e, and
complained to the Americans. The retort was that the British themselves
had already been tempting sentries to desert. This deserting did go on
throughout the siege, from either side, though it would seem as if more
of the British fled from their service. Into whichever lines they went,
the deserters always brought highly colored tales to buy their welcome.
The leaders very soon learned how little reliance could be placed upon
such information. "We ought not to catch at such shadows as that. We
have nothing under God to depend upon, but our own strength."[131]

If the British private was discontented, that was his habit; and though
the officers grumbled as well, they had comparatively little to complain
of. To be sure, the food was coarse, but it was plentiful. Even the
unaccustomed heat would seem comfortable to a Bostonian of to-day. The
marine officers had more pleasant conditions, with their open ports and
harbor breezes, and decks frequently sluiced with water. But the town
itself had no tall buildings or confined spaces; generally speaking, it
was open from water to water, with plentiful shade. Boston in 1775 must
have been as cool as its own summer resorts of the twentieth century.

The Tories, at least, found it bearable. They were accustomed to the
summer heat, and knew themselves much better off than the unfortunate
members of their party who had been unable to escape to the British
lines. Many of the country Tories were confined to their estates, and
forbidden to communicate with each other. "I wish to God," wrote Samuel
Paine, "all our friends were here out of the hands of such Villains."
Compared with such treatment, serenades by thirteen-inch mortars and
twenty-four pounders were apparently trifling--though the ladies did not
think so. One, writing of the skirmish on the night of July 30, spoke of
the "most dreadful cannonading," and "the apprehensions that naturally
seize every one, either of the enemy breaking in, or the town being set
on fire."[132] Even Samuel Paine saw the serious side of the situation.
"These," he asks, "are Governor Hutchinson's countrymen that would not
fight, are they?"

It was because he realized that fight they would, "and like the devil,"
that he and others considered enlisting in the various corps which were
organized in the town. According to Frothingham, who could find no
statistics of the numbers of Tory volunteers, there were at least three
corps formed: the Loyal