Another British officer said, “These works were raised with an expedition equal to that of the genii belonging to Aladdin’s lamp.” Lord Howe said, further, “The rebels have done more in one night than my whole army would have done in a month.” “Perhaps,” said Heath, “there never was as much done in so short a space.” The reader of this narrative, whether citizen or soldier, cannot fail to be interested in some account of the extreme simplicity with which the construction of these works had been carried on. The earth, at that time, was frozen to the depth of eighteen inches, rendering the use of pick-axe and shovel, and all intrenching-tools, of little use; besides, the noise of their handling would have betrayed the workmen. The secret of Washington’s silent preparatory work, and the accumulation of such heaps of material behind his headquarters, is revealed. Hoop-poles, for hurdles and fascines,—branches cut from apple orchards, and along brooks, for abatis, even as far out as the present suburban towns of Brookline, Milton, Mattapan, and Hyde Park, had been accumulated in great quantities. Large bales of compressed hay, which were proof against any ordinary cannon-ball, had been procured also, so that the merely heaping up and arranging these under the personal direction of Engineer Putnam, according to a plan fully digested in advance, was but easy work for a class of country soldiers peculiarly “handy” with all such materials. Then, on the tops of the improvised redoubts, were barrels filled with stones. These, at the proper time, were to be rolled down the hill, to disconcert the formal array of steadily advancing British regulars. The management of the whole affair was hardly less simple. Eight hundred soldiers, not needed during the cannonading, quietly marched out of camp the night before,—some between Boston and Dorchester Heights, and others at the east end of the peninsula, opposite Castle Island; while still others, with tools, and a supporting party of twelve hundred soldiers under General Thomas, followed the advance. Three hundred carts, loaded with suitable material, followed. All this movement was liable to be discovered in spite of the incessant roar of heavy ordnance over the works of besiegers and besieged. The flash of heated guns or bursting bombs might light up the trail of this slowly crawling expedition, and vast interests were staked upon the daring venture. But, along the most exposed parts of the way, the bales of pressed hay had been placed as a protecting screen; and behind its sufficient cover, the carts passed to and fro in safety. Even the moon itself only deepened the shadow of this artificial protector, while in position to light, as by day, the steps of the advancing patriots. And there was, also, a brisk north wind which bore away from the city, southward, all sounds which were not already lost in the hurricane of war that hushed all but those of battle.