Sheldon’s 2nd Light Dragoons are scattered all over the country. Two troops and headquarters remain now here at my house.”

He waved his hand westward: “So desperate is our condition, gentlemen, that Colonel Moylan’s Dragoons have been ordered here, and are at this moment, I suppose, on the march to join us. And — I ask you, gentlemen — considering that in New York City, just below us, there are ten thousand British regulars, not counting the partizan corps, the irregulars, the Tory militia, the numberless companies of marauders — I ask you how you can expect to draw recruits from the handful of men who have been holding — or striving to hold — this line for the last three years!”

Boyd shook his head in silence.