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Rh into two divisions under Generals Sullivan and Greene, he approached the town by two roads, surprised the Hessian outposts, and then rushed upon the main body before it could form effectively. The charge of the American troops and the tire of their artillery and musketry completely disconcerted the enemy. All avenues of retreat being closed and their general mortally wounded, the latter to the number of 950 quickly surrendered and were marched back into Pennsylvania on the same day. The American loss was five or six wounded.

Elated by this success and eager to beat up the enemy's advanced posts at other points, Washington again crossed the Delaware on the 30th of December and occupied Trenton. Hearing of this move Lord Cornwallis at Princeton, 10 m. north of Trenton, marched down with about 7000 troops upon the Americans on the 2nd of January 1777, and drove them across the Assanpink, a stream running east of the town. The Americans, who encamped on its banks that night, were placed in a precarious position, as the Delaware, with no boats at their disposal at that point, prevented their recrossing into Pennsylvania, and all other roads led towards the British lines to the northward. Washington accordingly undertook a bold manœuvre. Fearing an attack by Cornwallis on the next morning, he held a council of war, which confirmed his plan of quietly breaking camp that night and taking a by-road to Princeton, then cutting through any resistance that might be offered there and pushing on to the hills of northern New Jersey, thus placing his army on the flank of the British posts. His tactics succeeded. At (q.v.) he came upon three British regiments which for a time held him at bay. The 17th foot especially, under Colonel Mawhood, twice routed the American advanced troops, inflicting severe loss, but were eventually driven back toward Trenton. The other regiments retreated north toward New Brunswick, and Washington continued his march to Morristown, New Jersey. He had broken through Howe's lines and placed himself in an advantageous position for recruiting his army and maintaining a strong defensive in the next campaign. These two affairs of Trenton and Princeton put new life into the American cause, and established Washington in the confidence of his troops and the country at large.

TREPIDATION (from Lat. trepidare, to tremble), a term meaning, in general, fear or trembling, but used technically in astronomy for an imagined slow oscillation of the ecliptic, having a period of 7000 years, introduced by the Arabian astronomers to explain a supposed variation in the precession of the equinoxes. It figured in astronomical tables until the time of Copernicus, but is now known to have no foundation in fact, being based on an error in Ptolemy's determination of precession.

TRESCOT, WILLIAM HENRY (1822–1898), American diplomatist, was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on the 10th of November 1822. He graduated at Charleston College in 1840, studied law at Harvard, and was admitted to the bar in 1843. In 1852–1854 he was secretary of the U.S. legation in London. In June 1860 he was appointed assistant secretary of state, and he was acting secretary of state in June-October, during General Lewis Cass's absence from Washington, and for a few days in December after Cass's resignation. His position was important, as the only South Carolinian holding anything like official rank, because of his intimacy with President Buchanan, and his close relations with the secession leaders in South Carolina. He opposed the re-enforcement of Fort Sumter, used his influence to prevent any attack on the fort by South Carolina before the meeting of the state's convention called to consider the question of secession, and became the special agent of South Carolina in Washington after his resignation from the state department in December. He returned to Charleston in February 1861; was a member of the state legislature in 1862–1866, and served as colonel on the staff of General Roswell S. Ripley during the Civil War; and later returned to Washington. He was counsel for the United States before the Halifax Fishery Commission in 1877; was commissioner for the revision of the treaty with China in 1880; was minister to Chile in 1881–1882; in 1882 with General U.S. Grant negotiated a commercial treaty with Mexico; and in 1889–1890 was a delegate to the Pan-American Congress in Washington. He died at Pendleton, South Carolina, his country place, on the 4th of May 1898.

TRESHAM, FRANCIS (c. 1567–1605), English Gunpowder Plot conspirator, eldest son of Sir Thomas Tresham of Rushton, Northamptonshire (a descendant of Sir Thomas Tresham, Speaker of the House of Commons, executed by Edward IV. in 1471), and of Muriel, daughter of Sir Thomas Throckmorton of Coughton, was born about 1567, and educated at Oxford. He was, like his father, a Roman Catholic, and his family had already suffered for their religion and politics. He is described as “a wild and unstayed man,” was connected intimately with many of those afterwards known as the Gunpowder Plot conspirators, being cousin to Catesby and to the two Winters, and was implicated in a series of seditious intrigues in Elizabeth’s reign. In 1596 he was arrested on suspicion together with Catesby and the two Wrights during an illness of Queen Elizabeth. In 1601 he took part in Essex’s rebellion and was one of those who confined the Lord Keeper Egerton in Essex House on the 8th of February. He was imprisoned and only suffered to go free on condition of a fine of 3000 marks paid by his father. He was one of the promoters of the mission of Thomas Winter in 1602 to Madrid to persuade the king of Spain to invade England. On the death of Elizabeth, however, he, with several other Roman Catholics, joined Southampton in securing the Tower for James I.

Tresham was the last of the conspirators to be initiated into the Gunpowder Plot. According to his own account, which receives general support from Thomas Winter’s confession, it was revealed to him on the 14th of October 1605. Inferior in zeal and character to the rest of the conspirators, he had lately by the death of his father, on the 11th of September 1605, inherited a large property and it was probably his financial support that was now sought. But Tresham, as the possessor of an estate, was probably less inclined than before to embark on rash and hazardous schemes. Moreover, he had two brothers-in-law, Lords Stourton and Monteagle, among the peers destined for assassination. He expressed his dislike of the plan from the first, and, according to his own account, he endeavoured to dissuade Catesby from the whole project, urging that the Romanist cause would derive no benefit, even in case of success, from the attempt. His representations were in vain and he consented to supply money, but afterwards discovered that no warning was to be given to the Roman Catholic peers. All the evidence now points to Tresham as the betrayer of the plot, and it is known that he was in London within 24 hours of the despatch of the famous letter to Lord Monteagle which revealed the plot (see ). In all probability he had betrayed the secret to Monteagle previously, and the method of discovery had been settled between them, for it bears the marks of a prearranged affair, and the whole plan was admirably conceived so as to save Monteagle’s life and inform the government, at the same time allowing the conspirators, by timely warning, opportunity to escape (see Monteagle, William Parker, 4th baron). Tresham avoided meeting any of the conspirators as he had agreed to do at Barnet, on the 29th of October, but on the 31st he was visited by Winter in London, and summoned to Barnet on the following day. There he met Catesby and Winter, who were prepared to stab him for his betrayal, but were dissuaded by his protestations that he knew