ring towns, on receiving information of any movements of the
British troops."[58] A watch was kept upon the British movements; and
finally, when, on the 15th, Warren sent Paul Revere from Boston with
warning of suspicious movements, the Committee felt that soon Gage must
strike. On the 18th it ordered the removal of some of the stores. "That
very night," says Tolman, without knowledge of affairs in Boston, the
work was begun.

Meanwhile, in response to another vote of the committee, the British had
been under close observation. The vote was that "members of this
Committee belonging to the towns of Charlestown, Cambridge, and Roxbury,
be required at the Province expense to procure at least two men for a
watch every night to be placed in each of these towns, and that said
members be in readiness to send couriers forward to the towns where the
magazines are placed, when sallies are made by the army by night." In
view of these preparations, it scarcely needs to be said that there was
nothing accidental about Concord fight. Some day Gage was bound to
strike at Concord, and for that day the Whigs were ready.

It is now that Paul Revere comes prominently into the course of events.
Revere was a Boston craftsman of Huguenot descent, who was and is well
known as a silversmith, engraver, and cartoonist. His prints and
articles of silverware sell to-day for high prices, and his house in
North Square has recently been fitted up as a public museum, chiefly on
account of a single act at a critical moment. One is glad to know,
however, that Revere's fame is not accidental. His pictures are
historically interesting; we should be the poorer without his prints
which give views of Boston, and without his picture of the Massacre. His
silver--we have mentioned his punch-bowl for the "immortal
Ninety-two"--is usually beautiful. From the foundry which he established
later in life came cannon, and church-bells which are in use to-day. And
finally his famous ride, the object of which would have been brought
about had Revere been stopped at the outset, was but one out of many.

[Illustration: REVERE'S PICTURE OF BOSTON IN 1768.]

"In the year 1773," says Revere of himself,[59] "I was employed by the
selectmen of the town of Boston to carry the account of the Destruction
of the Tea to New York, and afterwards, 1774, to carry their despatches
to New York and Philadelphia for calling a Congress; and afterwards to
Congress several times." Revere d