It was a lovely day and all were on deck, enjoying the breeze and the
prospect on both land and water.

"Papa," said Lulu, "you haven't told us yet what happened here in the
last war with England."

"No," he said. "They attacked Hampton by both land and water, a force of
two thousand five hundred men under General Beckwith landing at Old
Point Comfort, and marching from there against the town, while at the
same time Admiral Cockburn assailed it from the water.

"The fortification at Hampton was but slight and guarded by only four
hundred and fifty militiamen. Feeling themselves too weak to repel an
attack by such overwhelming odds, they retired, and the town was given
up to pillage."

"Didn't they do any fighting at all, papa?" asked Lulu in a tone of
regret and mortification. "I know Americans often did fight when their
numbers were very much smaller than those of the enemy."

"That is quite true," he said, with a gleam of patriotic pride in his
eye, "and sometimes won the victory in spite of the odds against them.
That thing had happened only a few days previously at Craney Island, and
the British were doubtless smarting under a sense of humiliating defeat
when they proceeded to the attack of Hampton."

"How many of the British were there, Captain?" asked Evelyn Leland.
"I have forgotten, though I know they far outnumbered the Americans."

"Yes," he replied, "as I have said there were about four hundred and
fifty of the Americans, while Beckwith had twenty-five hundred men and
was assisted by the flotilla of Admiral Cockburn, consisting of armed
boats and barges, which appeared suddenly off Blackbeard's Point at the
mouth of Hampton Creek, at the same time that Beckwith's troops moved
stealthily forward through the woods under cover of the _Mohawk's_ guns.

"To draw the attention of the Americans from the land force coming
against them was Cockburn's object, in which he was partly successful,
his flotilla being seen first by the American patrols at Mill Creek.

"They gave the alarm, arousing the camp, and a line of battle was
formed. But just then some one came in haste to tell them of the large
land force coming against the town from the rear, and presently in the
woods and grain fields could be seen the scarlet uniforms of the British
and the green ones of the French."

"Oh, how frightened the people in the town must have been!" exclaimed
Grace. "I should think they'd all have run away."

"Most of them