On the night of the 31st, Washington made another of those moves which perplexed the worthy Clinton. In the course of the night he shifted his whole position, set fire to the barns and out-houses containing forage and stores, which there was no time to remove, and, leaving a strong rear-guard on the heights, and in the neighboring woods, retired with his main army a distance of five miles, among the high, rocky hills about Northcastle. Here he immediately set to work to intrench and fortify himself; his policy at this time being, as he used to say, “to fight with the spade and mattock.” General Howe did not attempt to dislodge him from this fastness. He at one time ordered an attack on the rear-guard, but a violent rain prevented it, and for two or three days he remained seemingly inactive. “All matters are as quiet as if the enemy were one hundred miles distant from us,” writes one of Washington’s aides on the 2d of November. During the night of the 4th, this quiet was interrupted. A mysterious sound was heard in the direction of the British camp; like the rumbling of waggons and artillery. At daybreak the meaning of it was discovered. The enemy were decamping. Long trains were observed, defiling across the hilly country, along the roads leading to Dobbs’ Ferry on the Hudson. The movement continued for three successive days, until their whole force, British and Hessians, disappeared from White Plains. The night after their departure a party of Americans, heated with liquor, set fire to the court-house and other edifices in the village, as if they had belonged to the enemy; an outrage which called forth a general order from Washington, expressive of his indignation, and threatening the perpetrators with signal punishment when detected. We notice this matter, because in British accounts, the burning of those buildings had been charged upon Washington himself; being, no doubt, confounded with the burning of the barns and out-houses ordered by him on shifting his encampment. CHAPTER XXXVIII. CONJECTURES AS TO THE INTENTIONS OF THE ENEMY—CONSEQUENT PRECAUTIONS—CORRESPONDENCE WITH GREENE RESPECTING FORT WASHINGTON—DISTRIBUTION OF THE ARMY—LEE LEFT IN COMMAND AT NORTHCASTLE—INSTRUCTIONS TO HIM—WASHINGTON AT PEEKSKILL—VISITS TO THE POSTS IN THE HIGHLANDS.