The same plastic fancy suggests the crowd of visions, phantoms of the past, which may have passed through Washington’s mind, on this night of feverish excitement. “His early training in the wilderness; his escape from drowning, and the deadly rifle of the savage in the perilous mission to Venango; the shower of iron hail through which he rode unharmed on Braddock’s field; the early stages of the great conflict now brought to its crisis, and still more solemnly, the possibilities of the future for himself and for America—the ruin of the patriot cause if he failed at the outset; the triumphant consolidation of the Revolution if he prevailed.” The labors of the night were carried on by the Americans with their usual activity and address. When a relief party arrived at four o’clock in the morning, two forts were in sufficient forwardness to furnish protection against small arms and grape-shot; and such use was made of the fascines and bundles of screwed hay, that, at dawn, a formidable-looking fortress frowned along the height. We have the testimony of a British officer already quoted, for the fact. “This morning at daybreak we discovered two redoubts on Dorchester Point, and two smaller ones on their flanks. They were all raised during the last night, with an expedition equal to that of the genii belonging to Aladdin’s wonderful lamp. From these hills they command the whole town, so that we must drive them from their post, or desert the place.” Howe gazed at the mushroom fortress with astonishment, as it loomed indistinctly, but grandly, through a morning fog. “The rebels,” exclaimed he, “have done more work in one night, than my whole army would have done in one month.” Washington had watched, with intense anxiety, the effect of the revelation at daybreak. “When the enemy first discovered our works in the morning,” writes he, “they seemed to be in great confusion, and from their movements, to intend an attack.”