Page:Sketch of Connecticut, Forty Years Since.djvu/200

 knew not, as I hastened on with them, what a dangerous station it would prove. Yet if I had, I should not have drawn back, for my heart was high. When we reached the spot, we were employed in placing one rail-fence parallel with another, and filling the interval with the new-mown hay which strewed the field, that field where men were soon to lie thick as herbs beneath the sharp sithe. In the course of the forenoon, a few more soldiers arrived, increasing our numbers to about 1500. We made but a scanty dinner, though those of us, who had watched all night, and got no breakfast, were rather sharp-set. Yet it seemed as if no man thought of food, or of rest, so full was his heart of those liberties, which he was about to defend. At one o'clock, a thick, dark smoke spread over the skirts of the hill. We had scarcely time to exclaim "See! Charlestown with its fair houses, and beautiful spire burning," ere we saw our foes marching towards us. Soon the smoke of the town, and that of the cannon mingled, rising in heavy volumes towards the sky. Prescott flourished his sword, till it cast a gleam like lightning among us; and Putnam's voice thundered hoarsely, "Remember Lexington."

"Ah!" said the Lady, "it was at the report of the blood shed at Lexington that, like the Roman Cincinnatus, he cast the plough from his hand, and leaving his unfinished furrow, rode in one day nearly seventy miles to join the American camp. Washington repeatedly paid high tribute to his bravery, and his virtues."