structing a battery on the
bank of the river below the town, to defend it from ships that might
attempt to come up the river. To construct this battery, and to provide
cannon for it, would require a considerable amount of money; and in order
to raise the necessary funds, Franklin proposed a public lottery. He
considered the emergency of the crisis, as it would seem, a sufficient
justification for a resort to such a measure. The lottery was arranged,
and the tickets offered for sale. They were taken very fast, for the whole
community were deeply interested in the success of the enterprise. The
money was thus raised and the battery was erected. The walls of it were
made of logs framed together, the space between being filled with earth.

The great difficulty, however, was to obtain cannon for the armament of
the battery. The associates succeeded at length in finding a few pieces of
old ordnance in Boston which they could buy. These they procured and
mounted in their places on the battery. They then sent to England to
obtain more; and in the mean time Franklin was dispatched as a
commissioner to New York, to attempt to borrow some cannon there, to be
used until those which they expected to receive from England should
arrive. His application was in the end successful, though the consent of
Governor Clinton, to whom the application was made, was gained in a
somewhat singular way. "At first," says Franklin, "he refused us
peremptorily; but at dinner with his council, where there was great
drinking of Madeira wine, as the custom of the place then was, he softened
by degrees, and said he would lend us _six_. After a few more bumpers he
advanced to _ten_; and at length he very good-naturedly conceded
_eighteen_."

[Illustration: Gun Guard.]

The pieces thus borrowed were eighteen pounders, all in excellent order
and well mounted on suitable carriages. They were soon transported to
Philadelphia and set up in their places on the battery, where they
remained while the war lasted. A company was organized to mount guard
there by day and night. Franklin himself was one of this guard, and he
regularly performed his duty as a common soldier, in rotation with the
rest. In fact, one secret of the great ascendency which he acquired at
this time over all those who were in any way connected with him, was the
unassuming and unpretending spirit which he manifested. He never sought to
appropriate to himself the credit