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You can form no idea of the perplexity of my situation.

No man, I believe, ever had a greater choice of difficulties, and less means to extricate himself from them.

However, under a full persuasion of the justice of our cause, I cannot entertain an idea that it will finally sink, though it may remain for some time under a cloud.[1] [Footnote 1: Ford, V, 111.] Washington stood with his forlorn little array on the west bank of the Delaware above Trenton.

He had information that the British had stretched their line very far and thin to the east of the town.
Separating his forces into three bodies, he commanded one of these himself, and during the night of Christmas he crossed the river in boats.

The night was stormy and the crossing was much interrupted by floating cakes of ice; in spite of which he landed his troops safely on the eastern shore.