The “politeness” in fact, was that noble courtesy which a high-minded soldier extends towards a captive foe. If his courtesy was imposed upon, it only proved that, incapable of doubledealing himself, he suspected it not in others. All generous natures are liable to imposition; their warm impulses being too quick for selfish caution. It is the cold, the calculating and the mean, whose distrustful wariness is never taken in. CHAPTER X. DIFFICULTIES IN FILLING UP THE ARMY—THE CONNECTICUT TROOPS PERSIST IN GOING HOME—THEIR RECEPTION THERE—TIMELY ARRIVAL OF SPOILS IN THE CAMP—PUTNAM AND THE PRIZE MORTAR—A MARAUD BY AMERICANS—REBUKED BY WASHINGTON—CORRESPONDENCE OF WASHINGTON WITH GEN. HOWE ABOUT THE TREATMENT OF ETHAN ALLEN—FRATERNAL ZEAL OF LEVI ALLEN—TREATMENT OF GEN. PRESCOTT—PREPARATIONS TO BOMBARD BOSTON—BATTERY AT LECHMERE’S POINT—PRAYER OF PUTNAM FOR POWDER. The forming even of the skeleton of an army under the new regulations, had been a work of infinite difficulty; to fill it up was still more difficult. The first burst of revolutionary zeal had passed away; enthusiasm had been chilled by the inaction and monotony of a long encampment; an encampment, moreover, destitute of those comforts which, in experienced warfare, are provided by a well-regulated commissariat. The troops had suffered privations of every kind, want of fuel, clothing, provisions. They looked forward with dismay to the rigors of winter, and longed for their rustic homes and their family firesides. Apprehending that some of them would incline to go home when the time of their enlistment expired, Washington summoned the general officers at head-quarters, and invited a delegation of the General Court to be present, to adopt measures for the defence and support of the lines. The result of their deliberations was an order that three thousand of the minute men and militia of Massachusetts, and two thousand from New Hampshire, should be at Cambridge by the 10th of December, to relieve the Connecticut regiments, and supply the deficiency that would be caused by their departure, and by the absence of others on furlough.