He has seen them both that morning, and had heard about the fleet beyond the Narrows, during a break in the weather, as he stood on the landing at the tip of Manhattan trying with great difficulty to find someone to ferry him across the river to Long Island. It had taken him ten days to get that far, ten days from Philadelphia, which was not above sixty miles away. The first part of the journey had been undertaken by coach, the coach that was supposed to go clear to Manhattan. God forsaken Whig rascals. Biddlecomb had then been forced to hire a horse, no easy task, he found, in a place where nearly every horse around had been hired out to the army.
Goddamned army's on the run.
Goddamned Cornwallis marched right around the left flank, sent the bastards running. I'm just thanking the Good Lord that I ain't over there, and you should too. But in point of fact Biddlecomb did want to go over there. He had come all of that way to see General Washington and he would not be stopped just short of accomplishing that. Of course, when he had left Philadelphia it had not occurred to him that he would find the general in the midst of such a crisis.