The day after the battle, the American army was in Brooklyn, penned in on the land side by the British troops and on the other by the wide, swift-running river.  It was raining in torrents.  Washington was there.  He planned a retreat that was to save his army.  All the boats to be found along the shores of the Island of Manhattan were taken to Brooklyn in the dead of night.  Silently the soldiers were put aboard, so silently that, although the British were almost within speaking distance, no sound of the departing army reached them.  The point where they embarked was close by where the East River Bridge now touches the Brooklyn shore.  It was daylight before the last of the troops got aboard, but a heavy fog shielded them as well as had the darkness.

When the sun swept the fog away, General Howe gazed in wonder at the spot where the American forces had been the night before.  But they were gone, with the swiftness and silence of magic!  The magician was Washington, who had not slept from the hour of defeat until his men were safe again in New York.  But they were not to remain there long, as more exciting work was before them.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE BRITISH OCCUPY NEW YORK

Miles and miles above the little city of New York, on a road which led up through the Island of Manhattan, there was a stately house in a stretch of country and forest land overlooking the Hudson River.  This was the house of Charles Ward Apthorpe and was known as the Apthorpe mansion.  Here General Washington went after the retreat from Long Island, to devise a plan for the battles that were to come.

The city was well fortified, but Washington understood full well that it could not be held long against a British attack.  For the British soldiers were already on the islands of the East River, and the British ships held possession of the harbor and of both rivers.  So Washington sent the main body of his army to Harlem Heights at the northern end of the Island of Manhattan, and left only a force of 4,000 men, under General Putnam, in New York.

Washington desiring to learn the plans of the enemy, called for someone who would be willing to go into the British lines.  This was a dangerous undertaking, for capture meant certain death.  But there was a young officer who was anxious to undertake the mission, and the arrangements were made.  This was Nathan Hale.  In disguise he made his way, learned the number of the enemy, and learned, too, all about the plan of attack.  With this information he was hurrying back to General Washington, when he was recognized as belonging to the American army, and was arrested.  In a few days, when he was tried, he freely admitted that he had acted as Washington’s spy.  He died as he had lived—­bravely.  A moment before he was hanged he was asked if he wished to say any word.  “Yes,” he answered; and looking firmly into the faces of those who stood about him, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country,” No wonder that the memory of the Martyr Spy has lived through the passing years!