of you!"

Revere repeated his startling news.

"Ring the Bell!" commanded Hancock. In a few moments the church bell
began to peal, according to pre-arranged signal, to call men of the
town together. All night the tones of the clanging bell rang out on
the clear air and before daylight one hundred and fifty men had
mustered for defense, strong in their desire for resistance and
confident of the justice of it.

John Hancock was determined to fight with the men who had come
together so hurriedly and were so poorly equipped for the combat. With
a firm hand he cleaned his gun and sword and put his accoutrements in
order, refusing to listen to the plea of Adams that it was not their
duty to fight, that theirs it was, rather, to safeguard their lives
for the sake of that cause to which they were so important at this
critical time. Hancock was deaf to all appeals, until Dorothy grasped
his hands in hers and forced him to look into her eyes:--

"I have lost my mother," she said; "to lose you, too, would be more
than I could bear, unless I were giving you for my country's good. But
you can serve best by living rather than by courting danger. You must
go, and go now!"

And Hancock went.

Meanwhile a British officer had been sent in advance of the troops to
inquire for "Clark's parsonage." By mistake he asked for Clark's
tavern, which news was brought to Hancock as he was debating whether
to take Dorothy's advice or not. He waited no longer. With Adams he
immediately took refuge in a thickly wooded hill back of the
parsonage. An hour later Paul Revere returned to the house to report
that after he left there, with two others, he had been captured by
British officers. Having answered their questions evasively about the
whereabouts of the patriots, he finally said: "Gentlemen, you have
missed your aim; the bell's ringing, the town's alarmed. You are all
dead men!" This so terrified the officers that, not one hundred yards
further on, one of them mounted Revere's horse and rode off at top
speed to give warning to the on-coming troops, while Revere went back
to report to Hancock and Adams.

It was evidently unsafe for them to remain so near the scene of the
struggle, and at daylight they were ready to start for the home of the
Rev. Mr. Marrett in Woburn. Dorothy and Aunt Lydia were to remain in
Lexington, and although they had kept well in the background through
all the excitement of the fateful night, Aunt Lydia now went down