Had General Gage, or whosoever gave the orders for the vessels of war to open fire, known how weary, how thirsty and nearly exhausted we were, their powder and balls might well have been saved, for I question if even Colonel Prescott, warrior though he was, or Doctor Warren, whom I had not seen until just before noon, would have given the word for us to charge in the hope of checking that advance of well-trained soldiers, or to prevent them from stepping foot on shore.
"How many men think you are in yonder barges?" I heard Silas ask Hiram, and he replied with never a tremor in his voice:
"Nigh about three thousand, lad, and if they don't make us wish for water 'twixt now and night I'll agree never to satisfy my thirst again."
CHAPTER X
ON BREED'S HILL
It was somewhere near about this time when our numbers were slightly increased by the arrival of a portion of Colonel Stark's regiment, and I verily believe that the coming of those men did more to dishearten us than if they had stayed away. After having had sight of such a small force, a few of the faint-hearted cried out in anger, declaring we were to be left to our fate, or that some one had blundered in sending us where there could be no question but that an assault would be provoked.
Hiram allowed no one to say aught against our leaders in his hearing. He aroused us all by calling this man a coward, and accusing another of showing the white feather, when any grumbling was indulged in, fairly shaming the timorous one into silence by declaring that he who raised his voice in protest against embracing the first opportunity to measure strength with the Britishers, despite the fact that the odds were greatly against us, was an enemy to the Cause. He even went so far as to declare, although he had no knowledge regarding it whatsoever, that heavy reinforcements were already on the way from Cambridge.
Just at that time I was giving more heed to the spectacle before me, than to the great disparity in numbers between the Britishers and ourselves. The barges laden with red-coated men, who stood or sat immovable as statues with the sunlight glinting on their accouterments like tiny flashes of lightning, came on steadily. The oarsmen worked with the greatest precision, while the Lively and the Falcon swept with iron hail all that tract of land between Breed's hill and the point.