Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/196

 176 “Our cook procured us food, but we had no water, and I was often obliged to drink wine to quench my thirst, and also to give it to the children. It was almost the only thing that my husband took; which at last made our faithful chasseur Rockel anxious, so that he said to me one day: ‘I fear that the general is dis- gusted with life, from apprehension of becoming a prisoner; he drinks so much wine.’ The continual danger to which my husband was exposed kept me in constant anxiety. I was the only one of all the women whose husband had not been killed or met with some misfortune; and so I often said to myself: ‘Shall I be the only fortunate one?’ especially as my husband was exposed to so much danger, day and night. He never passed the night in a tent, but always lay in the open air by a watch-fire. That alone might have caused his death, as the nights were so cold and damp.

“Our need of water was so great that at last we found a soldier's wife who had the courage to bring some from the river; which no man was willing any longer to undertake, because the enemy shot all those that went to the river through the head. They let the woman alone, out of respect to the sex, as they afterwards told us. “I tried to distract my thoughts by busying myself with our wounded. I made them tea and coffee, for which I received a thousand blessings. I often shared my dinner with them. One day a Canadian officer came into our cellar hardly able to stand. We at last got it out of him that he was almost dying of hunger. I was very happy to be able to offer him my food, which brought back his strength and won me his