But at the end of August, when the net was closing on Burgoyne, Howe was three hundred miles away.

His disregard of time and distance had been magnificent.

In July he had sailed to the mouth of the Delaware, with Philadelphia near, but he had then sailed away again, and why?
Because the passage of his ships up the river to the city was blocked by obstructions commanded by bristling forts.

The naval officers said truly that the fleet could not get up the river.

But Howe might have landed his army at the head of Delaware Bay.