projected in September, and now was in good working
order, so that, with Boston as a radiating point, the summons could be
sent over the province with the greatest rapidity. By virtue of his
efficiency, trustworthiness, and picturesque personality, Paul Revere is
accepted as the type of the men who stood ready for this service.

This system, further, had been tested. The spontaneous response to the
Powder Alarm in September had been ready enough, for the men of
Connecticut and New Hampshire were in motion before the next day. But
through the winter of 1774-1775 there had been minor alarms at each
little expedition on which Gage sent his soldiers. By these the new
system was proved efficient. Whether the troops marched to Jamaica Pond,
to the "punch bowl" in Brookline, or even went, by sea and land, as far
as Salem, the militia of the surrounding towns showed a prompt curiosity
as to the object of the excursion. These fruitless musters, far from
making the minute men callous to alarms, served to prepare them to meet
the great occasion which they foresaw would finally come. For that they
were in excellent practice.

As to Concord itself, it had become very important. The Congress, which
after its first week in Concord had been sitting in Cambridge, now
returned, and from the 22d of March until the 15th of April[57] sat
daily in the meeting-house. The Committee of Safety remained still
longer, busy with the gathering of supplies. It is within this period
that Berniere and Brown came on their spying expedition to Concord, and
were directed by a woman to the house of Daniel Bliss. A threat of the
Whigs to tar and feather her sent her to the officers for refuge, and
word presently came to Bliss that the Whigs "would not let him go out of
the town alive that morning." This fate the officers and their host
avoided by leaving in the night. What became of the woman is not said,
but we may be easy about her: no injury, and in fact no serious
indignity, was put upon a woman in New England at this period. The
officers returned to Boston with a report of the stores in Concord.

This may have increased the anxiety of the Committee of Safety. Already
they had voted, "requiring Colonel Barrett of Concord to engage a
sufficient number of faithful men to guard the Colony's magazines in
that town; to keep a suitable number of teams in constant readiness, by
day and night, to remove the stores; and to provide couriers to alarm
the neighbo