* A militia-man named Andrew Bacon cut away the draw of the bridge with an ax while the British were firing volleys at him. He succeeded in his task, but received a wound which made him a cripple for life.
** This is a view of an old brick dwelling in the little village of Hancock's Bridge, upon Alloway's Creek. It stands a few yards from the bridge over the creek, and is known as Baker's tavern. The picture here given is copied from one in the Historical Collections of New Jersey.
*** Simcoe supposed Judge Hancock was absent. He says (Journal, page 52), "Some very unfortunate circumstances happened here. Among the killed was a friend to government, then a prisoner with the rebels, old Hancock, the owner of this house, and his brother. Major Simcoe had made particular inquiry, and was informed that he did not live at home since the rebels had occupied the bridge. The information was partly true. He was not there in the daytime, but unfortunately returned home at night. Events like these are the real miseries of war."
**** This and the preceding map are reduced copies of those published in Simcoe's Journal of the Operations of the Queen's Rangers. A, is Hancock's house; B, the bridge which the Americans had broken down; C C C, march of the Rangers through the village; D, the enemy's advanced guard; E, Captain Dunlop detached to the rear of the house; F, Captain Saunders, to ambuscade the dike and take up its bridge; G, Lieutenant-colonel Mitchell and the 27th Regiment; H H, Alloway's Creek.
[[[Return of the Marauders to Philadelphia.--Light from Europe.--Alliance with France.--Rejoicings at Valley Forge.]]]
Creek and sailed for Philadelphia. * The affair at Hancock's Bridge was unmitigated murder. Some who were massacred were not fighting men; no resistance was made, and yet those who begged for quarters were inhumanly slain. The chief perpetrators were unprincipled Tories--the blood-hounds of the Revolution.
A ray of light from France beamed upon the American army while it was encamped at Valley Forge. It was preceded by a faint gleam from England, and a glimmer upon our own shores. That ray was the intelligence that France had acknowledged the independence of the colonies, and entered into a treaty of amity with them; ** that gleam was the arrival of Lord North's conciliatory bills; that glimmer was the advent and first procedures of commissioners bearing the olive branch of reconciliation. The first event has been already noticed; *** the two latter have also been referred to, and have an intimate relation to each other. The position assumed by France toward the revolted colonies greatly embarrassed the British ministry, and the sagacious Lord North was obliged to stoop from his haughty stilts and talk of concessions, contending, at the same time, that these concessions "ought not to be considered as the tardy result of defeat or weakness." He produced a conciliatory plan[[1778]] on the 17th of February, eleven days after the treaty between France and the United States had been signed. It was contained in two bills, one "for declaring the intentions of the Parliament of Great Britain concerning the exercise of the right of imposing taxes within his majesty's colonies in North America the other, "to enable his majesty to appoint commissioners, with sufficient powers to treat, consult, and agree upon the means of quieting the disorders now subsisting in certain of the colonies, plantations, and provinces of North America." By the first bill he designed to quiet the minds of the Americans in regard to taxation; by the second, he intended to grant the royal commissioners more ample powers than those formerly intrusted to Lord Howe and his brother. **** He proposed to