was buzzing enough in the
morning when it was discovered what Lord Dunmore had done. The minute
men of the town were for marching to Dunmore's house and seizing him,
but cooler heads prevailed.

The two boys had spent the previous day looking over the capital and
visiting the college at the other end of the one long street, three
quarters of a mile distant. They lodged at the famous Raleigh Tavern,
which had sheltered the most prominent men of the day, and so were
right in the midst of the hubbub when the excitement began. Out in the
street they watched the people assemble and listened to the talk.
When some one proposed marching on the "palace," a tipsy fellow cried
out, "You jes' th' feller t' go."

Then when another bystander interfered and tried to take him away, he
began to struggle, and was being roughly handled when a fat, pompous
man bristled up, saying, "Treat him kindly."

At that moment the drunken man, swinging his arms about wildly, struck
the pompous man on the head, knocking his old three-cornered hat into
the dust.

The change in the fat philanthropist was marvellous, for he jumped up
and down crying, "Kill him, kill him."

The crowd laughed. A man came running toward them saying, "They've
sent for Patrick Henry."

"I'll see him, after all," exclaimed Angus.

"I've got a message for him, so we had better ride to his home in New
Castle. We may meet him," Rodney replied.

"I want to see him and I want to see the fun."

"Want to keep your cake and eat it too," replied Rodney.

Just then a report spread through the crowd that Dunmore had seized
the powder for the purpose of sending it to another county where he
feared there would be an uprising of the blacks.

"We're likely to have one of our own," exclaimed a bystander.

An old woman, somewhat deaf, cried, "The blacks are risin'! I knowed
it. I didn't dream of snakes fer nothin'."

"If I had your imagination, Granny Snodgrass, I'd make molasses taffy
out o' moonshine," remarked a pert miss.

"Looks to me, Angus, as though these people were going to do their
fighting with their tongues," said Rodney. "So let's get away to New
Castle."

When they reached New Castle, late the next day, they found Mr. Henry
busy assembling the volunteers for a march on Williamsburg to demand
return of the powder, also to see to it that Dunmore did not take the
money in the colonial treasury. These men were called "gentlemen
independents of Hanover," and the