"kept our order and returned their
fire as hot as we received it, but when we arrived within a mile of
Lexington, our ammunition began to fail, and the light companies were so
fatigued with flanking they were scarce able to act, and a great number
of wounded scarce able to get forward, made a great confusion; Col.
Smith (our commanding officer) had received a wound through his leg, a
number of officers were also wounded, so that we began to run rather
than retreat in order.... At last, after we got through Lexington, the
officers got to the front and presented their bayonets, and told the men
that if they advanced they should die: Upon this they began to form
under a heavy fire." There was, however, no hope for them unless they
should be reinforced.

In the nick of time the succor came. Early in the morning Gage had
received word that the country was alarmed, and started to send out
reinforcements. There were the usual delays; among other mistakes, they
waited for Pitcairn, who was with the first detachment. The relief party
as finally made up comprised about twelve hundred men, with two
six-pounder field-pieces, under Lord Percy. Percy went out through
Roxbury with his band playing Yankee Doodle, and as he went a
quick-witted lad reminded him of Chevy Chase. More than once before
night Percy must have thought of the Whig youngster. He was momentarily
delayed at the Cambridge bridge, where the Committee of Safety had taken
up the planks, but had frugally stored them in full view of the road.
Percy relaid some of the planks and hurried on with his guns, leaving
behind his baggage train and hospital supplies, which were presently
captured by a company headed by a warlike minister. Percy was again
delayed on Cambridge Common for want of a guide; when again he was able
to push on he spared no time, and reached Lexington at the critical
moment. He formed his men into a hollow square, to protect Smith's
exhausted men, who threw themselves down on the ground, "their tongues
hanging out of their mouths like those of dogs after a chase."[69] Percy
turned on the militia his two field-pieces, "which our people," grimly
remarks Mr. Clark, writing after Bunker Hill, "were not so well
acquainted with then, as they have been since." Percy had the
satisfaction, which both Berniere and Barker express, of silencing the
provincials.

He knew too well, however, that the Americans were willing to be quiet
only because they awaited their