In a few moments they rounded a little headland and found awaiting them in the cove beyond two gondolas and a small boat containing in all some eighteen men. These were under the leadership of Captain Pickering.
“Let us be off!� exclaimed Sullivan impatiently. “We must cross Portsmouth harbor before the moon shows her face again.�
They pulled out into the middle of the stream in the momentary darkness, and by the time the clouds had drifted away from the moon the little fleet was within a rod of the island on which stood Fort William and Mary. All was dark and still within, and the only sound outside was the wash of the waves on the narrow beach. After a whispered consultation the men disembarked at a signal from Sullivan. Wading through the icy water they arranged themselves in line at the rear of the fort, while Pickering with three others crept cautiously in the shadow of the wall and disappeared behind one of the bastions. In a moment more a sentinel’s challenge rang out sharp and clear: “Who goes there? Stand, and give the countersign!�
Pickering seized the soldier’s gun and grasped him by the throat. “Not a word more or you are a dead man,� he whispered.
The men then made their way to the commandant’s room. He looked up as Sullivan and Pickering entered, but his smile of recognition changed to a blank stare as the former said with much agitation: “Captain Cochran, you are our prisoner. Your little garrison has surrendered. You had better follow its example!�
Cochran glanced at the resolute faces of his captors, then tendered his sword. He was left in charge of two of the men while the rest of the party proceeded to break open the magazine. In the course of an hour and a half the powder was safe in the gondolas and the little band left the fort and began the hard task of rowing up-stream. Absolute silence was maintained, and when they finally landed at the foot of meeting-house hill and found Larry with the oxen awaiting them, they took off their heavy, nailed shoes lest a spark from them should set fire to the powder.
By dawn Larry was back in his room telling the wonderful story to Tony. One half of the king’s powder was buried deep beneath the pulpit of the meeting-house, and John Demeritt, with the other half snugly hidden under a load of straw, was on the road to Madbury driving along his oxen as unconcernedly as if nothing had happened.
The next day Governor Wentworth issued a proclamation, declaring all those who took part in the capture of Fort William and Mary guilty of high treason. Four months later the news from Lexington and Concord spread from the White Hills of New Hampshire to the pine forests of the Carolinas arousing the people to a renewed determination to defend with their lives—their rights and liberties.
Major Sullivan, accompanied by his faithful little band, started at once for the scene of action. Indeed the New Hampshire troops were among the earliest at the front, for Bancroft tells us “the ferries on the Merrimack were crowded with the men of New Hampshire,� and that “they finally paraded on Cambridge Common having run rather than walked the entire distance.�
Captain John Demeritt, after reserving a portion of the powder for the use of his own company, brought out the remainder from his cellar and once more concealing it beneath a load of straw carted it with his ox team all the way to the headquarters of the American Army at Cambridge. He arrived in time to have it sent out to the troops at Bunker Hill, and a local historian tells us that it was stated on the best authority, that had not the powder arrived at so opportune a moment the fate of the day would have been far different. It was with this powder that the New Hampshire troops with two regiments from Connecticut guarded the flank at Bunker Hill, twice driving back the British. And it was with the same powder that they held the enemy at bay until Prescott’s little band had left the redoubt and then they retreated in good order through a galling fire.