d been shed,--men had fallen on
both sides. The responsibility of the moment was very great. In
contemplation of law they had resisted the British Ministry, they had
attacked the British throne.

The regulars retired to the village, and, the divisions of troops
having joined each other, they commenced a retreat which for several
miles was a precipitous flight.

Hayward fell mortally wounded at Lexington in a personal recontre with
a British soldier. It was fatal to both, though Hayward survived
several hours. With a religious patriotism he assured his father that
the day's doings gave him no regret.

Patriotism is one of the most exalted virtues. It is not, as some
would have us believe, a mere excitement, or even a passion. It is
high among the virtues which men in this state of existence may
exhibit. Patriotism is not merely a barren attachment to the country
in which we were born, nor is it that narrow yet holy feeling which
leads us to look with affection upon the spot of our nativity,--upon
the hills over which we have roamed in childhood and youth; but a large
and noble view of the entire nation,--a regard for its institutions,
social, moral, civil and religious, crowned by a manly spirit which
leads its possessor to peril all in their defence. The patriot is
devoted and self-sacrificing.

Such were Davis, Hayward and Hosmer. Their names were comparatively
humble, yet they were men of duty, men of religion, men of a liberal
patriotism. Davis was about thirty years of age. He was both a
husband and a father. He left his family that morning with a firm
conviction that he should see them no more. If his lip quivered and
his eye moistened as he trod his own freehold for the last time, fear
had no part in those emotions. He had not accepted a command and
trained his men for months without having anticipated the actual
condition of war which was then immediately before him.

Hayward and Hosmer were both sons of deacons in the church and were
sent forth that morning upon an errand of death with the paternal
blessing. Neither churches nor clergy were indifferent to the result.
The clergy had counseled resistance. The people had imbibed with their
religious opinions and sentiments a deep hatred of oppression. The
three who fell were young men and well educated for the age in which
they lived. They were of the yeomanry. They did not serve on that
day upon compulsion nor for mercenary motives. They