ore had
taken the locks off from most of the guns in the magazine, and that he
intended to remove the powder. The people of the town were alarmed, and
the volunteers for several nights kept guard over the magazine; at
length growing negligent, and disbelieving the report, on Thursday night
the guard was discharged at an early hour. Thus Collins with his party,
who had been secreted in the palace, seized the powder without
opposition. Dunmore, anticipating the resentment of the people, armed
his servants and some Shawnee hostages, and muskets were laid on the
floor, loaded and primed, and the captains of the ships of war lying at
York were ordered to have in readiness an armed force for the defence of
the palace. As soon as these proceedings became known, the Williamsburg
volunteers flew to arms, and were with difficulty restrained by Peyton
Randolph and Robert C. Nicholas from assaulting the palace and seizing
the governor. The authorities of the town, in accordance with a
resolution of a meeting of the people, solicited the governor to restore
the powder immediately, urging among other reasons which demanded it,
the apprehension of a servile war, instigated by "wicked and designing
men." Dunmore, in his reply, pretended that he had removed the powder
from the magazine as being an insecure place in case of such an
insurrection;[608:A] declared that it should be returned as soon as it
should appear that the precaution was unnecessary; that in case of an
insurrection he would, upon his honor, return it in half an hour; but he
expressed his surprise that the people were under arms, and said that he
should not deem it prudent to put powder into their hands under such
circumstances. The reply was considered evasive and false. When he had
first heard that the people were in arms, he swore, "by the living God,"
that if any violence should be offered to him, or to the officers who
had acted under his directions, he would proclaim freedom to the slaves,
and lay the town in ashes. Some of the citizens, in consequence of this
threat, sent their wives and children into the country.

The citizens of Williamsburg resolved unanimously to continue their
contributions for the relief of the inhabitants of Boston. Intelligence
of these occurrences at the capital soon spread through the country.
More than six hundred volunteers met at Fredericksburg by the
twenty-seventh of April, and were ready to march to Williamsburg.
Gloucester and Hen