A half-laughing, half-quarrelling dispute ensued, but Reinhart heard nothing of it. Book in hand, he retreated to a quiet corner and sat down to study his prize. He had always been given to reading when he had time, and he thought the Bible would be a great help to that knowledge of English which he so coveted. Every spare moment was now spent with his book. He was familiar already with the German Lutheran versions, and had no more trouble in making out the English than served to impress it on his mind. He read and studied, and by degrees a new light broke upon his darkness. A new hope arose in his heart. One of whom he had always heard, but whom he had never known, came to him, and said,— "It is I: be not afraid." And Caspar believed and was comforted. He still held to his purpose of settling in America if he should live to the close of the war, and getting his family about him in a new home, but a brighter and higher hope arose behind and over all. He learned to take that long look into eternity which reduces all things else to correct perspective, like the true point of sight in a picture. It was impossible for Reinhart not to abhor the life he was living. He was a humane and kind-hearted man engaged in a war which it must be confessed was one of peculiar atrocity. It is a fact that in order to strike the more terror into the rebels, as they were called, the Hessians were encouraged in all sorts of violence, cruelty, and oppression. They were told that the Yankees took no prisoners except such as they meant to make slaves of, and they were bidden to give no quarter. In the whole of the New Jersey campaign, the Hessians robbed, burnt, and murdered right and left, friends as well as enemies. Those who had fondly hoped to remain neutral, relying on Sir William Howe's protection, found they were leaning on a broken reed. The Hessians never asked whether a man were Whig or Tory, rebel or loyal, so long as he had what they coveted. The men were absolutely encumbered with plunder; and as a natural consequence, their discipline was relaxed and their own officers found it hard to manage them. Reinhart kept aloof from such scenes as much as possible, but he was a soldier and had to obey orders, and he constantly saw things which turned him sick with horror or made his blood boil with rage. Sometimes, indeed, he would interfere to save a life or protect a child from death or a woman from insult, but oftener was a helpless spectator of the atrocities perpetrated by his comrades.