With hot sweeping anger, came the horse-guards' clangor On our flanks. Then higher, higher, higher, burned the old-fash 4. ioned fire Through the ranks ! Then the old-fashioned colonel Galloped through the white, infernal And his broad sword was swinging, Then the blue And the trooper-jackets redden at the touch of the leaden Rifle-breath! And rounder, rounder, rounder, roared the iron six pounder Hurling death! 1. Regimental, yielding, grenadier, lunging, encampment, rampant, horizontal, amain, cannoneers, villainous, saltpeter, discordant, clangor, brazen, hurling. Who were the files of the 2. Who were the Continentals? Isles"? What was their banner? redly," "battle-breakers," "red St. George's cannoneers,' rifle breath." 99 66 LXXIV. THE GRAY CHAMPION. PART I. 1. There was once a time when New England groaned under the actual pressure of heavier wrongs than those threatened ones which brought on the Revolution. James II., the bigoted successor of Charles the Voluptuous, had annulled the charters of all the colonies, and sent a harsh and unprincipled soldier to take away our liberties and endanger our religion. 2. The administration of Sir Edmund Andros lacked scarcely a single characteristic of tyranny: a Governor and Council, holding office from the King, and wholly independent of the country; laws made and taxes levied without concurrence of the people, immediate or by their representatives; the rights of private citizens violated, and the titles of all landed property declared void; the voice of complaint stifled by restrictions on the press; and, finally, disaffection overawed by the first band of mercenary troops that ever marched on our free soil. 3. At length a rumor reached our shores, that the Prince of Orange had ventured on an enterprise, the success of which would be the triumph of civil and religious rights and the salvation of New England. It was but a doubtful whisper; it might be false, or the attempt might fail; and, in either case, the man that stirred against King James would lose his head. Still the intelligence produced a marked effect. One afternoon in April, 1689, Sir Edmund Andros and his favorite councilors assembled the red-coats of the Governor's Guard, and made their appearance in the streets of Boston. 4. A multitude, by various avenues, assembled in King Street, which was destined to be the scene, nearly a century afterward, of another encounter between the troops of Britain and a people struggling against her tyranny. Though more than sixty years had elapsed since the Pilgrims came, this crowd of their descendants still showed the strong and somber features of their character, perhaps more strikingly in such a stern emergency than on happier occasions. 5. There was the sober garb, the general severity of mien, the gloomy but undismayed expression, the scriptural forms of speech, and the confidence in Heaven's blessing on a righteous cause, which would have marked a band of the original Puritans when threatened by some peril of the wilderness. Indeed, it was not yet time for the old spirit to be extinct; since there were men in the street, that day, who had worshiped there beneath the trees, before a house was reared to the God for whom they had become exiles. Old soldiers of the Parliament were here, too, smiling grimly at the thought that their aged arms might strike another blow against the house of Stuart. 6. "O Lord of Hosts!" cried a voice among the crowd, "provide a Champion for thy people!" This ejaculation was loudly uttered, and served as a herald's cry to introduce a remarkable personage. The crowd rolled back, and were now huddled together nearly at the extremity of the street, while the soldiers had advanced no more than a third of its length. The intervening space was empty-a paved solitude between lofty edifices, which threw almost a twilight shadow over it. 7. Suddenly there was seen the figure of an ancient man, who seemed to have emerged from among the people, and was walking by himself along the center of the street to confront the armed band. He wore the old Puritan dress, a dark cloak and a steeple-crowned hat, in the fashion of at least fifty years before, with a heavy sword upon his thigh, but a staff in his hand to assist the tremulous gait of age. 8. When at some distance from the multitude the old man turned slowly around, displaying a face of antique majesty, rendered doubly venerable by the hoary beard that descended on his breast. He made a gesture at once of encouragement and warning, and then turned again and resumed his way. 9. "Who is this gray young men of their sires. patriarch?" asked the "Who is this venerable brother?" asked the old men among themselves. But none could make reply. "Whence did he come? What is his purpose? Who can this old man be?" whispered the wondering crowd. 10. Meanwhile, the venerable stranger, staff in hand, was pursuing his solitary walk along the center of the street. As he drew near the advancing soldiers, and as the roll of their drunı came full upon his ear, the old man raised himself to a loftier mien, while the decrepitude of age seemed to fall from his shoulders, leaving him in gray but unbroken dignity. Now he marched onward with a warrior's step, keeping time to the military music. Thus the aged form advanced on one side, and the whole parade of soldiers and magistrates on the other, till, when scarcely twenty yards remained between, the old man grasped his staff by the middle, and held it before him like a leader's truncheon. 11. "Stand!" cried he. The eye, the face, and the attitude of command; the solemn yet warlike peal of that voice, fit either to rule a host in the battlefield or to be raised to God in prayer, were irresistible. At the old man's word and outstretched arm, the roll of the drum was hushed at once, and the advancing line stood still. A tremulous enthu |