(_Two American officers are seen close at hand, in a bend
of the ascending road; the soldiers enter the woods_.)
* * * * *
DIALOGUE III.
SCENE. _The same_.
_1st Officer_. I cannot conceal it from you, Sir; there is but one
feeling about it, as far as I can judge, and I had some chances in my
brief journey--
_2nd Off_. Were you at head-quarters?
_1st Off_. Yes,--and every step of this retreating army only makes it
more desperate. I never knew any thing like the mad, unreasonable terror
this army inspires. Burgoyne and his Indians!--"_Burgoyne and the
Indians_"--there is not a girl on the banks of the Connecticut that does
not expect to see them by her father's door ere day-break. Colonel
Leslie, what were those men concealing so carefully as we approached
just now?--Did you mark them?
_2nd Off_. Yes. If I am not mistaken, it was the paper we were speaking of.
_1st Off_. Ay, ay,--I thought as much.
_2nd Off_. General Arnold, I am surprised you should do these honest men
the injustice to suppose that such an impudent, flimsy, bombastic tirade
as that same proclamation of Burgoyne's, should have a feather's weight
with any mother's son of them.
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