When Middleton departed, it was a few minutes past twelve, so that Champe had the start of his pursuers by little more than an hour.  Lee was very anxious, and passed a sleepless night.  The pursuing party were, on their part, occasionally delayed by the necessary halts to examine the road, as the impressions of the horse’s shoes directed the course.  These were, unfortunately, too evident, no other horse having passed over the road since the shower.  When the day broke, Middleton was no longer obliged to halt, and he passed on with rapidity.

As the pursuers ascended an eminence to the north of the village of Bergen, Champe was descried not more than half a mile in front.  Resembling an Indian in his vigilance, the sergeant at the same moment discovered Middleton and his men, to whose object he was no stranger, and giving spur to his horse, he determined to outstrip them.  Middleton, at the same instant, put his horses to the top of their speed; and being, as the legion all were, well acquainted with the country, he recollected a route through the woods to the bridge below Bergen, which diverged from the great road near the Three Pigeons.  Reaching the point of separation, he halted, and, dividing his party, directed a sergeant, with a few dragoons, to take the near cut, and possess, with all possible dispatch, the bridge, while he, with the rest of his men, followed Champe.  He could not doubt but that Champe, being thus enclosed between him and his sergeant, would deliver himself up.  Champe did not forget the short cut, and would have taken it, had he not remembered that it was the usual route of our parties when returning in the day from the neighborhood of the enemy.  He consequently avoided it, and wisely resolved to abandon his intention of getting to Paulus Hook, and to seek refuge from two British galleys, lying a few miles to the west of Bergen.

This was a station generally occupied by one or two galleys.  Passing through the village of Bergen, Champe took the road toward Elizabethtown Point.  Middleton’s sergeant gained the bridge, where he concealed himself, ready to intercept Champe as soon as he appeared.  In the meantime, Middleton, pursuing his course through Bergen, soon arrived, also, at the bridge, when, to his mortification, he found that Champe had escaped.  Returning up the road, he inquired of the villagers of Bergen, whether a dragoon had been seen that morning preceding his party.  He was answered in the affirmative, but could learn nothing satisfactory as to the route taken by the fugitive.  While engaged in inquiries himself, he spread his party through the village to discover the trail of Champe’s horse.  Some of the dragoons hit it, just as the sergeant, leaving the village, reached the road to the point.