n of Newport again gave evidence
of the growth of the revolutionary spirit. This time the good old
British custom of procuring sailors for the king's ships by a system
of kidnapping, commonly known as impressment, was the cause of the
outbreak. For some months the British man-of-war "Maidstone" lay in
the harbor of Newport, idly tugging at her anchors. It was a period of
peace, and her officers had nothing to occupy their attention.
Therefore they devoted themselves to increasing the crew of the vessel
by means of raids upon the taverns along the water-front of the city.

The seafaring men of Newport knew little peace while the "Maidstone"
was in port. The king's service was the dread of every sailor; and,
with the press-gang nightly walking the streets, no sailor could feel
secure. All knew the life led by the sailors on the king's ships.
Those were the days when the cat-o'-nine-tails flourished, and the
command of a beardless bit of a midshipmen was enough to send a poor
fellow to the gratings, to have his back cut to pieces by the
merciless lash. The Yankee sailors had little liking for this phase of
sea-life, and they gave the men-of-war a wide berth.

Often it happened, however, that a party of jolly mariners sitting
over their pipes and grog in the snug parlor of some seashore tavern,
spinning yarns of the service they had seen on the gun-decks of his
Majesty's ships, or of shipwreck and adventure in the merchant
service, would start up and listen in affright, as the measured tramp
of a body of men came up the street. Then came the heavy blow on the
door.

"Open in the king's name," shouts a gruff voice outside; and the
entrapped sailors, overturning the lights, spring for doors and
windows, in vain attempts to escape the fate in store for them. The
press-gang seldom returned to the ship empty handed, and the luckless
tar who once fell into their clutches was wise to accept his capture
good-naturedly; for the bos'n's cat was the remedy commonly prescribed
for sulkiness.

As long as the "Maidstone" lay in the harbor of Newport, raids such as
this were of common occurrence. The people of the city grumbled a
little; but it was the king's will, and none dared oppose it. The
wives and sweethearts of the kidnapped sailors shed many a bitter tear
over the disappearance of their husbands and lovers; but what were the
tears of women to King George? And so the press-gang of the
"Maidstone" might have continued to enjoy