Yet he was not eager to rouse the colonists to hostility. It
was his purpose to surprise the patriots and capture the
stores before a party could be gathered to their defence.
This was the meaning of the stealthy midnight movement of
the troops. But the patriot leaders in Boston were too
watchful to be easily deceived; they had their means of
obtaining information, and the profound secret of the
British general was known to them before the evening had far
advanced.

About nine o'clock Lord Percy, one of the British officers,
crossed the Common, and in doing so noticed a group of
persons in eager chat. He joined these, curious to learn the
subject of their conversation. The first words he heard
filled him with alarm.

"The British troops will miss their aim," said a garrulous
talker.

"What aim?" asked Percy.

"The cannon at Concord," was the reply.

Percy, who was in Gage's confidence, hastened to the
head-quarters of the commanding general and informed him of
what he had overheard. Gage, startled to learn that his
guarded secret was already town's talk, at once set guards
on all the avenues leading from the town, with orders to
arrest every person who should attempt to leave, while the
squad of officers of whom we have spoken were sent forward
to patrol the roads.

But the patriots were too keen-witted to be so easily
checked in their plans. Samuel Adams and John Hancock, the
patriot leaders, fearing arrest, had left town, and were
then at Lexington at the house of the Rev. Jonas Clarke.
Paul Revere had been sent to Charlestown by the patriotic
Dr. Warren, with orders to take to the road the moment the
signal lights in the belfry of the old North Church should
appear. These lights would indicate that the troops were on
the road. We have seen how promptly he obeyed, and how
narrowly he escaped capture by General Gages' guards.

On he went, mile by mile, rattling down the Medford Road. At
every wayside house he stopped, knocked furiously at the
door, and, as the startled inmates came hastily to the
windows, shouted, "Up! up! the regulars are coming!" and
before his sleepy auditors could fairly grasp his meaning,
was away again.

It was about midnight when the British troops left Boston,
on their supposed secret march. At a little after the same
hour the rattling sound of hoofs broke the quiet of the
dusky streets of Lexington, thirteen miles away.

Around the house of the Rev. Mr. Clarke eight minute-