they were listening, one of the neighbors rushed
breathless into the room.

"A mob!--a terrible mob!" cried he: "they have broken into Mr. Storey's
house, and into Mr. Hallowell's, and have made themselves drunk with the
liquors in his cellar, and now they are coming hither, as wild as so many
tigers. Flee, lieutenant-governor, for your life! for your life!"

"Father, dear father, make haste!" shrieked his children.

But Hutchinson would not hearken to them. He was an old lawyer; and he
could not realize that the people would do any thing so utterly lawless as
to assault him in his peaceful home. He was one of King George's chief
officers; and it would be an insult and outrage upon the king himself, if
the lieutenant-governor should suffer any wrong.

"Have no fears on my account," said he; "I am perfectly safe. The king's
name shall be my protection."

Yet he bade his family retire into one of the neighboring houses. His
daughter would have remained, but he forced her away.

The huzzas and riotous uproar of the mob were now heard, close at hand.
The sound was terrible, and struck Hutchinson with the same sort of dread
as if an enraged wild beast had broken loose, and were roaring for its
prey. He crept softly to the window. There he beheld an immense concourse
of people, filling all the street, and rolling onward to his house. It was
like a tempestuous flood, that had swelled beyond its bounds, and would
sweep every thing before it. Hutchinson trembled; he felt, at that moment,
that the wrath of the people was a thousand-fold more terrible than the
wrath of a king.

That was a moment when a loyalist and an aristocrat, like Hutchinson,
might have learned how powerless are kings, nobles, and great men, when
the low and humble range themselves against them. King George could do
nothing for his servant now. Had King George been there, he could have
done nothing for himself. If Hutchinson had understood this lesson, and
remembered it, he need not, in after years, have been an exile from his
native country, nor finally have laid his bones in a distant land.

There was now a rush against the doors of the house. The people sent up a
hoarse cry. At this instant, the lieutenant-governor's daughter, whom he
had supposed to be in a place of safety, ran into the room, and threw her
arms around him. She had returned by a private entrance.

"Father, are you mad!" cried she. "Will the king's name protect you now?
Come with me