given in
chapter VIII. It was the expression of sympathy by the people in
following the body of the murdered boy from the Liberty Tree to the
burial-place that intensified the antagonism between the citizens and
the soldiers of the Fourteenth and Twenty-ninth regiments of the
king's troops, which led, the following week, to the Massacre of March
5, 1770. Bancroft barely mentions the name of Snider; other historians
make no account of the event.

To explain the motives and the play of forces which brought about the
Revolution, I have endeavored to set forth society as it was not only
in Boston but in Parliament and at the Court of George III. Most
historians of the Revolutionary period regard the debt incurred by
Great Britain in the conquest of Canada as the chief cause of the war,
through the attempt of the mother country, subsequently, to obtain
revenue from the Colonies; but a study of the times gives conclusive
evidence that a large portion of the indebtedness was caused by
mismanagement and the venality and corruption of Parliament.

To set forth the extravagance and frivolity of society surrounding
King George, I have employed Lord Upperton and his companion, Mr.
Dapper, as narrators. The student of history by turning to Jessee's
"Life and Times of George III.," Molloy's "Court Life Below Stairs,"
Waldegrave's "Memoirs," Horace Walpole's writings, and many other
volumes, will find ample corroboration of any statement made in this
volume.

The period was characterized by sublime enthusiasm, self-sacrifice,
and devotion, not only by the patriots but by loyalists who
conscientiously adhered to the crown. In our admiration of those who
secured the independence of the Colonies, we have overlooked the
sacrifices and sufferings of the loyalists;--their distress during the
siege of Boston, the agony of the hour when suddenly confronted with
the appalling fact that they must become aliens, exiles, and
wanderers, leaving behind all their possessions and estates,--an hour
when there was a sundering of tender ties, the breaking of hearts.

I have endeavored to make the recital of events strictly conformable
with historic facts by consulting newspapers, documents, almanacs,
diaries, genealogical records, and family histories.

It was my great privilege in boyhood to hear the story of the
battle of Bunker Hill told by three men who participated in the
fight.--Eliakim Walker, who was in the redoubt under Prescott,
Nathani