COLONEL TRUMBULL AND HIS PAINTINGS. 75 



retreat of his corps when pressed by the British bayonets, 

 while they had only rifles without bayonets, General Wash- 

 ington, at this perilous moment, came up with fresh troops, 

 rallied the fugitives, and turned the tide of battle. This is 

 the crisis which the artist chose, and most skilfully has he 

 wrought out the fearful drama. General Washington, as 

 he himself stated to the artist, was here in more peril than 

 in any other conflict, more even, he said to Colonel Trum- 

 bull, than in Bradclock's defeat. Rushing at the head of 

 his troops into the space between the two armies, the volleys 

 of both passed by him, over him, around him, and touched 

 him not ; nor was he ever wounded either in the many 

 battles of the old French and Indian wars on the frontiers, 

 or in those of the Revolution. If he bore a charmed life, 

 it was charmed by the good providence of God, which re- 

 served him for a noble destiny in the cause of his country 

 and of mankind. 



Captain Leslie of the British Army. At the house of 

 Hon. Henry Thornton, M. P., in October 1805, I sat at 

 dinner next to Lord Leven and Melville of Scotland, who 

 inquired whether I had ever visited the battle-ground near 

 Princeton. I answered that I had twice been there as 

 an interested observer, when he added, with a sigh, " I had 

 a brother, Captain Leslie, who was slain in that battle." In 

 the picture he is seen on the right, near the dark-visaged 

 Colonel Mawhood, his countenance pale, and his sword 

 dropping, held only by a leathern thong. Colonel Trumbull 

 told me that when he was painting this picture, the cele- 

 brated traveller and artist, Sir Robert Kerr Porter, came in, 

 and Trumbull said to him : " How shall I best express 

 the first faltering of life under a mortal wound?" He 

 replied : " We soldiers usually wear a leathern thong or 

 strap around the wrist of the sword hand, and in battle it 

 is connected with the hilt of the sword, that we may not 

 drop it, if wounded in that arm." This advice or intimation 

 was followed, as seen in the picture. 



