it be really so,"
added General Lee, in his letter containing this communication, "it is
the most whimsical piece of civility I ever heard of." General Clinton
did not affect to conceal that his real object was to proceed to North
Carolina, where he expected that five regiments from Europe would join
the small force he should carry with him.

About the middle of February, the cold was intense, and the ice became
sufficiently firm to bear the troops. General Washington was now
disposed to execute the bold plan he had formed, of attacking General
Howe in Boston; but a council of war being almost unanimous against
the measure, it was abandoned. The want of ammunition for the
artillery was a principal inducement to this opinion.

The attempt, probably, would not have succeeded, and must certainly
have been attended with considerable loss. But the advice of the
council seems to have been adopted with regret. In communicating their
opinion to congress, the general observed, "Perhaps the irksomeness of
my situation may have given different ideas to me, from those which
influence the gentlemen I consulted; and might have inclined me to put
more to the hazard than was consistent with prudence. If it had this
effect, I am not sensible of it, as I endeavoured to give the subject
all the consideration a matter of such importance required. True it
is, and I can not help acknowledging, that I have many disagreeable
sensations on account of my situation; for, to have the eyes of the
whole continent fixed on me, with anxious expectation of hearing some
great event, and to be restrained in every military operation for want
of the necessary means to carry it on, is not very pleasing;
especially as the means used to conceal my weakness from the enemy,
conceal it also from our friends, and add to their wonder."

Late in February, various appearances among the British troops
indicated an intention to evacuate Boston; but as these appearances
might be deceptive, and he had now received a small supply of powder,
General Washington determined to prosecute vigorously a plan he had
formed, to force General Howe either to come to an action, or to
abandon the town.

Since the allowance of a bounty, recruiting had been more successful;
and the regular force had been augmented to rather more than fourteen
thousand men. In addition to these troops, the Commander-in-chief had
called to his aid about six thousand of the militia of Massachusetts.