the foremost platoons halting,
firing, filing right and left, that those in the rear might reach the
front. Unmindful of the bullets pattering around him, the young
officer walked composedly along the provincial line, from which came
no answering shot. Seemingly he was telling the men to wait. Suddenly,
as before, the screen of hay became a sheet of flame, and the scarlet
ranks again dissolved like a straw in a candle's flame, whole ranks
reeling and falling, or fleeing to the place of landing.

Mr. Newville groaned aloud. Again Mrs. Newville covered her face.
Captain Brandon, Mrs. Brandon, and Berinthia, out of respect to their
guests, gave no sign of exultation; but from windows, roofs, doorways,
and steeples, like the voice of many waters, came the joyful murmur of
the multitude, revealing to General Gage, up in the tower of Christ
Church, the sympathy of the people with the provincials.

No exclamation of satisfaction or disappointment fell from the lips of
Ruth, still looking with the telescope towards the provincial line by
the Mystic, and the manly figure of the officer receiving instructions
from his superior.

There was a commotion among the troops in the burial ground before
them.

"Fall in! Fall in!" General Clinton shouted. They hastily formed in
column and marched down the steep descent to the ferry landing. From
the tower of Christ Church, together with General Gage, Clinton had
seen the discomfiture of Lord Howe and General Pigot, and, with three
hundred men, was hastening to reinforce them, stepping into boats and
crossing the river.

The people on the housetops needed no telescopes to see what was going
on across the stream. Slowly the lines re-formed, the men reluctantly
taking their places. They who had fought at Ticonderoga, who had won
the victory on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec, never had faced so
pitiless a storm.

"It is downright murder," said the men.

They upon the housetops could see the British officers flourishing
their swords, gesticulating, and even striking the disheartened
soldiers, compelling them to stand once more in the ranks. Twice they
had advanced, encumbered with their knapsacks, in accordance with
strict military rule; now they were laying them aside. There were
fewer men in the ranks than at the beginning of the battle, but the
honor of England was at stake. The rabble of undisciplined country
bumpkins must be driven from their position, or the troops of England
w