The two armies confronted each other within cannon-shot, and scarcely a night passed without some contest between pickets or foraging parties. Burgoyne, anxiously awaiting news of Sir Henry Clinton's coöperation from New York, tenaciously held his ground, though living upon half rations. Gates in the mean time supinely rested in his camp, awaiting the day when the ripened fruit of Schuyler's skill, in retarding the enemy's march and cutting off his detachments, should fall at his feet, and Burgoyne be compelled to starve or pass under the Caudine Forks. * * * * * Sir Henry Clinton, having been reinforced from England, left New York, October 3, with a large fleet and 3,000 troops, to effect the long-expected junction with Burgoyne. On the 5th he reached Verplanck's Point, on the Hudson River, from which he made a feint upon Peekskill. Having by this ruse deceived the aged Putnam, in command of the Hudson Highlands, Clinton crossed with his main body on the 6th to King's Ferry, and, by following a circuitous route around the Dunderberg Mountain, the British general in the afternoon carried by assault the feebly garrisoned but bravely defended Forts Montgomery and Clinton. The enemy's fleet then destroyed the boom and chain across the river, forced the Americans to burn two frigates, which could not escape, and ended their excursion up the Hudson at Esopus (now Kingston) by laying it in ashes and returning to New York, it being too late to save Burgoyne. * * * * * [Illustration: SIR HENRY CLINTON. From Murray's _Impartial Hist. of the Present War_, i. p. 526.—ED.] The American army, after the battle of Freeman's Farm, was daily growing stronger in men and fortifications, while the Anglo-German force was constantly becoming weaker and worn out by watching and incessant alarms. Burgoyne's situation was critical, for he could neither advance nor retreat with safety, and to stand still was to starve. Already the loyalists and Canadians were deserting in numbers, and his Indians, having little opportunity for plundering and scalping, were abandoning him altogether. Receiving no tidings from Sir Henry Clinton, Burgoyne determined to make an armed reconnoissance of the American left on the 7th of October, and attack the next day, should there be a reasonable prospect of success; if not, to fall back on the 11th behind the Batten-Kill.