forgotten the chorus you were for ever singing?" Brereton
sang out with spirit:--

"'In Freedom we're born, and, like Sons of the Brave,
We'll never surrender,
But swear to defend her,
And scorn to survive, if unable to save.'"

"'T ain't no good fighting when we hav n't a general,"
snarled Bagby.

"Now damn you for a pack of dirty, low-minded curs!"
swore the officer, his face blazing with anger. "Here you've
a general who is risking life, and fortune, and station; and
then you blame him because he cannot with a handful of raw
troops defeat thirty thousand regulars. There's not a general
in Europe--not the great Frederick himself--who'd so
much as have tried to make head against such odds, much
less have done so much with so little. After a whole summer
campaign what have the British to show? They've gained
the territory within gunshot of their fleet; but at White Plains,
though they were four to one, they dared not attack us,
and valiantly turned tail about, preferring to overrun undefended
country to assaulting our position. I tell you General
Washington is the honestest, bravest, most unselfish man in
the world, and you are a pack of--"

"Are my quarters ready, Colonel Brereton?" asked a tall
man, standing in the doorway.