s; the similarity of the resolutions, however,
in spirit and substance to those of the Fairfax County meeting, in
which he presided, and the coincidence of the measures adopted with
those therein recommended, show that he had a powerful agency in the
whole proceedings of this eventful assembly. Patrick Henry, being
asked, on his return home, whom he considered the greatest man in
Congress, replied: "If you speak of eloquence, Mr. Rutledge, of South
Carolina, is by far the greatest orator; but if you speak of solid
information and sound judgment, Colonel Washington is unquestionably
the greatest man on that floor."

On the breaking up of Congress, Washington hastened back to Mount
Vernon, where his presence was more than usually important to the
happiness of Mrs. Washington, from the loneliness caused by the recent
death of her daughter and the absence of her son. The cheerfulness of
the neighborhood had been diminished of late by the departure of
George William Fairfax for England, to take possession of estates
which had devolved to him in that kingdom. His estate of Belvoir, so
closely allied with that of Mount Vernon by family ties and reciprocal
hospitality, was left in charge of a steward, or overseer. Through
some accident the house took fire, and was burnt to the ground. It was
never rebuilt. The course of political events which swept Washington
from his quiet home into the current of public and military life,
prevented William Fairfax, who was a royalist, though a liberal one,
from returning to his once happy abode, and the hospitable
intercommunion of Mount Vernon and Belvoir was at an end for ever.

CHAPTER XVI.
MILITARY MEASURES.--AFFAIRS AT LEXINGTON.

The rumor, at the opening of Congress, of the cannonading of Boston
had been caused by measures of Governor Gage. The public mind in
Boston and its vicinity had been rendered excessively jealous and
sensitive by the landing and encamping of artillery upon the Common
and Welsh Fusiliers on Fort Hill, and by the planting of four large
field-pieces on Boston Neck, the only entrance to the town by land.
The country people were arming and disciplining themselves in every
direction, and collecting and depositing arms and ammunition in places
where they would be at hand in case of emergency. Gage, on the other
hand, issued orders that the munitions of war in all the public
magazines should be brought to Boston. One of these magazines was the
arsenal in the