Part 7 (1/2)

Was.h.i.+ngton had not boats enough to carry his men across the river.

Corn-wal-lis was sure to beat him if they should fight a battle the next morning.

Cornwallis said, ”I will catch the fox in the morning.”

He called Was.h.i.+ngton a fox. He thought he had him in a trap.

Cornwallis sent for some more soldiers to come from Prince-ton in the morning. He wanted them to help him catch the fox.

But foxes sometimes get out of traps.

When it was dark, Was.h.i.+ngton had all his camp fires lighted. He put men to digging where the British could hear them. He made Cornwallis think that he was throwing up banks of earth and getting ready to fight in the morning.

But Was.h.i.+ngton did not stay in Trenton. He did not wish to be caught like a fox in a trap. He could not get across the river. But he knew a road that went round the place where Cornwallis and his army were. He took that road and got behind the British army.

It was just like John waiting to catch James. James is in the house.

John is waiting at the front door to catch James when he comes out.

But James slips out by the back way. John hears him call ”h.e.l.lo!”

James has gone round behind him and got away.

Was.h.i.+ngton went out of Trenton in the darkness. You might say that he marched out by the back door. He left Cornwallis watching the front door. The Americans went away quietly. They left a few men to keep up the fires, and make a noise like digging. Before morning these slipped away too.

When morning came, Cornwallis went to catch his fox. But the fox was not there. He looked for the Americans. There was the place where they had been digging. Their camp fires were still burning. But where had they gone?

Cornwallis thought that Was.h.i.+ngton had crossed the river by some means. But soon he heard guns firing away back toward Princeton. He thought that it must be thunder. But he found that it was a battle.

Then he knew that Was.h.i.+ngton had gone to Princeton.

Was.h.i.+ngton had marched all night. When he got to Princeton, he met the British coming out to go to Trenton. They were going to help Cornwallis to catch Was.h.i.+ngton. But Was.h.i.+ngton had come to Princeton to catch them. He had a hard fight with the British at Princeton. But at last he beat them.

When Cornwallis knew that the Americans had gone to Princeton, he hurried there to help his men. But it was too late. Was.h.i.+ngton had beaten the British at Princeton, and had gone on into the hills, where he was safe.

The fox had got out of the trap.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON'S LAST BATTLE.

Was.h.i.+ngton had been fighting for seven years to drive the British soldiers out of this country. But there were still two strong British armies in America.

One of these armies was in New York. It had been there for years. The other army was far away at Yorktown in Virginia. The British general at Yorktown was Cornwallis. You have read how Was.h.i.+ngton got away from him at Trenton.

The King of France had sent s.h.i.+ps and soldiers to help the Americans.

But still Was.h.i.+ngton had not enough men to take New York from the British. Yet he went on getting ready to attack the British in New York. He had ovens built to bake bread for his men. He bought hay for his horses. He had roads built to draw his cannons on.

He knew that the British in New York would hear about what he was doing. He wanted them to think that he meant to come to New York and fight them. When the British heard what the Americans were doing, they got ready for the coming of Was.h.i.+ngton and the French. All at once they found that Was.h.i.+ngton had gone. He and his men had marched away.

The French soldiers that had come to help him had gone with him.

n.o.body knew what it meant. Was.h.i.+ngton's own men did not know where they were going. They went from New Jersey into Penn-syl-va-ni-a. Then they marched across Penn-syl-va-ni-a. Then they went into Mary-land.

They marched across that State, and then they went into Vir-gin-i-a.