Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/120

 watchfulness, and the defence I had made with my few men on the picket line, on the morning of the attack. General Washington is a courteous and elegant man, but seems to be very polite and reserved, speaks little, and has a sly physiognomy. He is not very tall and also not short, but of medium height, and has a good figure.” It is pleasant to imagine the scene—the farmhouse parlor, the fire of big logs, the guttering candles, the bowl of smoking punch, and General Washington discussing the art of war with his captive, who, though but a lieutenant, has seen foreign service, and may be worth listening to.

The prisoners were shortly marched off to Pennsylvania and Virginia. Everywhere the people flocked to see them, and if the alien invaders were sometimes met in their adversity with threats and curses, we must not blame too severely those whose sons and brothers the auxiliaries had been let out to slay. We shall rather find that the balance inclines to favor the American people, who on many occasions met their captive enemies with forgiveness and kindness. The prisoners' escort invariably did its duty, and succeeded in protecting them from anything worse than verbal insult. The Hessian officers and men were separated from each other, and it is needless to follow their wanderings in detail. The officers were in Philadelphia, and called on General Israel Putnam on New Year's Day. “He shook hands with each of us,” says one, in his journal, “and we all had to drink a glass of Madeira with him. This old graybeard may be a good, honest man, but nobody but the rebels would have made him a general.”