th the wildest demonstrations of joy. A few
weeks later a long, lumbering train of wagons, laden with military
stores captured on the sea, came into camp. Washington had been forced
to send out cruisers, by the action of General Gage in arming vessels to
capture supplies along the American coast. One of his cruisers captured
a brigantine ladened with munitions of war,--two thousand stand of arms,
one hundred thousand flints, thirty thousand round shot, and thirty-two
tons musket balls,--which were taken into Cape Ann, and transported from
thence on wagons to Cambridge.

In this way, as well as by the action of Congress and the Provincial
Legislatures, the army of Washington was strengthened and equipped. The
British were so thoroughly entrenched in Boston, and their army so well
disciplined and powerful, that it would have been foolhardy for
Washington to attack them; besides, an attack would have resulted in
burning the city and sacrificing the lives of many friends who lived
there.

"British officers must understand that men fighting for their country
are patriots, and not malefactors," remarked Washington to Mr. Reed, his
secretary. "Cruelty to prisoners anyway is contrary to all the rules of
civilized warfare."

"Well, we are 'rebels,' you know," replied Reed sarcastically, "and
General Gage thinks that 'rebels' have no claim upon his clemency."

"Cruelty to prisoners is not confined to General Gage," responded
Washington. "There is no doubt that the king holds Allen [Ethan] in
irons, and his fellow-captives, which is treating prisoners of war as
savages do."

Ethan Allen was the famous patriot who led two hundred and thirty men
against Fort Ticonderoga, and captured it in May, 1775. He surprised the
commander, and demanded an immediate surrender.

"By whose authority do you make this demand?" inquired the officer in
charge.

"In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!" shouted
Allen.

He was captured by General Prescott in Canada.

"Were the king's forces in Boston to sally forth and conquer our army,
the rules of civilized warfare would be of no account to them, I am
thinking;" suggested Mr. Reed. "It behooves us to keep out of their
clutches, or die in the attempt."

The cruelty of British officers to prisoners was the subject of frequent
discussion between Washington and his advisers, and finally he wrote to
General Gage as follows:

"I understand that the officers engaged in t