"If so they gave no evidence of it," her father replied. "They hurried on to Concord in high spirits. But the news of their approach had been communicated, and a formidable body of militia was waiting to receive them."
"Oh, yes!" said Rosie, "I remember that Dawes and Revere had hurried on to warn them after doing the Lexington people the same service."
"Yes," the Captain said, "but on the way they were taken prisoners by some British officers. They had stopped to tell the news to Dr. Samuel Prescott, who escaped over a wall, they being captured. Prescott made his way to Concord, reaching there about two o'clock in the morning, and gave the alarm. Then the bells were rung, and the people armed themselves, so that before daylight they were ready to receive the British."
"They knew what the British were after, and made haste to conceal the stores of powder, shot, and so forth,—didn't they, Papa?" asked Max.
"Yes; the whole male population and some of the women assisted in that work, and succeeded in concealing them in a safe place in the woods before the arrival of the British."
"That was good," remarked Gracie. "And didn't the British get anything at all, Papa?"
"Yes, a little. They knocked off the trunnions of three iron twenty-four-pound cannon, cut down a liberty-pole, set the Court House on fire, and burned a few barrels of wooden trenchers and spoons, and sixteen new carriage-wheels. Also they threw five hundred pounds of balls into a mill-pond, and broke open about sixty barrels of flour; but the people succeeded in saving a good deal of that, and Mrs. Moulton put out the fire in the Court House before much damage was done."
"But was there no fighting, Papa?" Gracie asked.
"There was fighting," the Captain answered. "While the British were at the mischief I have been telling you of, the American party was rapidly increasing by the coming in of minute-men from the neighbouring towns. They formed into line as fast as they came. There were nearly four hundred of them.