glory of that victory, and all others, and also of our final success,
to him who is the God of battles, and by whose strength and help our
freedom was won. As Bancroft says, 'Until that hour the life of the
United States flickered like a dying flame,' but God had appeared for
their deliverance and from that time the hopes of the almost despairing
people revived, while the confident expectations of their enemies were
dashed to the ground. Lord George Germain exclaimed after he heard the
news, 'All our hopes were blasted by the unhappy affair at Trenton.'"

"Unhappy affair indeed!" exclaimed Walter. "What a heartless wretch he
must have been, mamma!"

"And how our poor soldiers did suffer!" sighed Lulu; "it makes my heart
ache just to think of it!"

"And mine," said Grandma Elsie. "It is wonderful how much the poor
fellows were willing to endure in the hope of attaining freedom for
themselves and their country.

"Thomas Rodney tells us that on the night of the attack upon Trenton of
which we have been talking, while Rall caroused and played cards beside
his warm fire, our poor soldiers were toiling and suffering with cold
and nakedness, facing wind and sleet in the defence of their country.

"The night," he says, "was as severe a night as ever I saw; the frost
was sharp, the current difficult to stem, the ice increasing, the wind
high, and at eleven it began to snow. It was three in the morning of the
26th before the troops and cannon were all over, and another hour passed
before they could be formed on the Jersey side. A violent northeast
storm of wind, sleet, and hail set in as they began their nine miles'
march to Trenton, against an enemy in the best condition to fight. The
weather was terrible for men clad as they were, and the ground slipped
under their feet. For a mile and a half they had to climb a steep hill,
from which they descended to the road that ran for about three miles
between hills and forests of hickory, ash, and black oak."

"Oh, how brave and patriotic they were!" exclaimed Rosie. "I remember
reading that their route might be easily traced by the blood on the snow
from the feet of the poor fellows, who had broken shoes or none. Oh,
what a shame it was that Congress and the people let them--the men who
were enduring so much and fighting so bravely for the liberty of
both--bear such hardships!"

"It was, indeed," sighed Grandma Elsie; "it always gives me a heartache
to think of those poor fello