Rodney, the Ranger Part 21

"But I know I have tired you already, so here's good-bye and my regards to Rodney, not forgetting Nat, splendid fellow.

"Your affectionate niece, "ELIZABETH DANESFORD."

Rodney and Angus arrived at Williamsburg April 19th, the very day the Ma.s.sachusetts minute men were hanging on the flanks of the running British like so many angry hornets. The following day, the minute men of that part of Virginia were to be aroused by a similar cause, the attempt of the representatives of England to get possession of the colony's powder.

It will be remembered that it was in the night that the British troops sneaked out of Boston to go after the powder stored at Concord. It was also in the night that the royal governor, Lord Dunmore, secretly removed the powder from the old a.r.s.enal in Williamsburg and put it aboard the British vessel _Magdalen_ in the York River. The British in Boston didn't get the powder, but Dunmore's men did, only there were but fifteen half-barrels of it.

The population of Williamsburg at the time was only about two thousand, and it must be remembered that the country round about was not so thickly settled as Ma.s.sachusetts, consequently the minute men couldn't a.s.semble so quickly; but there was buzzing enough in the morning when it was discovered what Lord Dunmore had done. The minute men 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 and visiting the college at the other end of the one long street, three quarters of a mile distant. They lodged at the famous Raleigh Tavern, which had sheltered the most prominent men of the day, and so were right in the midst of the hubbub when the excitement began. Out in the street they watched the people a.s.semble and listened to the talk.

When some one proposed marching on the "palace," a tipsy fellow cried out, "You jes' th' feller t' go."

Then when another bystander interfered and tried to take him away, he began to struggle, and was being roughly handled when a fat, pompous man bristled up, saying, "Treat him kindly."

At that moment the drunken man, swinging his arms about wildly, struck the pompous man on the head, knocking his old three-cornered hat into the dust.

The change in the fat philanthropist was marvellous, for he jumped up and down crying, "Kill him, kill him."

The crowd laughed. A man came running toward them saying, "They've sent 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 New Castle. 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 seized the powder for the purpose of sending it to another county where he feared 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 knowed it. I didn't dream of snakes fer nothin'."

"If I had your imagination, Granny Snodgra.s.s, I'd make mola.s.ses taffy out o' moonshine," remarked a pert miss.

"Looks to me, Angus, as though these people were going to do their fighting with their tongues," said Rodney. "So let's get away to New Castle."

When they reached New Castle, late the next day, they found Mr. Henry busy a.s.sembling the volunteers for a march on Williamsburg to demand return of the powder, also to see to it that Dunmore did not take the money in the colonial treasury. These men were called "gentlemen independents of Hanover," and they were manly looking, resolute men, and well armed. By the time they had reached Doncaster's, within sixteen miles of Williamsburg, their number was increased to one hundred 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, the receiver general, to meet them and make terms with them, which he did, paying three hundred and thirty pounds for the powder, surely all it was 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 an excuse to rouse the country, get the men together and encourage them by backing Lord Dunmore down," all of which indicated that the lad had become a shrewd observer.

After the powder was paid for, Patrick Henry, who was a delegate to the Colonial Congress, set out for Philadelphia. Lord Dunmore, however, had been badly frightened, and he issued a proclamation against him, and declared that if the people didn't behave he would offer freedom to the negroes and burn the town; he also had cannon placed around his house, proceedings which, it is easy to understand, made the citizens very angry.

The boys returned to Charlottesville and Angus immediately joined a company of volunteers, declaring if there was to be a war he was going.

By this time they had heard the news of the battle of Lexington, brought all the way from Boston by mounted messengers riding by relays.

"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 the heart to propose it after seeing the look which came into his mother's face. It sometimes happens, however, that war comes to those who do not go to war, and so it happened to Rodney Allison.

CHAPTER XXI

VIRGINIANS LEARNING TO SHOOT BRITISH TROOPS

Rodney's duties took him to Philadelphia during the Continental Congress. There he saw Washington, a delegate from Virginia and clad in his uniform, for he knew war must come, and that warlike dress proclaimed his belief more loudly than his voice. There also were the Adamses, from Ma.s.sachusetts, Samuel and John, the latter a wise, shrewd organizer determined to have all the colonies, especially the southern, committed to the revolution he saw approaching. In this effort he used his influence, not for John Hanc.o.c.k of Ma.s.sachusetts, who coveted the place of commander-in-chief, but for George Washington, who the day after the battle of Bunker Hill was chosen and modestly accepted with the proviso that he should receive no pay for his services. There, also, came Benjamin Franklin, just returned from England and convinced nothing remained but war; and there, too, was Jefferson, likewise certain the time had come for the colonies to declare their independence of England.

Rodney's boyish prejudices were in favour of everything Jefferson did, and he was impatient with those, and they were the greater number, who wished to delay decisive action in the hope of conciliation. This prejudice extended to the Quakers in their broad-brimmed hats, nearly all of whom were opposed to war.

Boys are usually impatient, unable to work and wait and keep working, as the wise men of that Congress were doing.

The boy had but part of two days in the city, which was the first he had seen and consequently full of interest; so he did not call on Lisbeth, indeed, had there been plenty of time he would have hesitated in his rough dress of homespun to have presented himself before her aristocratic friends.

The day he turned Nat's nose in the direction of Virginia a young man rode alongside and said, "Why, this is an unexpected pleasure, if as I suspect, you are on your way home."

He was Lawrence Enderwood. Rodney's reply was almost surly, as several reasons for Enderwood's presence in Philadelphia flashed through his mind.

"I'm not going directly home but by way of Williamsburg. I live in Albemarle County."

"I, too, am riding by way of Williamsburg, and if you have no objections to my company should be delighted to join you. It is a long ride."

Rodney could offer no objections, indeed, as they went on, he found his companion a very agreeable one, notwithstanding that in course of the conversation it appeared that Lawrence had seen Lisbeth.

"She is very gay, seems to be absorbed in the gaieties and social life so that she has little time for anything else." Somehow this remark of Enderwood, spoken rather impatiently, afforded Rodney a little comfort, though he hardly could have explained it.

On arriving at Williamsburg, they found the little town well filled, for Governor Dunmore had convened the House of Burgesses to listen to Lord North's plans for conciliation.

"'Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed by a kiss,'" quoted Rodney, and Lawrence laughingly replied, "Patrick Henry has a way of saying things so the people remember them."

"I'll wager they remember that and turn Lord North down with a slam."

"It's evident to me you are for war, Rodney."

"Aren't you?"

"Yes, er--I suppose I am, but it isn't pleasant to think of losing one's estate if not his neck, all of which is possible. The business men of Philadelphia are pretty long-headed, and most of them believe England will win in the end and that the war will be most destructive of property."

"Surely Washington and Jefferson have estates to lose."

"Oh, I reckon we're in for it, and my father says when there's something to do, do it."

As was expected, the House of Burgesses would have nothing to do with the kind of conciliation proposed. The people were restless and Dunmore, fearing them, left his "palace" and went aboard a British vessel and ordered that the bills be sent to him for signature. He was politely informed that if he signed them he would have to return, which he did not do. Then the Burgesses adjourned to October, appointing a permanent committee to have charge of colonial affairs, and that committee appointed Patrick Henry to command of the colonial troops.