_3d Sol_. When is this great battle to be, John? This don't look much
like it.
_4th Sol_. I think myself, if the General would only give us a chance to
fight----
_2nd Sol_. A chance to throw your life away,--he will never give you. A
chance to fight, you will have ere long,--doubt it not. Our General
might clear his blackened fame, by opposing this force to that,--this
day he might;--he will not do it. The time has not yet come. But he will
spare no pains to strengthen the army, and prepare it for victory, and
the glory he will leave to his rival. Recruits will be pouring in ere
long. General Burgoyne's proclamation has weakened us,--General Schuyler
will issue one himself to-day.
_1st Sol_. Will he? will he? What will he proclaim?--As to the recruits
he gets, I'll eat them all, skin and bone. What will he proclaim? You
see what Burgoyne offers us. On the one hand, money and clothing, and
protection for ourselves and our families; and on the other, the cord,
and the tomahawk, and the scalping-knife. Now, what will General
Schuyler set down over against these two columns?--What will he offer
us?--To lend us a gun, maybe,--leave to follow him from one post to
another, barefooted and starving, and for our pains to be cursed and
reviled for cowards from one end of the land to the other.
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