stocks of two muskets shattered the door panels; the bureau was tipped over on its face with a crash, and Brereton, sword in hand, jumped through the breach.

It was an apparently empty room into which the aide entered, but a mound under the bedclothes told a different tale.

“Here are other Hessian pigs who’ve drunk more than they’ve bled,” he sneered, as he tossed back the counterpane and blankets with his sword-point, thus uncovering three becapped heads, from each of which issued a scream, while three pairs of hands wildly clutched the covering.

The nightcaps so effectually disguised the faces that not a one did the officer recognise in his first hasty glance.

“Ho!” he jeered. “Small wonder the fellow lay abed. Come, up with you, my Don Juan,” he added, prodding Miss Drinker through the bedclothes with his sword. “’T is no time for bearded men to lie abed.”

“Help, help!” shrieked Janice, and “’T is my aunt!” cried Tabitha, in unison, but the spinster’s fear was quite forgot in the insulting allusion to the somewhat noticeable hirsute adornment on her face; sitting up in bed, she pointed at the door, and sternly ordered, “Cease from insulting gentlewomen, brute, and leave this chamber!”

“Zounds!” burst out Jack, in his amazement; then he turned and roared to the gaping and snickering soldiers, “Get out of here, every doodle of you, and be—to you!” Keeping his back to the bed, he said, “I pray your pardon, ma’am, for disturbing you; our spies assured us that only Hessian officers slept here.”

“Go!” commanded the offended and unrelenting old maid.

The officer took a step toward the door, halted, and remarked savagely, “Our positions are somewhat reversed, Miss Meredith. ’T is poetic justice, indeed, which threatens you a taste of the captivity you schemed in my behalf; ‘he cries best who cries last.’”

“I had naught to do with thy captivation!” protested Janice, indignantly, “though thou wouldst not believe me; and but for me thou’dst still be a prisoner.”

“A well-dressed-up tale, but told too late to gain credence,” sneered the officer. “You made a cully of me once. I defy you to ever again.”

“A man who thinks such vile thoughts is welcome to them,” retorted the girl, proudly.

“Dost intend to put a finish to thy intrusion upon the privacy of females?” objurgated Miss Drinker; and at the question Brereton flung out of the room without more words.

The ladies made a hasty toilet, and descended to the kitchen, to find the maids deep in the preparation of breakfast, while standing near the fire was a coloured man in a brown livery who ducked low to Janice as he grinned a recognition.

“Oh!” exclaimed the girl, and then, “How’s Blueskin?”

“Lor’ bless de chile, she doan forget ole Willium nor dat horse,” chuckled the darkey. “Dat steed, miss, hardly git a good feed now once a week, but he knows dat he carries his Excellency, an’ dat de army ’s watchin’ him, an’ he make believe he chock full of oats all de time. He jus’ went offen his head when Ku’nel Forrest’s guns wuz a-bustin’ de Hessians all to pieces dis mornin’, an’ de way he dun arch his neck an’ swish his tail when Gin’l Howe give up his sword made de enemy stare.”

“You’ll purvey my compliments to his Highness, Mr. Lee,” requested the cook, “an’ ’spress to him de mortification we ’speriences at being necessitated to tender him his tea outen de elegantest ob best Japan. ’Splain to him dat we ’se a real quality family, an’ regularly accustomed to de finest ob plate, till de Hessians depredated it.”

“Is this for General Washington?” questioned Janice, with sudden interest in the tray upon which the cook had placed a china tea-service, some hot corn bread, and a rasher of bacon.

“Yes, miss,” explained William. “His Excellency ’s in de parlour, a-lookin’ over de papers of de dead gin’l, an’ he say see if I kian’t git him some breakfast.”

“Oh,” begged the girl, eagerly, “may n’t I take it to him?”

“Dat yo’ may, honey,” acceded the black, yielding to the spell of the lass. “Massa allus radder see a pooty face dan black ole Billy’s. Jus’ yo’ run along with it, chile, an’ s’prise him.”

Catching up the waiter, the maiden carried it to the parlour, which she entered after knocking, in response to Washington’s behest. The general looked up from the paper he was conning and instantly smiled a recognition to the girl.

“You are not rid of us yet, you see, Miss Janice,” he said.

“Nor wish to be, your Excellency,” vouched the girl, as she set the tray on the table.

“I remember thy wish for our cause when last we met,” went on the commander, “and who knows but it has served us in good stead this very morning? I had the vanity that day to think thy interest was for the general, but I have just unravelled it to its true source.”

“Indeed,” protested Janice, sorely puzzled by his words, “’t was only thy—”

“Nay, nay, my dear,” chided Washington, smiling pleasantly; “’t is nothing to be ashamed of, and I ought to have suspected that thy interest was due to some newer and brighter blade than an old one like myself. He is a lucky fellow to have won so charming a maid, and one brave enough to take such risk for him.”

“La, your Excellency,” stammered the girl, completely mystified, “I know not what you mean!”

Still smiling, Washington set down the tea he was now drinking and selected a paper from a pile on the table. “I have just been perusing Colonel Harcourt’s report to General Grant, in reference to the traitorous conduct of one Janice Meredith, spinster, and it has informed me of much that Colonel Brereton chose to withhold, though he pretended to make me a full narration. The sly beau said ’t was the cook cut him loose, Miss Janice.”

“Oh, prithee, General Washington,” beseeched a very blushing young lady, “wilt please favour me by letting Colonel Brereton—who is less than nothing to me—read the report?”

“Thou takest strange ways to prove thy lack of interest,” rejoined the general, his eyes merry at the seeming contradiction.

“’T is indeed not as thou surmisest,” protested Janice, redder than ever; “but Colonel Brereton thought I was concerned in his captivation, and would not believe a message I sent to him, and but just since he has cruelly insulted me, and so I want him to learn how shamefully he has misjudged me, so that he shall feel properly mean and low.”

“That he shall,” Washington assented, “and every man should be made to feel the same who lacks faith in your face, Miss Janice. The rascal distinguished himself in this morning’s affair, so I let him bear my despatches and the Hessian standard to Congress; however, as soon as he returns he shall smart for his sins, be assured. But, my dear,” and here the eyes of the speaker twinkled, “when due punishment has been meted out, remember that forgiveness is one of your sex’s greatest excellences.” Washington took the hand of the girl and bent over it. “Now leave me, for we have much to attend to before we can set to getting our prisoners across the river, out of the reach of their friends.”

Twenty-four hours later the village which had been so over-burdened with soldiers was stripped as clear of them as if there were not one in the land. It took a day to get the thousand prisoners safely beyond the Delaware, and three more were spent in giving the Continentals a much-needed rest from the terrible exposure and fatigue they had under-gone; but this done, Washington once more crossed the river and reoccupied Trenton, induced to take the risk by the word brought to him that the militia of New Jersey, driven to desperation by the British occupation, and heartened by the success of Trenton, were ready to rise if they had but a fighting point about which to rally.

The expectation proved erroneous, for the presence of the little force at Trenton was more than offset by the prompt mobilisation of all the British troops in the State at Princeton, and the hurrying of Cornwallis, with reinforcements, from New York, to resume the command. As Washington’s army mustered less than five thousand, one-third of whom were raw Pennsylvania militia, while that of the British general when concentrated exceeded eight thousand, the prudent elected to stay safely within doors and await the result of the coming conflict before deciding whether they should forget their recently signed oaths of allegiance and cast in their lot with the Continental cause.

Yet another difficulty, too, beset the commander-in-chief. The terms of the New England regiments expired on the last day of the year, and though the approach of the enemy made a speedy action certain, the men refused to re-enlist, or even to serve for a fortnight longer. Such was the desperate plight of the general that he finally offered them a bounty if they would but remain for six weeks, and, after much persuasion, more than half of them consented to stay the brief time. The army chest being wholly without funds, Washington pledged his personal fortune to the payment of the bounty, though in private he spoke scornfully of the regiments’ “noble example” and “extraordinary attachment to their country,” the fighting spirit too strong within him to enable him to understand desertion of the cause at such an hour. Quite a number, even, who took the bounty, deserted the moment the money was received.

Cornwallis lost not a moment, once his troops were gathered, in seeking vengeance for Trenton; and on January 2 spies brought word to Washington that the British were approaching in force by the Princeton post-road. A detachment was at once thrown forward to meet their advance, and for several hours every inch of ground was hotly contested. Then, the main body of the enemy having come up, the Americans fell back on their reserves, and the whole Continental army retreated through the village and across the bridge over Assanpink Creek,—a tributary stream emptying into the Delaware just east of Trenton. Here the troops were ranged along the steep banks to renew the contest, the batteries being massed at the bridge and at the two fords, and some desultory firing occurred. But it was now dark, and Cornwallis’s troops having marched fifteen miles, the commander postponed the attack till the morrow, and the two armies bivouacked for the night on opposite sides of the brook, within a hundred and fifty yards of each other.

“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.”