It was much as if we were all walking to and fro in a magazine of powder, each with a lighted match in his hand, and that the explosion was a foregone conclusion, the only question being as to exactly when it would occur.
I understood that others besides myself took much the same view of the situation, when the officers of the Regulation gave orders concerning that which should be done during the night.
All the company were ordered to go on duty at sunset, remaining under arms until morning, ready for any sudden emergency. The men were especially commanded not to stray away from the limits of the encampment, and forty were told off to do guard duty when ten could have patrolled the camp thoroughly under ordinary circumstances.
All these preparations told that our leaders were anxious regarding the possibility of treachery on the part of the royalists, which was not to be wondered at in view of all that had happened.
When it was reported in Hillsborough that Sandy Wells had been murdered, Tryon and Fanning saw an opportunity of setting us down before the world at large as murderers and knaves who should, in justice to a law-abiding community, be committed to jail.
When they learned that we had kept our hands clean, that we had done our best to preserve the peace, it might well be expected some other plan to ruin us would be tried, and General Hamilton was far too wise a man to neglect any opportunity for additional defense.
It was also evident that the people generally were of the belief that the royalists would attempt to do us a mischief, and, as I have said, they moved around restlessly, watching keenly all that was taking place on the opposite side of the river.
Had the king's troops come toward the ford a second time, I believe of a verity that trouble would have ensued even though the soldiers advanced with peaceful intent.
Sidney and I were stationed as sentinels at that part of the line which overlooked the town, with orders to observe closely all that might be taking place on the opposite side of the river, and to report immediately at headquarters any unusual movement, either on the part of the royalists or visitors.
Every inch of the line which marked the bounds of the encampment was constantly traversed that night. The guards were stationed twenty feet apart, and it was expressly commanded that each man should advance until he met the sentinel on his right, when he was to wheel about and proceed in the opposite direction until meeting the Regulators on his left, continuing this throughout the hours of darkness.