Their strength, including James Walsham's corps, and some scouts of the company of John Stark, numbered three hundred and forty-six men, besides which there were a hundred and twenty-eight invalids in hospital.
Two hours passed, and then a confused sound, as of a great body of men moving on the ice, was heard.

The ice was bare of snow, and nothing could be seen, but the cannon on the side facing the lake at once opened fire, with grape and round shot, in the direction of the sound.
After firing for a few minutes, they were silent.

The sound on the ice could no longer be heard.
"They have taken to the woods," Nat, who had taken up his station next to James Walsham, said.

"It ain't likely they would stop on the ice with the balls pounding it up." "Do you think they will attack before morning ?" James asked.
"It ain't likely," Nat replied.

"They won't know the positions, and, such a dark night as this, they wouldn't be able to make out anything about them.