They deem’d it wise to shun.
They cheer’d[22] and left for Concord.
Our wounded home we bore:
Then we too left for Concord,
To meet them there once more.[23]
FOOTNOTES
[1] April 18, 1775. “Gage ... secretly prepared an expedition to destroy the colony’s stores at Concord.... Warren ... at ten o’clock despatched William Dawes through Roxbury to Lexington, and Paul Revere ... by way of Charlestown. Revere ... five minutes before the sentinels received the order to prevent it ... rowed ... across Charles River ... beyond Charlestown Neck ... intercepted by two British officers ... he ... escaped to Medford. As he passed on he ... continued to rouse almost every house on the way to Lexington.”—Bancroft’s Hist. U. S., vol. vii., ch. 27, pp. 288, 289.
[2] “The privilege of its harbor was to be discontinued, and the port closed against all commerce ... until the king should be satisfied that ... it would obey the laws.”—This the Boston port bill.—Idem, vol. vi., ch. 52, p. 511.
[3] For contributions in food and money sent at this time to Boston, see Lossing’s Pic. Field Book of the Am. Rev., vol. i., p. 535.
[4] “The second penal bill ... abrogated so much of its charter as gave to its legislature the election of the council, abolished town meetings ... and ... intrusted the returning of juries to the dependent sheriff.”—Bancroft’s Hist. U. S., vol. vi., ch. 52, p. 525.