sed to buy silk
and broadcloth that were sent from England. Tea and coffee, being
imports, were not drunk, and in their place were used preparations made
from fragrant wild herbs of the American soil.

The merchants who had assembled in the coffee-house were called the
Non-Importation Association, branches of which spread throughout all the
colonies. The paper they signed was the non-importation agreement. Next
day, which was the first on which the stamps were to be distributed, the
city seemed to sleep. The shops were closed and the citizens remained
indoors. The flags were hung at half-mast and the bells tolled dismally.

But at night the silence changed to noise. The citizens gathered in
numbers. They broke into the stable of Lieutenant-Governor Cadwallader
Golden and dragged out his coach of state. In it they put a figure made
of sticks and rags to represent the owner. They marched the streets,
shouting as they went, and finally surrounded the fort. The soldiers
were drawn up on the ramparts with cannon and gun directed toward the
Bowling Green. But no shots were fired. The rioters being denied
admission to the fort, into which they were anxious to get because the
stamps were stored there, tore down the wooden railing around the
Bowling Green, and, kindling a huge fire, burned the coach and the
figure in it.

As the flames blazed high, the fury of the mob increased. They rushed
away toward Vauxhall on the outskirts of the town (where Greenwich and
Warren Streets now cross). Vauxhall at this time was occupied by a major
of the British army named James. He had said that the stamps ought to be
crammed down the throats of the people with the point of a sword. In
revenge for this his house was broken into, his handsome furniture, his
pictures and treasures of every sort dragged out, and kindled into a
bonfire around which the mob danced and howled.

The people were quite determined to take the law into their own hands
and destroy every trace of the hated stamps. You shall know presently
what prevented them.

CHAPTER XXI

THE BEGINNING of REVOLUTION

On the morning after the night of rioting--dark and dreary day that was
quite in keeping with the gloomy feelings of the people--Cadwallader
Colden, the Lieutenant-Governor, decided that he would do away with the
stamps that had caused so much trouble. So he had them delivered to the
Mayor, who was in accord with the citizens, and the Mayor put them in
the Ci