It was a sight well calculated to stir the blood of a boy from Virginia, and my excitement, my admiration for the coolness of our people, and the determination shown where the Britishers were doing their best to work destruction, fired my heart until it was with difficulty I could continue my share of the work at pulling the skiff. "Unless you can look at what is going on around you and row at the best of your strength at the same time, then it is better you close your eyes," Pierre said sharply when I missed a stroke and thereby nearly threw him from the thwart. I could not have taken my eyes from that which thrilled every nerve in my body; but true it is I did succeed in holding to my work, at least to such extent that Pierre no longer found cause for fault with me, and by the time we had reached the bank of the river, almost at the same point from which we had embarked the night before, the fleet had so far closed in with the land that the king's men did not dare fire upon it from the ships lest they do more damage to their own people on Gloucester Point then to impudent rebels, who had the effrontery to disturb the servants of his majesty. The cannonading from the town still continued, now dying away to a single shot every moment or two, and again roaring in thunderous notes as battery after battery discharged all its cannon. These people were not firing upon the vessels near by Gloucester; but straightway up the river, and therefore it was we knew our people were coming over the land in considerable force, giving no more token of an inclination to halt because of this summons by heavy missiles, than had those who manned the fleet. The water front of the village was much the same as deserted when the bow of our skiff grounded on the shore. I was too deeply excited to give particular heed to everything within my range of vision; but it was to me as if no man stood near at hand to observe our landing, and on comparing notes with Pierre afterward I learned that he was of the belief that we had come ashore into this encampment of seven thousand soldiers without having been observed. As we made our way up into the village we found that all the troops were in front of us, having manned the outermost entrenchments. We passed my Lord Cornwallis's headquarters to find it apparently deserted. At the stable lines of the Rangers not a single horse stood, and my heart went heavy as lead for I realized that poor little Silver-Heels, with a red-faced, red-coated Britisher upon her back, was most likely well toward the front where she stood a good chance of being disabled if not killed, for by this time Pierre and I understood, because of the roar of guns in the distance, that our people were not remaining silent under this iron hail which the enemy were sending among them.