mpanies of militia
and a battery of artillery were hastily formed. Franklin became a
military man once more and superintended the preparations. On all sides
the Quakers were enlisting; they had become accustomed to war; and this
legitimate chance to shoot a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian was too much for
the strongest scruples of their religion. It was a long time, however,
before they heard the end of this zeal; and in the pamphlet war which
followed they were accused of clamorously rushing to arms and demanding
to be led against the enemy.

It is amusing now to read about it in the old records. But it was
serious enough at the time. When the Scotch-Irish army reached the
Schuylkill River and found the fords leading to the city guarded, they
were not quite so enthusiastic about killing Quakers and Indians. They
went up the river some fifteen miles, crossed by an unopposed ford, and
halted in Germantown ten miles north of Philadelphia. That was as far as
they thought it safe to venture. Several days passed, during which the
city people continued their preparations and expected every night to be
attacked. There were, indeed, several false alarms. Whenever the alarm
was sounded at night, every one placed candles in his windows to light
up the streets. One night when it rained the soldiers were allowed
to shelter themselves in a Quaker meeting house, which for some hours
bristled with bayonets and swords, an incident of which the Presbyterian
pamphleteers afterwards made much use for satire. On another day all the
cannon were fired to let the enemy know what was in store for him.

Finally commissioners with the clever, genial Franklin at their head,
went out to Germantown to negotiate, and soon had the whole mighty
difference composed. The Scotch-Irish stated their grievances. The
Moravian Indians ought not to be protected by the government, and all
such Indians should be removed from the colony; the men who killed
the Conestoga Indians should be tried where the supposed offense was
committed and not in Philadelphia; the five frontier counties had
only ten representatives in the Assembly while the three others had
twenty-six--this should be remedied; men wounded in border war should be
cared for at public expense; no trade should be carried on with hostile
Indians until they restored prisoners; and there should be a bounty on
scalps.

While these negotiations were proceeding, some of the Scotch-Irish
amused themselves by pra