as parading, waiting for the Marines, who in
turn waited for their absent commander. Thousands of people were in the
street, and even the schoolboys were running about, for Master Lovell
had dismissed his school with the words, "War's begun, and school's
done." Through the day came conflicting rumors. "About twelve o'clock
it was gave out by the General's Aide camps that no person was kill'd,
and that a single gun had not been fir'd, which report was variously
believ'd."[71] Fairly correct accounts of the fight at Lexington began
to come in, embellished with the addition that men had been killed in
the meeting-house. In the afternoon people began to watch from the hills
for the return of the troops, and before sunset the noise of firing was
heard.

Of the three British commanders, Lord Percy was the only one who
displayed any military ability. He showed it in the route which he chose
for his retreat. From Cambridge Common, where at last he arrived, the
road to Boston was long, and was broken by the bridge whose difficult
passage in the morning he remembered. Therefore he avoided it--and
wisely, for the planks of the bridge were up again, and this time in use
as barricades, while the militia were ready for him. Instead, Percy
shook off many of his waylayers, and saved some miles of march, by
taking the direct road to Charlestown. Yet even this route was hard
beset. "I stood upon the hills in town," says Andrews, "and saw the
engagement very plain." Many a Whig exulted as he watched, many a Tory
cursed, at the sight of the weary regulars struggling forward, and of
red figures that dropped and lay still. Percy was barely in time. Had
the men of Essex, whose strong regiment arrived just too late, been
quick enough to intercept them, and resolute enough to throw themselves
across the retreat, it is more than likely that Percy must have
surrendered, for his ammunition was almost gone. The exasperation of the
Americans at losing their prey was later expressed in a court-martial of
the Essex colonel. At any rate, Percy was not headed, and the regulars
at last streamed across Charlestown Neck, to find protection under the
guns of the fleet.

"Thus," grumbles Lieutenant Barker, "ended this expedition, which from
beginning to end was as ill plan'd and ill executed as it was possible
to be.... For a few trifling Stores the Grenadiers and Light Infantry
had a march of about 50 miles (going and returning) and in all human
probabili