"James Hunter, Ninian Bell Hamilton, Peter Craven, Isaack Jackson, Herman Husband, Matthew Hamilton, William Payne, Malichi Tyke, William Moffat, Christopher Nation, Solomon Goff, John O'Neil, and Rednap Howell."
When the clerk ceased reading and marched back from whence he came, we on the hillside looked at each other in silent amazement while one might have counted twenty, and then on the instant every tongue was loosened.
All that had been gained by the truce was an act of outlawry against our best men, and Fanning was still the trusted servant of the king!
The one thought in the minds of all was to seize the person of the villain who held a commission from the crown as governor of the Carolinas, and a thousand voices were crying out against delay.
The officers of the Regulation held a brief consultation, and then came that command which all expected and demanded.
"To horse, gentlemen! The moment has arrived when we must declare ourselves against the king, unless he redresses our wrongs by recalling such officials as have misruled the colony!" General Hamilton cried in a loud tone, and he had no more than concluded before every Regulator was in the saddle burning to avenge the insult offered by Tryon.
The earth literally trembled beneath the hoofs of a thousand horses as we rode at full speed to the ford, then across the river, and on to the governor's residence.
The royal "army" remained on guard until we were come to within an hundred yards, and then they scattered like chaff before the wind, running in every direction, crying for quarter.
No attention was given to the cowards. Tryon, Fanning and Edwards were the men we counted on teaching a lesson, and the dwelling was surrounded in a twinkling.
Fifty gentlemen entered the building, some of them to reappear a few moments later with the fellow who had read the proclamation.