There must have been the splash of oars and the grating of keels, orders given in tones above a whisper, the complex sounds of moving bodies of men.
It was all done under the eye of Washington.

We can picture that tall figure moving about on the strand at Brooklyn, which he was the last to leave.

Not a sound disturbed the slumbers of the British.

An army in retreat does not easily defend itself.

Boats from the British fleet might have brought panic to the Americans in the darkness and the British army should at least have known that they were gone.