almost a mountain gorge, easily defended. Here Washington had erected
fortifications which made it at least difficult for a British force to
pass up the river. Moreover in the highlands of northern New Jersey,
with headquarters at Morristown, General Sullivan, recently exchanged,
and General Gates now had Lee's army and also the remnants of the force
driven from Canada. But in retreating across New Jersey Washington
had been forsaken by thousands of men, beguiled in part by the Tory
population, discouraged by defeat, and in many cases with the right to
go home, since their term of service had expired. All that remained
of Washington's army after the forces of Sullivan and Gates joined him
across the Delaware in Pennsylvania, was about four thousand men.

Howe was determined to have Philadelphia as well as New York and
could place some reliance on Tory help in Pennsylvania. He had pursued
Washington to the Delaware and would have pushed on across that river
had not his alert foe taken care that all the boats should be on the
wrong shore. As it was, Howe occupied the left bank of the Delaware with
his chief post at Trenton. If he made sure of New Jersey he could go on
to Philadelphia when the river was frozen over or indeed when he liked.
Even the Congress had fled to Baltimore. There were British successes in
other quarters. Early in December Lord Howe took the fleet to Newport.
Soon he controlled the whole of Rhode Island and checked the American
privateers who had made it their base. The brothers issued proclamations
offering protection to all who should within sixty days return to their
British allegiance and many people of high standing in New York and New
Jersey accepted the offer. Howe wrote home to England the glad news of
victory. Philadelphia would probably fall before spring and it looked as
if the war was really over.

In this darkest hour Washington struck a blow which changed the whole
situation. We associate with him the thought of calm deliberation.
Now, however, was he to show his strongest quality as a general to be
audacity. At the Battle of the Marne, in 1914, the French General Foch
sent the despatch: "My center is giving way; my right is retreating; the
situation is excellent: I am attacking." Washington's position seemed
as nearly hopeless and he, too, had need of some striking action. A
campaign marked by his own blundering and by the treachery of a trusted
general had ended in seeming ruin. Penns