Medford over the bridge up to Menotomy. In Medford I awaked the
captain of the minute-men, and after that I alarmed every house till I
got to Lexington."--Revere's _Narrative_.]

It is past eleven o'clock. The fires have been covered for the night
in the farmhouses, and the people are asleep.

"Turn out! turn out! the redcoats are coming!"

Paul Revere is shouting it at every door, as Bucephalus bears him
swiftly on. The farmers spring from their beds, peer through their
window-panes into the darkness,--seeing a vanishing form, and flashing
sparks struck from the stones by the hoofs of the flying horse. Once
more across the Mystic on to Menotomy, past the meetinghouse and the
houses of the slumbering people, up the hill, along the valley, to
Lexington Green; past the meetinghouse, not halting at Buckman's
tavern, but pushing on, leaping from his foaming steed and rapping
upon Mr. Clark's door.

"Who are ye, and what d'ye want?" Sergeant Munroe asked the question.

"I want to see Mr. Hancock."

"Well, you can't. The minister and his family mustn't be disturbed, so
just keep still and don't make a racket."

"There'll be a racket pretty soon, for the redcoats are coming," said
Paul.

"Who are you and what do you wish?" asked Reverend Mr. Clark in his
night-dress from the window.

"I want to see Adams and Hancock."

"It is Revere; let him in!" shouted Hancock down the stairway.

"The regulars are coming, several hundred of them, to seize you!"

"It is the supplies at Concord they are after," cried Mr. Adams.

A moment later other hoofs were striking fire from the stones, and
another horseman, William Dawes, appeared, confirming what Revere had
said.

[Illustration: REVEREND JONAS CLARK'S HOUSE Where Samuel Adams, John
Hancock, and Dorothy Quincy were staying]

XVI.

THE MORNING DRUMBEAT.

"Ring the bell!"

Samuel Adams said it, and one of Sergeant Munroe's men ran to the
green, seized the bell-rope, and set the meetinghouse bell to
clanging, sending the alarm far and wide upon the still night air.

In the farmhouses candles were quickly lighted, and the minute-men,
who had agreed to obey a summons at a moment's warning, came running
with musket, bullet-pouch, and powder-horn, to the rendezvous. They
formed in line, but, no redcoats appearing, broke ranks and went into
Buckman's tavern.

* * * * *

Silently, without tap of drum, the grenadiers and light inf