the true object of the expedition was very clear.

Revere, Dawes, and young Doctor Prescott, of Concord, who had joined
them, had got over half the distance to the next town, when, at a sudden
turning, they came upon the second redcoat patrol. Prescott leaped his
horse over the roadside wall, and so escaped across the fields to
Concord. Revere and Dawes, at the point of the pistol, gave themselves
up. Their business on the road at that hour was demanded by the officer,
who was told in return to listen. Then, through the still morning air,
the distant booming of the alarm bell's peal on peal was borne to their
ears.

It was the British who were now uneasy. Ordering the prisoners to follow
them, the troop rode off at a gallop toward Lexington, and when they
were at the edge of the village, Revere was told to dismount, and was
left to shift for himself. He then ran as fast as his legs could carry
him across the pastures back to the Clark parsonage, to report his
misadventure, while the patrol galloped off toward Boston to announce
theirs. But by this time, the Minute Men of Lexington had rallied to
oppose the march of the troops. Thanks to the intrepidity of Paul
Revere, the North End coppersmith, the redcoats, instead of surprising
the rebels in their beds, found them marshalled on Lexington Green, and
at Concord Bridge, in front, flank, and rear, armed and ready to dispute
their march to the bitter end.

"You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British regulars fired and fled--
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.

"So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm----
A cry of defiance and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night wind of the past,
Through all our history, to the last,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere."[6]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 5: Drake's "Historic Fields and Mansions of Middlesex."
Little, Brown & Co., publishers.]

[Footnote 6: "Paul Revere's Ride:" Longfellow's Poem