foolish things but it is not easy to call up a picture of Howe,
in the midst of a busy movement of troops, receiving the lady's
invitation, accepting it, and ordering the whole army to halt
while he lingered over the luncheon table. There is no doubt that
his mind was still divided between making war and making peace.
Probably Putnam had already got away his men, and there was no
purpose in stopping the refugees in that flight from New York
which so aroused the pity of Washington. As it was Howe took
sixty-seven guns. By accident, or, it is said, by design of the
Americans themselves, New York soon took fire and one-third of
the little city was burned.

After the fall of New York there followed a complex campaign. The
resourceful Washington was now, during his first days of active
warfare, pitting himself against one of the most experienced of
British generals. Fleet and army were acting together. The aim of
Howe was to get control of the Hudson and to meet half way the
advance from Canada by way of Lake Champlain which Carleton was
leading. On the 12th of October, when autumn winds were already
making the nights cold, Howe moved. He did not attack Washington
who lay in strength at the Harlem. That would have been to play
Washington's game. Instead he put the part of his army still on
Long Island in ships which then sailed through the dangerous
currents of Hell Gate and landed at Throg's Neck, a peninsula on
the sound across from Long Island. Washington parried this
movement by so guarding the narrow neck of the peninsula leading
to the mainland that the cautious Howe shrank from a frontal
attack across a marsh. After a delay of six days, he again
embarked his army, landed a few miles above Throg's Neck in the
hope of cutting off Washington from retreat northward, only to