outcome lay in the hands of the fighting men.

Revere waited at Mr. Clark's house for about half an hour, when Dawes
arrived. The two then set out for Concord, and were joined on the way by
"a young Dr. Prescott, whom we found to be a high son of liberty."[61]
They began to rouse the farmers along the road, and had already gone
halfway when they saw in the road horsemen whom Revere knew at once to
be British officers. Revere and Prescott, blocked in front and rear,
turned into a pasture; but this was a trap where other officers were
waiting. Prescott, knowing the country, put his horse at a fence and got
away; Revere found himself surrounded by six horsemen who, with swords
and pistols ready, ordered him to dismount. There was nothing for him to
do but comply. Dawes, who had been behind upon the road, turned to go
back, and was pursued. He rode into a farmyard, shouted out as to
friends in waiting, and frightened off his pursuers. Both he and
Prescott were useful in spreading the alarm farther.

But Revere was caught. His chief captor examined him, and got slight
satisfaction. "I told him, and added that their troops had catched
aground in passing the river and that there would be five hundred
Americans there in a short time, for I had alarmed the country all the
way up." His anxious captors consulted together, and were conducting him
back toward Lexington, "when the militia fired a volley of guns, which
seemed to alarm them very much." They asked if there were any other road
to Cambridge, took Revere's horse, and left him. He hurried back to
Lexington, to give Hancock and Adams the news that sent them on their
way. Revere himself remained long enough to save a trunk of papers
belonging to Hancock.

Meanwhile the militia of the town, alarmed by Revere, assembled and
waited for the troops. They sent two messengers toward Cambridge to
bring certain news, but each of these blundered into the advancing
regulars, and were seized and held. The militia waited for some hours,
but on hearing no word they were finally dismissed, with a warning to be
ready to come together again instantly. Some went to their homes, some
to the near-by tavern, to finish out the night.

News came at last to Captain Parker that the British were scarcely a
mile away, and in such numbers that his company could not hope to oppose
them. He called his men together, nevertheless, "but only with a view to
determine what to do, when and where to meet, an