Many pieces of artillery, all the baggage of the Germans, and many warlike stores, fell into the hands of the republicans, who needed them greatly. They were impatient for the return of day, to renew the battle. But deplorable and perilous, beyond expression, was the situation of the British troops; they bore it, however, with admirable temper and firmness. It was evidently impossible to continue in their present position, without submitting to a certainty of destruction on the ensuing day. The Americans, invigorated and encouraged, would take advantage of the access they had already opened to themselves on the right, and of other untenable points, to carry every part of the camp, and completely surround the British army. Burgoyne, therefore, determined to operate a total change of ground. He executed this movement with admirable order, and without any loss. The artillery, the camp, and its appurtenances, were all removed, before morning, to the heights above the hospital. The British army, in this position, had the river in its rear, and its two wings displayed along the hills, upon the right bank. The English expected to be attacked the following day. But Gates would not expose to the risk of another battle, that victory of which he was already certain. He intended that time, famine, and necessity, should complete the work which his arms had so fortunately commenced. There were frequent skirmishes, however, occurring in the course of the day, but of little importance. Towards night, the obsequies of General Frazer were celebrated in the British camp; a ceremony mournful of itself, and rendered even terrible by the sense of recent losses, of future dangers, and of regret for the deceased. The darkness and silence of the night aided the effect of the blaze and roar of the American artillery; while, at every moment, the balls spattered the earth upon the face of the officiating chaplain.[49] [Illustration: BURGOYNE'S RETREAT] The situation of General Burgoyne, after the battle, was gloomy and critical in the extreme. The fortunes of war were obviously against him, and no safe alternative presented itself but in retreat. Orders were accordingly issued for the army to return to Saratoga, six miles up the river. "The retreat began at nine o'clock; but such was the badness of the roads, rendered still more difficult by a heavy rain, which fell that night, and such was the weakness of the teams, for want of forage, that the English did not reach Saratoga till the evening of the ensuing day; the soldiers were harassed with fatigue and hunger. The hospital, with three hundred sick and wounded, and a great number of wheel-carriages, were abandoned to the enemy. The English, as they retired, burned the houses, and destroyed whatever they could use no longer."