[115] See Frothingham's "Siege," and Appendix III of Vol. 3 of the "Writings of Washington." Both of these books quote Swett's "History of Bunker Hill Battle." [116] "Writings of Washington," iii, 491. [117] "Writings of Washington," iii, 22. [118] _Ibid._, iii, 71. [119] Washington's correspondence with Major Christopher French is an interesting instance of the patience of a great man with the impatience of a small one. [120] The letters that passed between Washington and Gage, and later between him and Howe, are to be found in the volumes of his "Writings," and make interesting reading. Washington had at this time no prisoners in his hands other than those taken as described, because the prisoners of the 19th of April had been exchanged on the 6th of June. [121] Fonblanque's "Burgoyne." [122] "Writings of Washington," iii. [123] "Writings of Washington," iii. [124] _Ibid._ [125] Henshaw's "Orderly Book." [126] _Ibid._ [127] Trevelyan's "Revolution," Part I. CHAPTER XII EVENTS IN BOSTON FROM JUNE TO DECEMBER, 1775 The history of events in Boston after the battle of Bunker Hill is of a quite different tenor from that which we have just been considering. From the time when the wounded, and the more distinguished of the dead, were carried over from Charlestown on the evening of the seventeenth of June, the sober truth struck home, not yet to the Tories and the common run of officers, but to the generals. They were in a tight place, from which it would be difficult to escape with credit. They might--and some of them did--reckon it out by common arithmetic. If it cost a thousand men to take a hill, and required another thousand to garrison it when taken, how much could the British army master of the rolling country that lay before its eyes? Beyond the exit from either peninsula the next hill was already fortified, and the Americans prepared to "sell it at the same price."[128] The British generals wrote very plainly in explaining the situation to their superiors at home. To be sure, Gage was a trifle disingenuous in reviewing the past. While admitting that the recent trials at arms proved the rebels "not the despicable rabble too many have supposed them to be," he ignored his original boast concerning lions and lambs. In stating that in all previous wars the Americans had never showed so much "conduct, attention, and perseverance," he admitted his ignorance of colonial history. But Gage was endeavoring to salve his smart and conceal his own shame.