guage. The East India Company had put
forth a complaint. They had Heaven knows how many tons getting stale
in London warehouses, all by reason of our stubbornness, and so it was
enacted that all tea paying the small American tax should have a rebate
of the English duties. That was truly a master-stroke, for Parliament to
give it us cheaper than it could be had at home! To cause his Majesty's
government to lose revenues for the sake of being able to say they had
caught and taxed us at last! The happy result is now history, my dears.
And this is not a history, tho' I wish it were. What occurred at Boston,
at Philadelphia, and Charleston, has since caused Englishmen, as well
as Americans, to feel proud. The chief incident in Annapolis I shall
mention in another chapter.

When it became known with us that several cargoes were on their way
to the colonies, excitement and indignation gained a pitch not reached
since the Stamp Act. Business came to a standstill, plantations lay
idle, and gentry and farmers flocked to Annapolis, and held meetings and
made resolutions anew. On my way of a morning from Mr. Swain's house
to his chambers in the Circle I would meet as many as a dozen knots of
people. Mr. Claude was one of the few patriots who reaped reward out of
the disturbance, for his inn was crowded. The Assembly met, appointed
committees to correspond with the other colonies, and was prorogued
once and again. Many a night I sat up until the small hours copying
out letters to the committees of Virginia, and Pennsylvania, and
Massachusetts. The gentlemen were wont to dine at the Coffee House, and
I would sit near the foot of the table, taking notes of their plans.
'Twas so I met many men of distinction from the other colonies. Colonel
Washington came once. He was grown a greater man than ever, and I
thought him graver than when I had last seen him. I believe a trait of
this gentleman was never to forget a face.

"How do you, Richard?" said he. How I reddened when he called me so
before all the committee. "I have heard your story, and it does you vast
credit. And the gentlemen tell me you are earning laurels, sir."

That first winter of the tea troubles was cold and wet with us, and the
sun, as if in sympathy with the times, rarely showed his face. Early in
February our apprehensions concerning Mr. Swain's health were realized.
One day, without a word to any one, he went to his bed, where Patty
found him. And I ran all the way t