That evening, at ten o'clock, eight hundred British troops, under

Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, took boat at the foot of the Common and crossed to the

Cambridge shore. Gage thought his secret had been kept, but Lord Percy, who had

heard the people say on the Common that the troops would miss their aim,

undeceived him. Gage instantly ordered that no one should leave the town. But as

the troops crossed the river, Ebenezer Dorr, with a message to Hancock and

Adams, was riding over the Neck to Roxbury, and Paul Revere was rowing over the

river to Charlestown, having agreed with his friend, Robert Newman, to show

lanterns from the belfry of the Old North Church--"One if by land, and two if by

sea"--as a signal of the march of the British.

 

The following, from the same oration, beautifully mingles description with

narration:

 

It was a brilliant night. The winter had been unusually mild, and the spring

very forward. The hills were already green. The early grain waved in the fields,

and the air was sweet with the blossoming orchards. Already the robins whistled,

the bluebirds sang, and the benediction of peace rested upon the landscape.

Under the cloudless moon the soldiers silently marched, and Paul Revere swiftly

rode, galloping through Medford and West Cambridge, rousing every house as he

went spurring for Lexington and Hancock and Adams, and evading the British

patrols who had been sent out to stop the news.

 

In the succeeding extract from another of Mr. Curtis's addresses, we have a free