ossed the
bridge, and stationed themselves behind the ridge that overlooked the
town; the search-party that had gone to Colonel Barrett's returned.
"They had taken up some planks of the bridge," says Berniere of the
Americans, though the work was done by the British. "Had they destroyed
it, we were most certainly all lost; however, we joined the main body."
Colonel Smith now had his force together, and had done all that could be
done, yet for two hours more he, by futile marchings and
countermarchings, "discovered great Fickleness[68] and Inconstancy of
Mind." The delay was serious; he had earlier sent to Gage for
reinforcements, and he ought now to have considered that every minute
was bringing more Americans to the line of his retreat. When, about
noon, he started for Boston, the situation was very grave.

The British left the town as they had come in, with the grenadiers on
the highway, the light infantry flanking them on the ridge. On this
elevation, above the house he later inhabited, Hawthorne laid the scene
of the duel between Septimius Felton and the British officer. At
Merriam's Corner the ridge ends. Here the flankers joined the main body,
and together noted the approach of the Americans, who had dogged them.
The regulars turned and fired, only to be driven onward by an accurate
response. "When I got there," says Amos Barrett, "a great many lay dead,
and the road was bloody." From that time ensued a scattering general
engagement along the line of the retreat.

In this kind of fighting the odds were greatly with the Americans, as
Gage, with his memory of Braddock's defeat, might have foreseen. The
British complained with exasperation that the militia would not stand up
to them. The provincials knew better than to do so. Lightly armed,
carrying little besides musket or rifle, powder horn and
bullet-pouch,--and all these smaller and lighter than the British
equipment,--the farmers were able with ease to keep up with the troops,
to fire from cover, to load, and then again to regain the distance lost.
Every furlong saw their numbers increase. At Merriam's Corner came in
the Reading company; before long the survivors of the Lexington company
joined the fight to take their revenge; and from that time on, from
north, from south, and from the east, the minute men and militia came
hurrying up to join the chase.

Before five miles were passed, the retreat had degenerated into a mere
rout. "We at first," says Berniere,