Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/159

 on the plunder of the magazine, will be readily con- ceived. Yet it broke not out into any open act. His lordship remained unmolested even by a disrespectful look. The augmented patrol v^as kept up; but no defensive preparation was made by the inhabitants of the city.

The transactions which were passing in the metro- polis, circulated through the country with a rapidity proportioned to their inteVest, and with this farther aggravation, which was also true in point of fact, that in addition to the clandestine removal of the powder, the governor had caused the muskets in the magazine to be sti'ipped of their locks.

In the midst of the irritation excited by this intelli- gence, came the news of the bloody battles of Lexington and Concord, resulting from an attempt of the governor, general Gage, to seize the military stores deposited at the latter place. The system of colonial subjugation was now apparent: the effect was instantaneous. The whole country flew to arms. The independent com- panies, formed in happier times for the purpose of mili- tary discipline, and under the immediate auspices of lord Dunmore himself, raised the standard of liberty in every county. By the 27th of April, there were assem- bled at Fredericksburg, upwards of seven hundred men well armed and disciplined, "friends of constitutional liberty and America.^^ Their march, however, was arrested by a letter from Mr. Peyton Randolph, in reply to an express, and received on the 29th, by which they were informed that the gentlemen of the city and neigh- bourhood of Williamsburg, had had full assurance from his excellency, that the affair of the powder should be accommodated, and advising that the gentlemen of Fredericksburg should proceed no farther. On the receipt

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