. It is said that some of the men marched
barefoot leaving tracks of blood in the snow. The arms of some were lost
and those of others were wet and useless but Washington told them that
they must depend the more on the bayonet. He attacked Trenton in broad
daylight. There was a sharp fight. Rahl, the commander, and some seventy
men, were killed and a thousand men surrendered.

Even now Washington's position was dangerous. Von Donop, with two
thousand men, lay only a few miles down the river. Had he marched at
once on Trenton, as he should have done, the worn out little force of
Washington might have met with disaster. What Von Donop did when the
alarm reached him was to retreat as fast as he could to Princeton, a
dozen miles to the rear towards New York, leaving behind his sick and
all his heavy equipment. Meanwhile Washington, knowing his danger, had
turned back across the Delaware with a prisoner for every two of his
men. When, however, he saw what Von Donop had done he returned on the
twenty-ninth to Trenton, sent out scouting parties, and roused the
country so that in every bit of forest along the road to Princeton there
were men, dead shots, to make difficult a British advance to retake
Trenton.

The reverse had brought consternation at New York. Lord Cornwallis was
about to embark for England, the bearer of news of overwhelming victory.
Now, instead, he was sent to drive back Washington. It was no easy task
for Cornwallis to reach Trenton, for Washington's scouting parties and a
force of six hundred men under Greene were on the road to harass him. On
the evening of the 2d of January, however, he reoccupied Trenton.
This time Washington had not recrossed the Delaware but had retreated
southward and was now entrenched on the southern bank of the little
river Assanpink, which flows into the Delaware. Reinforcements were
following Cornwallis. That night he sharply cannonaded Washington's
position and was as sharply answered. He intended to attack in force
in the morning. To the skill and resource of Washington he paid the
compliment of saying that at last he had run down the "Old Fox."

Then followed a maneuver which, years after, Cornwallis, a generous
foe, told Washington was one of the most surprising and brilliant in
the history of war. There was another "old fox" in Europe, Frederick the
Great, of Prussia, who knew war if ever man knew it, and he, too, from
this movement ranked Washington among the great genera