succor its threatened garrison."

"But why couldn't he go and help them with his soldiers, papa?" asked
Grace.

"Because, daughter, if he broke up his camp at Whitemarsh, and moved his
army to the other side of the Schuylkill, he must leave stores and
hospitals for the sick, within reach of the enemy; leave the British
troops in possession of the fords of the river; make it difficult, if
not impossible, for the troops he was expecting from the North to join
him, and perhaps bring on a battle while he was too weak to hope for
victory over such odds as Howe could bring against him.

"So the poor fellows in the fort had to fight it out themselves with no
assistance from outside."

"Couldn't they have slipped out in the night and gone away quietly
without fighting, papa?" asked Grace.

"Perhaps so," he said, with a slight smile; "but such doings as that
would never have helped our country to free herself from the British
yoke; and these men were too brave and patriotic to try it; they were
freemen and never could be slaves; to them death was preferable to
slavery. We may well be proud of the skill and courage with which
Lieutenant-Colonel Smith defended his fort against the foe.

"On the 10th of November the British opened their batteries on land and
water. They had five on Province Island, within five hundred yards of
the fort; a large floating battery with twenty-two twenty-four pounders,
which they brought up within forty yards of an angle of the fort; also