The troops soon arrived opposite to the Black Horse Tavern, kept by Mr. Wetherby. Thus far their march had not been heralded other than by the flashing lights and fleet and silent messengers. Lieut.-Col. Smith still thought his little army unnoticed, for he rode a little way beyond the Tavern, halted his men, and sent back an officer with a file of men, to surround and guard the house, while others should search the interior for members of the rebel congress whom he thought to be within. His surmise was correct, to some extent, for three members were there, just awakened by the heavy tread, and who heard the low-voiced commands to halt.
The day before, April 18, the Committee of Safety and the Committee of Supplies, had held a joint meeting at the Tavern, and there were present, Col. Azor Orne, Col. Joseph Palmer, Col. William Heath, Col. Thomas Gardner, Richard Devens, Abraham Watson, Capt. Benjamin White, and John Pigeon, of the Committee of Safety, and David Cheever, Elbridge Gerry, Col. Charles Lee, and Col. Benjamin Lincoln, of the Committee of Supplies. At the close of the meeting most of them, being near enough, had departed for their homes. It will be remembered that Richard Devens of Charlestown departed early enough to meet Revere on the Charlestown shore, and acquaint him with the movement of the ten British officers riding up the road. It will also be recalled that Elbridge Gerry had sent from here a messenger to John Hancock at Lexington to the same effect.
However, there were three members of the two committees who chose to remain at the Black Horse Tavern that night. They were Col. Azor Orne, Elbridge Gerry, and Col. Charles Lee.
It was not quite three o'clock when the slumbers of these three men were disturbed by the unusual noise in the road, and they went to the windows and looked out into the moonlight and down on the marching host and its gleaming arms. They watched with eager curiosity. Not for a moment did they connect themselves individually with the movement, but when they heard the command to halt, and saw a file of soldiers leave the ranks for the Tavern they were startled, and then it suddenly occurred to them that possibly they were the objects of those military manœuvres. They hurried down stairs, even clad in their night-clothes as they were, and finally sought a safe exit at the rear. It is said that Mr. Gerry, in his nervous haste to escape, was on the point of opening the front door and rushing out that way, but was prevented by the cry of the landlord:
"For God's sake, don't open that door," and who then conducted the three to the back part of the house, and headed them for a field of corn stubble. Elbridge Gerry stumbled and fell, and cried out to his friend:
"Stop, Orne, for me, till I can get up; I have hurt myself."
His position, flat on the ground, out of sight because of the corn-stubble, suggested that it would be a good hiding-place for all, so the three lay prone on the ground until the King's troops passed on. They returned to the Tavern finally to find that the house had indeed been searched for them, very ineffectively, for even their personal effects including Mr. Gerry's gold watch, left ticking under his pillow, had not been disturbed. The search by the soldiers had not been a very thorough one.
Col. Lee never recovered from the ill effect of his exposure on the damp ground in the night air, too thinly clad as he was, for he died within a month.[98]
The march of the British forces under Lieut. Col. Smith up to this point, was a little over five miles, and it was nearly three o'clock. He continued serenely for a little farther, for unknown to him the inmates of many houses that he passed were aroused by the measured tread of his men.
Solomon Bowman, Lieutenant in Captain Benjamin Locke's Company of Minute-men, lived in Menotomy, now Arlington.[99] He came to the door to witness the unusual sight. A soldier perceiving him, left the ranks and asked for a drink of water. Bowman refused the request, but asked him:—