She
had done a brave deed about nine months before the battle of Monmouth,
when Fort Clinton was taken by the British. She was there with her
husband when the fort was attacked, and when the Americans retreated
from the fort, and the enemy were scaling the ramparts, her husband
dropped his match and fled, but Molly picked it up and fired the gun,
then scampered off after him. That was the last gun fired in the fort by
the Americans."

"And this battle of Monmouth was a great victory for us--for the
Americans, I mean?" Walter said inquiringly.

"Yes, in spite of the shameful retreat of Lee and the unaccountable
detention of Morgan and his brave riflemen, who were within sound of the
fearful tumult of the battle and eager to take part in it, Morgan
striding to and fro in an agony of suspense, and desire to participate
in the struggle, yet unaccountably detained where he was."

"And that was some of that traitor Lee's doings, I suspect," exclaimed
Lulu hotly. "Wasn't it, papa?"

"My dear child, I do not know," returned the captain, "but it seems
altogether probable that if Morgan could have fallen, with his fresh
troops, upon the weary ones of Sir Henry Clinton, toward the close of
the day, the result might have been such a surrender as Burgoyne was
forced to make at Saratoga.

"But as it was, while Washington and his weary troops slept that night,
the general looking forward to certain victory in the morning, when he
could again attack his country's foes with his own troops strengthened
and refreshed by sleep, Sir Henry and his army stole silently away and
hurried toward Sandy Hook."

"Did Washington chase him?" asked Walter.

"No," said the captain; "when he considered the start the British had,
the weariness of his own troops, the excessive heat of the weather, and
the deep sandy country, with but little water to be had, he thought it
wiser not to make the attempt."

"Papa, was it near here that the British shot Mrs. Caldwell?" asked
Lulu.

"No; that occurred in a place called Connecticut Farms, about four miles
northwest of Elizabethtown, to which they--the Caldwells--had removed
for greater safety.

"It was in June, 1780. The British under Clinton and Knyphausen crossed
over to Elizabethtown and moved on toward Springfield. The Americans,
under General Greene, were posted upon the Short Hills, a series of high
ridges near Springfield, and came down to the plain to oppose the
invasion of the British. I wi