During the night of the 1st of December and on the eve of a snow storm, he moved with the greater part of his legion as before to Williamsbridge, and having posted his infantry in ambush a short distance south of that pass, galloped at the head of a troop of dragoons towards Morris' house. As he approached Kingsbridge it was daylight, and he took to the fields in order to avoid patrols and escape observation. Fences, in the vicinity, had long since disappeared before the presence of large armies; and the paths used for travel and other landmarks were now shrouded from view by a fresh carpet of snow that for some time had fallen very fast. It is not therefore surprising that the guides lost their way, not-withstanding they were well acquainted with the country. The air was so thick with descending flakes that the dragoons could see but a few yards around them, and in these moments of uncertainty they found it requisite to draw rein and move along with extreme caution. At length they met a country-man whom they pressed and mounted behind one of the horsemen. With some reluctance this man consented to pilot them toward their point of attack, but advised silence as they were approaching an out-guard, and then informed them that colonel de Lancey was in New York. The cap-ture of this officer had been the main object of the enterprise, and Armand as he groped his way onward, was balancing in his mind the propriety of giving over his attempt, when an incident occurred which led instantly to that decision.