Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/421

] departure. He pointed to the combustible materials he had caused to be prepared to set fire, in an instant, to the city, if the provincials should molest him in any shape. He invited them to reflect upon all the dangers which might result, for them and their habitations, from a battle fought within the walls; and he assured them, that his personal intention was to withdraw peaceably, if the Americans were disposed, on their part, to act in the same manner. He exhorted them, therefore, to repair to the presence of Washington, and to inform him of what they had now heard.

The selectmen waited upon the American general, and made him an affecting representation of the situation of the city. It appears, from what followed, that he consented to the conditions demanded; but the articles of the truce were not written. It has been pretended that one of them was, that the besieged should leave their munitions of war; this, however, cannot be affirmed with assurance. The munitions were, indeed, left; but it is not known whether it was by convention, or from necessity. The Americans remained quiet spectators of the retreat of the English. But the city presented a melancholy spectacle; notwithstanding the orders of General Howe, all was havoc and confusion. Fifteen hundred loyalists, with their families, and their most valuable effects, hastened, with infinite dejection of mind, to abandon a residence which had been so dear to them, and where they had so long enjoyed felicity. The fathers carrying burdens, the mothers their children, ran weeping towards the ships; the last salutations, the farewell embraces of those who departed, and of those who remained, the sick, the wounded, the aged, the infants, would have moved with compassion the witnesses of their distress, if the care of their own safety had not absorbed the attention of all.

The carts and beasts of burden werebecome the occasion of sharp disputes between the inhabitants who had retained them, and the soldiers who wished to employ them. The disorder was also increased, by the animosity that prevailed between the soldiers of the garrison and those of the fleet; they reproached each other mutually, as the authors of their common misfortune. With one accord, however, they complained of the coldness and ingratitude of their country, which seemed to have abandoned, or rather to have forgotten them upon these distant shores, a prey to so much misery, and to so many dangers. For since the month of October, General Howe had not received, from England, any order or intelligence whatever, which testified that the government still existed, and had not lost sight of the army of Boston.

Meanwhile, a desperate band of soldiers and sailors took advantage of the confusion, to force doors, and pillage the houses and shops. They destroyed what they could not carry away. The entire city was devoted to devastation, and it was feared every moment the flames would break out, to consummate its destruction.

The 15th of March, General Howe issued a proclamation, forbidding every