our peril if you do
not. The meeting is composed of three thousand people. They are
impatient. One thousand men have arrived from the surrounding towns.
The country is in motion. The people expect an immediate answer."

A whiteness came into the face of the lieutenant-governor. His hands
began to tremble. One hundred years before, the people in their
majesty and might had put Edmund Andros in prison. Might they not do
the same with him?

"What shall be done?" he asked of the council, with trembling lips.

"It is not such people as injured your house who are asking you
to remove the troops," said Councilman Tyler; "they are the best
people of the town, men of property, supporters of religion. It is
impossible, your excellency, for the troops to remain. If they do
not go, ten thousand armed men will soon be here."

"Men will soon be here from Essex and Middlesex," said Councilman
Bussell of Charlestown.

"Yes, and from Worcester and Connecticut," said Mr. Dexter of Dedham.

Every member said the same, and advised their removal. Colonel
Dalrymple had consented that the regiment which began the disturbance
should leave, but it would be very humiliating if all the troops were
to go. The instructions from the king had put the military as superior
to the civil authority.

"I cannot consent, your excellency, voluntarily to remove all the
troops," said Dalrymple.

"You have asked the advice of the council," said Councilman Gray to
Hutchinson; "it has been given; you are bound to conform to it."

Robert felt it was a home-thrust that Councilman Gray gave, who said
further:--

"If mischief shall come, your excellency, by means of your not doing
what the council has advised, you alone must bear the blame. If the
commanding officer after that should refuse to remove the troops, the
blame then will be at his door!"

"I will do what the council has advised," said Hutchinson.

"I shall obey the command of your excellency," said Dalrymple.

The victory was won. "The lobsters have got to go," the shout that
went up in the Old South, when Mr. Adams informed the people.

Very galling it was to the king's troops to hear the drums of the
citizens beating, and to see armed men patrolling the streets, while
they were packing their equipments. It was exasperating to be cooped
up in Fort William, with no opportunity to roam the streets, insult
the people, drink toddy in the tap-rooms of the Tun and Bacchus and
the White Horse t