Read the excerpt from The Crisis, Number IV. Shall a band of ten or twelve thousand robbers, who are this day fifteen hundred or two thousand men less in strength than they were yesterday, conquer America, or subdue even a single state? The thing cannot be, unless we sit down and suffer them to do it. In this excerpt, Paine uses a rhetorical device to encourage readers to feel anger and contempt for the British troops. fear negative outcomes in future battles. have a higher opinion of the British troops. feel proud of American forces.