Battery,
had been confirmed by two Swiss deserters, and that place was now almost
untenable under a galling fire. The Circular Battery, built to protect
the entrance to the city, was little better than a mass of ruins, while
the fire that morning from Pepperell's fascine batteries was so hot that
the enemy could not stand to their guns. Land and sea trembled with the
shock of the cannonade. In the midst of all this Warren came ashore. The
troops were drawn up as if for parade, and the Commodore addressed them
in a few spirited words which stirred their devotion to the flag under
which they were fighting. Then Pepperell stepped forward and swept his
keen eyes along the ranks of the men. He had a knowledge of them and an
interest in them that Warren could not even understand. To the
Englishman they were so many soldiers eager to uphold the honor of the
British nation, and he was proud of them. But Pepperell saw the forests
to be hewn, the fields to be reclaimed from the wilderness, the cities
yet unbuilded. He saw the life, great, though half its greatness was not
dreamed of, that was to pour in through this gate which to-day's work
was to open. For, not only that fear and hatred of Popery which marked
his age, but, already, that American love of liberty, to which
priestcraft is so inimical, burned within him. A touch of Winkelried's
fervor kindled his eye. If into his breast, and into the breasts of his
comrades, the bayonets of the enemy were to be planted, yet should a way
be made for his countrymen.

"Soldiers," he said, "some of you fellow-citizens, and all of you
fellow-workers in a great cause, I have no fear of you. I have good
reason to know your persistence, and your undaunted courage. Our mother
England needs us to-day. She has not demanded this work of us, for she
has thought of us as children. Shall she find us grown to brawny
manhood?" A deafening cheer rolled from rank to rank to answer him.
"Foes assail her, and the enemy's hand is at her throat. Have we the
glorious privilege of striking it down? Yes! To-day." Again cheer on
cheer burst from the ranks, and rose above the roar of the cannon.
"Then, let us spring to our work with nerves of steel, and arms of iron,
and hearts of oak, like our ships that outride the storm, like our trees
that laugh at the gale. But, look! it is we who command the gale, for it
is our cannon that thunder. The enemy's--they are faint and fainter in
reply. Their gates are broken