de Camps, &ca, to dine with me." It was an occasion of
which he boasted to his dying day. In the town, now flooded with
provision, there were many eager to feast Washington.

But he did not tarry long. While Howe and his fleet were in the bay, he
kept his men at work demolishing the British defences against the land,
and strengthening the forts which looked seaward, and he was continually
on his guard against the blow which Howe might deliver. But when the
British had sailed away to the north-east, Washington himself, on the
4th of April, set off for New York.

Howe had nevertheless left vessels at Nantasket Roads, to intercept the
troop-ships and stores which were on their way to him. In this he was
partly successful, for seven ship-loads of Highlanders were by this
means saved from Yankee prisons. But even while the evacuation was in
progress British vessels were captured in the harbor, and now in sight
of the squadron and its Highlanders was taken the richest store-ship
that had yet fallen into American hands. There was a brisk fight, also,
between an American schooner, aground on Shirley Point, and thirteen
boat-loads of men from the war-ships. The boats were beaten off, but
the British had accomplished the death of the captain of the schooner,
America's first naval hero, Mugford of Marblehead.

At length a determined effort was made to drive away the squadron. The
militia was called out, and artillery was carried to islands down the
harbor. There was a brief cannonade between the Americans and the fleet.
Then the British commander, finding his anchorage no longer safe, blew
up the lighthouse and followed Howe to Halifax. This was on the second
anniversary of the enforcement of the Port Bill. Two days later the
remainder of the Highlanders, unsuspiciously entering the harbor, fell
into the hands of the Americans.[165]

The British resentment aroused by this last mischance was mild compared
with the general indignation which burst on Howe's head at his conduct
of the defence of Boston, and his hurried evacuation. The ministry
announced the departure from Boston in the briefest fashion, but were
forced to explain and excuse it in both the Commons and the Lords. "The
General thought proper to shift his position," explained the Earl of
Suffolk to the Lords, "in order, in the first place, to protect
Halifax."[166] But the defence was riddled, Howe's general weakness was
exposed, his neglect to fortify Dorchester was