s narrowly averted when the
governor paid for the powder. In Massachusetts fighting continued and the
British were soon penned up in Boston, surrounded by 13,000 ill-armed but
determined New Englanders. In both places the situation was clear
enough--the colonists were armed and prepared to fight to defend their
rights.

Small wonder then that Lord Dunmore worried over the gunpowder in the
Williamsburg magazine. On the night of April 20-21 marines from the
H.M.S. Magdalene stealthily carried away the powder. Dunmore
coyly suggested he had ordered the powder removed for safekeeping to
prevent a rumored slave insurrection. Although his lame excuse fooled
no one, quiet returned to Williamsburg after a brief flurry of
excitement and marches to the Governor's Palace by the Williamsburg
independent company.

The Powder Magazine Raid might have come to nothing if word of the
Lexington-Concord attacks had not arrived. This news first reached
Virginia by rider on April 29. Gage's raid on the Lexington-Concord
magazines and Dunmore's seizure of the Williamsburg powder seemed too
coincidental for Patrick Henry and 300 militiamen from Hanover and
surrounding counties. Henry, who always fancied himself a general, led
his men from Newcastle on May 2 toward Williamsburg. Dunmore sent Lady
Dunmore and their children to the H.M.S. Fowey at Yorktown and
garrisoned the palace in anticipation of attack. Fighting was averted
when Henry's troops reached Richard Corbin's house in King and Queen
County and demanded that Corbin's wife pay for the powder from her
husband's funds. Corbin, the receiver-general of royal customs, was away.
Upon hearing about the demand he sent a secured note for L300 which Henry
finally accepted for the powder. With that the militiamen returned to
Hanover.

Conditions were peaceful enough for Dunmore to call the General Assembly
into session on June 1 to consider Lord North's plan of reconciliation.
The House of Burgesses ignored the plan and concentrated on routine
business. On June 5 the house appointed a committee to examine the powder
magazine, because, they said with tongue-in-cheek, they had heard it had
been burglarized. Dunmore vacillated, first agreeing, then disagreeing to
allow the burgesses in. Finally he gave them the key. Then in
consternation, for he feared seizure by the colonials, he took refuge on
the Fowey. Despite pleas from the assembly, Dunmore, who was still
a reasonably popular man, refuse