"ElizaLeeFollen-WhoSpokeNext" - читать интересную книгу автора (Follen Eliza Lee)

come to the determination to save the country, and means to transact
that piece of business without fail.

I never saw that quiet, iron look change but once. I will tell you
about it. It was one of those days after the battle of Trenton, when
he tried to concentrate the troops that he had scattered over the
country, to bring them to bear upon the British. His object was to
show the enemy that they could not keep their foothold.

Between Trenton and Princeton he ordered the assault. The Virginians
were broken at the enemy's first charge, and could not be rallied a
second time against the British bayonets. General Washington
commanded and threatened and entreated in vain.

We of New England saw the crisis, marched rapidly up, and poured in
our fire at the exact moment, Judah Loring and I in the very front.

The British could not stand the fire. We gave it to them plenty, I
tell you. Judah Loring loaded, and I fired over and over and over
again, till it seemed as if he and I were one creature.

A musket, I should explain to you, feels nothing of itself, but only
receives a double share of the nature of the man who carries it.

I felt ALIVE that day. Judah was hot, but I was hotter; and, before
the cartridge box was empty, he pulled down his homespun blue and
white frock sleeve over his wrist, and rested me upon it when he
took aim. He was a gentle-hearted fellow, though as brave as his
musket.

"She's so hot," says he, doubling his sleeve into his palm, "that I
can't hold her; but I can't stop firing NOW!"

I met his wishes exactly, I knew by that word; for he always called
every thing he liked, SHE. The sun was SHE; so was his father's old
London-made watch; so was the Continental Congress.

General Washington saw the whole;--the enemy, driven back before our
fire, could never be brought to look us in the face again. We held
the ground;--the Virginia troops rallied; --General Washington took
off his cocked hat, and lifted it high, like a finished gentleman,
as he was. "Hurrah!" he shouted, "God bless the New England troops!
God bless the Massachusetts line!" [Footnote: This was all fact,
related by one who was present.] And his steady face flamed and gave
way like melting metal.

Ah, what a set of men were those! I felt the firm trip-hammer of all
their pulses beat through the whole fight, for we stood in platoon,
shoulder to shoulder. I felt my kindred with every one of them. They
had more steel in their nerves and more iron in their blood than