"Allow me, ma'selle," and the tall soldier's sword grated on the walk, as, bending low, he put a card in the curve of her arm. Then lifting his hat gay with gold lace high above his head, he said, with his gentle accent, "Au revoir, ma'selle." And he was gone.
"He is French," said Sally, "for he said 'Au revoir, ma'selle,' and that means 'adieu, or good-by, mademoiselle, until we meet again.'"
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE BREAKING OF THE STORM
Peace was at an end. The smell of war was in the air. May had dawned, hot, sweet, and full of the jangle of many tongues. Strange, wild things were happening, and so swiftly that hardly could men sleep, so fierce were they for news.
Lord Dunmore, Virginia's governor, was looked upon as an enemy, false and dangerous. Besides trying to take from the people all their gunpowder, it was found that he had tried to stir up the Indians to make one of their cruel attacks upon the people. Soon after this he left Williamsburg not to return.
News travelled but slowly in those days, and so the May sun had been shining some weeks when a man on horseback brought the tidings that at about the same time that the gunpowder had been seized, there had actually been fighting near Boston.
"Think of it!" exclaimed Parson Kendall, at the table at noon; "the messenger who rode into town this morning saith that seven of our minutemen were killed, and four others wounded, at Lexington, not far from Boston. And at Concord also, close by, there soon followed more fighting.
"Thinketh any one that we will lay down our arms after that? Not so! not so!" cried the parson. "The British rushed forward and destroyed our stores, making sad havoc for a time, but at what a cost! They very soon were to know with what manner of rebels they had to deal.
"The whole body of Continental soldiers sprang to their guns, the news spread from mouth to mouth, and from town to town. Out poured the people from farm, hamlet, and shop. Boys who had ever handled a gun rushed to the scene, and from behind trees, rocks, and buildings came a steady fire into the British ranks, and had not help come to them from Boston, none of those British soldiers would have escaped alive. Three hundred of them were beaten down as it was.