d left
his wife and daughter. The latter was persuaded to seek safety in
Burlington; but Mrs. Franklin, with admirable courage, stayed in the
house till the danger was over. Some armed friends stood ready to assist
if the crisis should come, but fortunately it passed by. All sorts of
stories were spread concerning Franklin,--even that it was he who had
"_planned_ the Stamp Act;" and that he was endeavoring also to get the
Test Act introduced into the colonies! A caricature represented the
devil whispering into his ear: "Ben, you shall be my agent throughout my
dominions."

Knowing Franklin's frame of mind, it is easy to fancy the surprise with
which he learned of the spirit which had blazed forth in the colonies,
and of the violent doings in many places; and we may imagine the pain
and mortification with which he heard of the opinions expressed by his
fellow citizens concerning his own action. He said little at the time,
so far as we know; but many years afterwards he gave a narrative of his
course in language which was almost apologetic and deprecatory. A pen in
his fingers became a sympathetic instrument, and betrays sometimes what
his moderate language does not distinctly state. The intense, bitter
condemnation vented by his constituents, who so lately had been
following his lead, but who now reviled a representative who had
misrepresented them in so vital an affair, cut its way deep.

The gap between him and them did indeed seem a wide one. In the colonies
there was universal wrath, oftentimes swelling into fury; in some places
mobs, much sacking of houses, hangings and burnings in effigy;
compulsion put upon king's officers publicly to resign their offices;
wild threats and violence; obstruction to the distribution of the
stamped paper; open menaces of forcible resistance, even of secession
and rebellion; a careful estimating of the available armed forces among
the colonies; the proposal for a congress of colonies to promote
community of action, to protest, and to consult for the common cause;
disobedient resolutions by legislatures; a spreading of the spirit of
colonial union by the general cry of "Join or die;" agreements not to
import or use articles of English manufacture, with other sunderings of
commercial relations. Far behind this mad procession, of which the more
moderate divisions were marshaled by Otis, Sam Adams, and Gadsden, and
soon also by John Adams and Patrick Henry, and by many other well-known