CHAPTER XX
RALLYING VIRGINIA'S MINUTE MEN
The evening after Rodney returned to Charlottesville, Angus rode overon a raw-boned steed that evidently had outlived his day for leapingfences and following the hounds.
"What d'ye think of him, Rod?"
"Why, he's some horse, looks like a blooded one," replied Rodney,speaking as favourably as he could, for he liked Angus and knew theboy had been a little envious of late. "Where did you get him?"
"He's one Squire Herndon got down on the Pamunkey. Reckon I made agood trade, fer I found he was blind in one eye an' the squire tookhim fer a bad debt an' already had more hosses than he could feed."
"You ought to trade him off and make a good thing."
"Don't reckon I want to trade right away. I 'low after plantin' I'mgoin' to ride round a bit. Thar's a heap o' things a feller can learnby travellin' around. You know that."
"I suppose so. Tell you what, Angus; I've got to go to Williamsburgnext week. Let's go together. I've never been there. It's the capitalof the Old Dominion and, when the Burgesses are in session, one cansee more of the aristocracy in Williamsburg than in any other place.Besides, the famous William and Mary College is there. You know manyof our greatest men went there, the Byrds, the Lees and Randolphs, andThomas Jefferson, he was a student there. I've heard that he wouldlike to have a college right here in Charlottesville run according toa plan of his own. I'll wager if he wants it he'll get it if he lives.Yes, we'll ride down there and have a fine time."
"That we will fer sure, if we go. Reckon I can fix it. Think we cansee Patrick Henry? I want to see him. They do say he can talk thebirds right out o' the trees."
"You never heard anything like it. He isn't much to look at, but whenhe speaks he can make the hair in the back of your neck stand outstraight like the ruff of a cockerel in a fight."
"I hear the fellers talkin'. They'd march right to Joppa if he'd lead'em."
"Don't believe he's much of a soldier, but he surely is an orator."
Angus rode home whistling.
That evening Mrs. Allison received the following letter in which thereader may be interested, as was Rodney:
"PRYNDALE, Va., March 28th, 1775.
"DEAR AUNT HARRIET:--I threw away my crutches this morning, and triedto celebrate by dancing a jig. I'm sure I should have succeeded to mylater sorrow but for Aunt Betty's horrified look, whereupon I sat downto write you instead.
"Lawrence Enderwood thought Pryndale prosy and I had begun to believehim when lo, two highwaymen set upon us; a knight errant mounted on asplendid steed rides to the rescue; Firefly takes fright and runs awaywith a helpless maiden hanging by one foot to the stirrup, and bothhands in the mane, expecting every moment to be dashed in pieces andactually thinking of every wicked thing she ever did; my, but it wasan awful panorama! A snorting steed is heard in pursuit, the knighterrant spurs him on and seizes the bridle of the running horse,rescues the hapless maiden, who has discovered that she is so wickedshe wants to live, and then, _mirabile dictu!_ the knight errant isdiscovered to be no less a personage than one Rodney Allison. Excuseme, Auntie, if I express the opinion that you've not brought him upright; he's too shy and actually had to be urged to call on his oldplaymate. Seriously, I would have seen him before he fled, had I knownhe was there. Aunt Betty didn't tell me. You don't know what a shockit was to papa and me, the news Rodney brought of the death of UncleDavid. I turned my face to the wall and cried, which as you may knowI'm not in the habit of doing. Not till after he had left Pryndale didI realize what I owed to him. He was much superior to any teacher Ihad in London and he was so patient and kindly with us, imps that wewere.
"Since you left Pryndale things seem much changed and for the worse.Papa is all out of sorts with what he terms the disloyalty of thepeople. He insists we are being driven into a wicked war by a fewhot-headed men together with those who are so ambitious they wouldsacrifice their country. I wish I knew the right of it. People whoused to be friendly now look the other way. Only the other dayGobber's urchins were playing by the road when I rode past their cabinand the dirty imps made faces and cried out, 'Tory, I hate Tories.'
"Next month papa and I are going to Philadelphia and he may later sailfor London. Somehow, it seems to me as if I weren't coming back. Isuppose being shut up in the house with my sprained ankle makes mespleeny. Write me in the Quaker city, won't you, and address care ofmy uncle, Jacob Derwent. Now don't forget.
"But I know I have tired you already, so here's good-bye and myregards to Rodney, not forgetting Nat, splendid fellow.
"Your affectionate niece, "ELIZABETH DANESFORD."
Rodney and Angus arrived at Williamsburg April 19th, the very day theMassachusetts minute men were hanging on the flanks of the runningBritish like so many angry hornets. The following day, the minute menof that part of Virginia were to be aroused by a similar cause, theattempt of the representatives of England to get possession of thecolony's powder.
It will be remembered that it was in the night that the British troopssneaked out of Boston to go after the powder stored at Concord. It wasalso in the night that the royal governor, Lord Dunmore, secretlyremoved the powder from the old arsenal in Williamsburg and put itaboard the British vessel _Magdalen_ in the York River. The British inBoston didn't get the powder, but Dunmore's men did, only there werebut fifteen half-barrels of it.
The population of Williamsburg at the time was only about twothousand, and it must be remembered that the country round about wasnot so thickly settled as Massachusetts, consequently the minute mencouldn't assemble so quickly; but there was buzzing enough in themorning when it was discovered what Lord Dunmore had done. The minutemen of the town were for marching to Dunmore's house and seizing him,but cooler heads prevailed.
The two boys had spent the previous day looking over the capital andvisiting the college at the other end of the one long street, threequarters of a mile distant. They lodged at the famous Raleigh Tavern,which had sheltered the most prominent men of the day, and so wereright in the midst of the hubbub when the excitement began. Out in thestreet they watched the people assemble and listened to the talk.When some one proposed marching on the "palace," a tipsy fellow criedout, "You jes' th' feller t' go."
Then when another bystander interfered and tried to take him away, hebegan to struggle, and was being roughly handled when a fat, pompousman bristled up, saying, "Treat him kindly."
At that moment the drunken man, swinging his arms about wildly, struckthe pompous man on the head, knocking his old three-cornered hat intothe dust.
The change in the fat philanthropist was marvellous, for he jumped upand down crying, "Kill him, kill him."
The crowd laughed. A man came running toward them saying, "They'vesent for Patrick Henry."
"I'll see him, after all," exclaimed Angus.
"I've got a message for him, so we had better ride to his home in NewCastle. We may meet him," Rodney replied.
"I want to see him and I want to see the fun."
"Want to keep your cake and eat it too," replied Rodney.
Just then a report spread through the crowd that Dunmore had seizedthe powder for the purpose of sending it to another county where hefeared there would be an uprising of the blacks.
"We're likely to have one of our own," exclaimed a bystander.
An old woman, somewhat deaf, cried, "The blacks are risin'! I knowedit. I didn't dream of snakes fer nothin'."
"If I had your imagination, Granny Snodgrass, I'd make molasses taffyout o' moonshine," remarked a pert miss.
"Looks to me, Angus, as though these people were going to do theirfighting with their tongues," said Rodney. "So let's get away to NewCastle."
When they reached New Castle, late the next day, they found Mr. Henrybusy assembling the volunteers for a march on Williamsburg to demandreturn of the powder, also to see to it that Dunmore did
not take themoney in the colonial treasury. These men were called "gentlemenindependents of Hanover," and they were manly looking, resolute men,and well armed. By the time they had reached Doncaster's, withinsixteen miles of Williamsburg, their number was increased to onehundred and fifty.
"Dunmore will wish he hadn't when he's seen 'em," remarked Angus.
Dunmore was frightened before he saw them and sent Corbin, thereceiver general, to meet them and make terms with them, which he did,paying three hundred and thirty pounds for the powder, surely all itwas worth.
"I've concluded, Angus," said Rodney, "from what I can see and hear,that Mr. Henry hasn't cared so much about the powder as he does for anexcuse to rouse the country, get the men together and encourage themby backing Lord Dunmore down," all of which indicated that the lad hadbecome a shrewd observer.
After the powder was paid for, Patrick Henry, who was a delegate tothe Colonial Congress, set out for Philadelphia. Lord Dunmore,however, had been badly frightened, and he issued a proclamationagainst him, and declared that if the people didn't behave he wouldoffer freedom to the negroes and burn the town; he also had cannonplaced around his house, proceedings which, it is easy to understand,made the citizens very angry.
The boys returned to Charlottesville and Angus immediately joined acompany of volunteers, declaring if there was to be a war he wasgoing.
By this time they had heard the news of the battle of Lexington,brought all the way from Boston by mounted messengers riding byrelays.
"That means war," Rodney remarked to his mother. How he wanted to go,to do as Angus had done and join the volunteers! But he hadn't theheart to propose it after seeing the look which came into his mother'sface. It sometimes happens, however, that war comes to those who donot go to war, and so it happened to Rodney Allison.